Best Methods of controlling CPU Fan speed

[kypron7]

Hi, I've been noticing that the stock cpu fan on this core 2 6600 tends to sit between 2000 and 2200 rpm all the time. It seemed a little excessive to have it going full blast all
the time, so I turned on Asus Q-Fan to "performance", and now it sits below 1000rpm at idle, and goes up to 2000 rpm under load.

Would it be best to just let the fan run full blast and keep cpu at its coolest all the time? I also disabled Intel Speedstep in the bios, would enabling this keep temps down as well?

CPU temps with QFan: 45-48 idle, 50-55 under load
without Qfan: 40-42 idle, 48-52 under load

 

[LouPoir]

I would use Qfan - the temps are just fine.

 

[henryay]

Enable Speedstep, it throttles your CPU speed down when you don't need the speed. It will also save some electricity.

 

[kypron7]

cool, i will enable both and try it out.

55c isnt too hot under load then? (prime95 62c)

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: kypron7
cool, i will enable both and try it out.

55c isnt too hot under load then? (prime95 62c)

That depends. If you're using Asus' readings then it may be too hot. I use Intel Thermal Analysis Tool which reads the temp directly from the core, and it gives me temps that are 20C higher than what's shown by Asus and MBM5


Edit: Using TAT I run at 57C full load Prime95.