PowerMac G5 Dual 2.7GHz CPU Temperatures & Fans Speeds

[chemistry_geek]

I have a PowerMac G5 2.7GHz, 2.5GB RAM that I purchased several months ago with which I'm very pleased, but I would like to know if it is normal for the frequent roaring of the cooling fans whenever I do almost anything: start Dashboard, run the pointer along the Dock very quickly, launch a program, scroll through webpages in Mozilla while holding the mouse button down, working with large files in MS Word, Excel, or large Adobe PDF documents, rip a CD in iTunes, or do anything multitasking.

As a curiosity, I installed X Resource Graph (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16761) and can monitor some temperatures, but the Widget iStat Pro 2.2 (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27037) does a more thorough job of system monitoring. iStat Pro 2.2 produces the following:

At Idle (quiet computer):
Temps (°F)
CPU A 131
CPU B 136
CPU B Ambient 91
CPU A Ambient 96
U3 Heatsink 158
Drive Bay 75
Backside 91

Fans (rpm)
CPU B Exhaust 300
CPU B Pump 1250
CPU A Intake 300
CPU A Exhaust 300
CPU B Intake 300
CPU A Pump 1250
Drive Bay 1000
Slots 76
Backside 51

At High Load (sustained roaring wind tunnel):
Temps (°F)
CPU A 157 - 167
CPU B 179
CPU B Ambient 103
CPU A Ambient 110
U3 Heatsink 167
Drive Bay 77
Backside 91

Fans (rpm)
CPU B Exhaust 3200
CPU B Pump 3200
CPU A Intake 3104
CPU A Exhaust 3200
CPU B Intake 3104
CPU A Pump 3200
Drive Bay 1000
Slots 76
Backside 51


I installed GKrellM (use Google - http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html) via Fink (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12077) and typed 'apt-get install gkrellm' in the Terminal and watched everything download very quickly, compile, and install; it runs beautifully, but no temperature monitoring or fan speeds.

My concern: is it normal for this PowerMac G5 to roar almost all of the time in spurts with periodic sustained gail force winds? I sometimes think that I'm beating on the thing when the cooling fans roar continuously when I'm playing Halo, Quake 3 Arena, or ripping CDs, burning DVDs, downloading, working with movies/video, and working with large documents. The multitasking and speed of this computer are really great, however, I am cautiously concerned about burning it up, literally, and the occasional 20 to 30 degrees F difference in the two CPU temperatures is somewhat alarming.

One more thing: The inside of the computer must be cleaned (vacuumed) well every one to two months from all of the dust accumulation. What type of filtering material would anyone recommend to keep the radiator from getting clogged with dust and cat hair? I'm thinking of using some strip of light spongy material, like the filter of a window air conditioner taped in front of the computer. The filter has to allow for high air flow, I just need it to stop the heavier stuff (cat hair & carpet fibers) from getting inside the computer (it sits on two 3-inch square blocks off of the carpet).

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lt Major Burns]

yes, this is pretty much normal. i find a powermac generally to be a sledgehammer for nutcracking jobs.

This doesn't sound like the best plan, but it works for me: in system preferences, under energy saver, in the 2nd tab, change pocessor usage to reduced. it's silent then, and still very fast. if you are video encoding, or working with similar processor intensive taks, just turn it back to highest. it really doesn't need to be on full the whole time, and the computer controlled fans aren't that intelligent. i think it thinks using safari requires two 2.5ghz G5's running to terminal intesity to do properly, where actually, a 500mhz g3 will do the job fine...

 

[chemistry_geek]

Thank you very much Lt Major Burns. Your suggestion reduced the wind tunnel in my den to a soft summer breeze.

Much appreciated!