SpeedFan is a program that monitors
voltages,
fan speeds and
temperatures
in computers with hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access
S.M.A.R.T. info and show
hard disk temperatures. SpeedFan supports
SCSI disks too.
SpeedFan can even change the FSB on some hardware (but this should be considered a bonus feature).
SpeedFan can access
digital temperature sensors and can
change fan speeds
accordingly, thus reducing noise.
SpeedFan works fine with Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 2008, Windows 8,
Windows 10 and
Windows Server 2012. It works with Windows 64 bit too.
SpeedFan can access the temperature sensors available on your motherboard and on your nVidia video
card. The most widely available temperatures are from the chipset, the CPU, the ambient and from
the power circuitry.
Modern CPUs can report their own internal temperature. Multi-core CPUs are often able to report
temperatures from each single core. SpeedFan can access those readings and report changes.
More powerful hardware (motherboards, CPUs, video cards and hard disks) often requires more power.
More power leads to more heat to dissipate. A proper airflow inside the computer cabinet helps to
keep temperatures low. Inside computers there are fans that create such an airflow. SpeedFan can
report the speeds of each fan and it can even change their speed based on current temperatures.
This lowers noise and improves computer experience.
SpeedFan can access the voltages reported by the hardware. This can help to identify odd issues
with computers resetting under stress, for example. Please, note that SpeedFan reports the voltages
according to the official documentation. Sometimes hardware manufacturers use custom circuitry. In
the FAQ you can find further info on this topic.
Almost every hard disk can report a set of data about its own health and status. This is called
S.M.A.R.T.. Based on reported data, a hard disk failure can often be early detected. Hard disk
temperature can be read too and it is useful to identify overheating components that could reduce
your valuable data reliability. SpeedFan offers a unique feature (called "In-depth online analysis")
that compares your hard disk SMART data to a model derived from millions of reports. This helps to
better identify when a specific hard disk is outside "normal" values.
SpeedFan can report health data and statistical values returned by SCSI hard disks. Such data
contains the hard disk temperature too. Hard disk temperatures are positively correlated to hard disk
failures. This is the reason why these information are so important.
SMART data from hard disks connected to RAID (software or hardware) controllers is more difficult to
be read. SpeedFan is improving RAID support and it currently properly supports software RAID (offered
by Windows), ARECA, CSMI and AMCC 3ware controllers. Reliable access to RAID controllers requires
support from hardware manufacturers. This is something that is being worked on.
Hover on the icons to read more about specific SpeedFan features.