Benchmarking - SpeedFan
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 for
those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk
temperatures too, if supported. SpeedFan supports SCSI disks
too. SpeedFan can even change the FSB on some hardware (but this
should be considered a bonus feature).
At the lowest level, SpeedFan is a hardware monitor software
that can access digital temperature sensors, but its main
feature is that it can change fan speeds (depending on the
capabilities of your sensor chip and your hardware) according to
the temperatures inside your pc, thus reducing noise. Several
sensors, like Winbond's and the AS99127F support fan speed
changing, as well as others from Maxim, Myson, Analog Devices,
National Semiconductor and ITE, but the hardware manufacturer
must have connected the relevant pins to some additional, yet
trivial, circuitry.