SpeedFan and Dell T5500 works!

[GIdontknowyet]

Ok. I after I upgraded my Dell t5500 to dual xeon x5680 with a second riser card I was able to configured the speedfan to automatically control the two intake fans and the fans on the riser card. It took me two weeks to figure this out. Now all the fans will automatically kick in full speed when one of the CPU cores is above 50C. And I also configured the speedfan to automatically startup every time the computer is rebooted.
Nice! I also attached extra fans to the heat sink and connected it directly to a 5V from the PSU. Connecting the fan to a 12V PSU is very noisy! Nice!

 

[t53186]

Way 2 Go, speed fan can be a pain

 

[GIdontknowyet]

Yes speedfan is not very intuitive to use and not for average joe. Speedfan is like like test script that you need to tailor to your system in order to work. I almost give gave up on speedfan but there is no other better software out there. The Dell t5500 have two fan connectors on the motherboard and labeled FAN_HDRIVE and FAN_REAR. When I connected a Dell fan to either one of these connectors the speedfan does not see. Anyone knows why?

 

[Susquehannock]

Key to using SpeedFan in these is to check the box - "Enable DELL support (use this function only on DELL notebooks)". Requires restart to take effect.

> readings > configure > options >

[edit]
There is actually three controllable fan headers on the board. Two for the front fans, and a third up top by the SATA ports for the optional drive bay fan assembly. That is what the vent below the optical drives is for.

 

[GIdontknowyet]

Key to using SpeedFan in these is to check the box - "Enable DELL support (use this function only on DELL notebooks)". Requires restart to take effect.

> readings > configure > options >

[edit]
There is actually three controllable fan headers on the board. Two for the front fans, and a third up top by the SATA ports for the optional drive bay fan assembly. That is what the vent below the optical drives is for.

 

[GIdontknowyet]

SpeedFan recognizes the 2 header connectors for the intake fans but it does not see or recognize the header connector next to the Sata connectors.