Dell Precision Custom Fan Curve

RyanMacRocks · July 2, 2016

Hi guys,

I recently bought a Precision T5500 with a x5550 for $140 on Craigslist to tinker around with. However, the heatsink is a little too small for my taste and it uses the case fan for cooling which is a couple inches away and not as effective as if it were directly attached. This causes temperatures way too high for my liking, 55-65C idle and it reached up to 85C under load. This also causes the fans to ramp up for a few seconds and then shortly after quiet down and then ramp up again...you get the point. Just reapplied thermal paste, so that is not an issue. There are no fan config settings in the BIOS and Speedfan does not detect any fans. Dell's website does not seem to have any utilities for this, and I haven't been able to find another program that is able to detect the fans.

Does anyone know of a program to set a more aggressive fan curve or even just manually set the fan speed? Or do I have to just buy a fan controller? Upgrading the heatsink is not an option because there is not enough room.

If it matters, I am on BIOS A02, maybe there was a setting added in the newest BIOS A16? Hesitant to upgrade my BIOS unless its necessary.

Thanks!

2FA · July 2, 2016

Samsonsuperco · August 3, 2016

On 7/1/2016 at 11:05 PM, RyanMacRocks said:

Hi guys,

I recently bought a Precision T5500 with a x5550 for $140 on Craigslist to tinker around with. However, the heatsink is a little too small for my taste and it uses the case fan for cooling which is a couple inches away and not as effective as if it were directly attached. This causes temperatures way too high for my liking, 55-65C idle and it reached up to 85C under load. This also causes the fans to ramp up for a few seconds and then shortly after quiet down and then ramp up again...you get the point. Just reapplied thermal paste, so that is not an issue. There are no fan config settings in the BIOS and Speedfan does not detect any fans. Dell's website does not seem to have any utilities for this, and I haven't been able to find another program that is able to detect the fans.

Does anyone know of a program to set a more aggressive fan curve or even just manually set the fan speed? Or do I have to just buy a fan controller? Upgrading the heatsink is not an option because there is not enough room.

If it matters, I am on BIOS A02, maybe there was a setting added in the newest BIOS A16? Hesitant to upgrade my BIOS unless its necessary.

Thanks!

Speedfan doesn't work on a T5500. Do you have the crappy aluminum heatsink or the one with copper heat pipes? Search for "U016F" on eBay if you don't have the high end heatsink.