SmartFan for Mini-PCs with fan
If you choose a Mini-PC with active cooling, meaning a system with fan, there are some different methods to increase the longevity of the PC.
##Take a closer look at the BIOS
What is SmartFan?
An active cooling cools down a Mini-PC by using ventilators. Due to the SmartFan technology the rotational speed of the ventilators is adjusted to the needs. These depend on, among other things, the work load of the PC. As the name SmartFan suggests, the adjustments happen automatically. The different values, for instance the current CPU or system temperature, can be viewed in the BIOS below the point "PChealth" (see ill. 1).
Manual settings of SmartFan values
Now it can be that an active cooled Mini-PC is used in an office and is too loud because of a high rotational speed. In such cases the "CPU Fan Smart Mode" in the BIOS can be switched to "Manual Mode" (see ill. 2). This allows to manually set the previously automatically adjusted values. What it looks like when the "Fan Start Temperature", thus the temperature where the fan starts to rotate, is manually adjusted is shown in illustration 3.