I dl'ed it and used it for a couple of weeks on one of my Microstar MS-6215 Slim PCs. This is a "Book PC" style unit. You can find more info about it at <!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/ ... EL=MS-6215" TARGET="_blank">MSI's website</A><!-- BBCode End -->. I'm running Win2K SP2, with a 1Ghz Coppermine, 512MB Crucial PC133 and (like everyone else on this board) a 40GB Barracuda IV.
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<br>There are three stock fans in the MS-6215. The heatsink has a high-speed 60x10 Delta, there's an Evercool low-speed 60x20 as a front intake, and the PSU has a 40x10 Adda. The Delta is by far the noisiest component, followed by the Adda, while the Evercool is only slightly louder than the rotational noise of the Barracuda. In such a small case, space constraints make it nearly impossible to use larger fans, and finding quiet small fans is near impossible.
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<br>When I start SpeedFan 4.0.5, it finds the hardware monitoring chip on the MB and reports:
<br>I/O properly initialized
<br>Linked ISA BUS at $0290
<br>Linked Intel 82801BA ICH2 SMBUS at $0540
<br>Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
<br>Winbond W83627HF (ID=$21) found on ISA at $290
<br>SuperIO Chip=Winbond W83627HF
<br>Scanning SMBus at $0540...
<br>Found ST340016A (39.1GB)
<br>End of detection
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<br>Here's a screenshot of the UI (note that I changed the names of some readouts, and that the fans currently in my system are not the default fans):
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<br>Doing some open-case detective work, I was able to determine which speed controller (the boxes with the percentage signs) controlled which fan, and which temperature readout went with which component. I then relabeled the readouts appropriately using the "Configure" dialog (the program is a bit finicky about switching into the "text edit" mode when you click on a label). You can relabel every readout, including the electrical ones. Note that there are three fan RPN readouts, but only two speed adjusters. In my case, the first two RPM readouts corresponded to the two speed adjusters, which correspond to the intake fan and the CPU fan; the third RPM monitor may be for the PSU fan (which has only two wires), or for an additional fan header supported by the chipset but not included on the motherboard.
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<br>I next went about adjusting the speed of the fans using the percentage controllers. The "percentage" entry doesn't really correspond to a percent of anything as far as I can tell (since I believe the program works by "pulsing" the fan with its full voltage, perhaps it is the overall percent of time that full voltage is being applied). I got a massive noise reduction by reducing the CPU fan to 30%. I left the intake fan as is, since the noise from it was comparatively negligible. I found that the lowest percentage the fan would run at was about 5%, but only if I approached this value from higher percentages. Going up from 0, the fan wouldn't turn on until about 20%.
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<br>I ran a SiSoft Sandra Burn-in and found that the CPU got a little too hot after 40 min or so at full load. So, I went back into the "Configure" dialog and set the "Automatically Variated" checkbox and the minimum and maximum speed values for the CPU fan:
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<br><!-- BBCode Start --><IMG SRC="
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<br>On the main screen, I checked the "Automatic Fan Speed" box, and re-ran the burn-in. After a few minutes of Burn-In, the CPU Fan kicked into high gear, and temperature remained safe and stable after an hour.
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<br>I set the "start minimized" flag under "Options" in the "Configure" dialog, and dropped a shortcut to the program in the Startup folder. Ultimately, I spent not too much effort and no money for a pretty serious reduction in fan noise.
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<br>Here are the problems with the program I encountered:
<br>1) The monitoring capabilites all fail if the system is brought out of hibernate, requiring that the program be restarted.
<br>2) Low-speed fans can register as "0 RPM". I don't think this problem is specific to SpeedFan, though-- I have a DigitalDoc5 that doesn't recongize them either (and beeps like mad when you hook up temperature-regulated fans to it).
<br>3) There's no way to control the ramping of how a fan responds to changes in temperature.
<br>4) Doesn't do diddly for fans not hooked up to the motherboard (like PSU fans).
<br>5) Doesn't affect fan speed until you logon to Windows. (If it ran as a service, it could at least quiet the fan while the logon screen sits there waiting for your input.)
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<br>All in all, though, I think the program is effective enough to be used on a daily basis to quiet whatever fans are hooked up to your motherboard. Since your noisiest fan is probably your CPU fan, you should be able to use SpeedFan to quiet your system without worrying about overheating at high temperatures. Users who rely on the hibernate function and those looking to silence every fan in their system will be disappointed.
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<br>Many thanks to Alfredo Milani-Comparetti for making this excellent program.
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<br>(On a side note, I eventually found some quiet fans that I could (sort of) fit in my case, so I stopped using SpeedFan on that particular PC, but I still use it on another MS-6215.)
[addsig]