Hardware Monitor
Learn more about your Mac
Next to measured readings, their history data, extreme values and the permissible limits for the sensors, other information about your computer can be displayed as well. This includes the processor type, processor and bus frequencies, manufacturing data, the S.M.A.R.T. verification state of your hard drives, the operational state of Mac OS X software RAIDs, service data of Xserve drive modules, connectors on Intel mainboards, and many other items.
The following screenshot gives you a first impression what's possible with Hardware Monitor:
Sample
screenshot for a dual PowerMac G5 without liquid cooling system.
Number of displayable sensors will vary greatly depending on Macintosh model.
Sensor Support by Apple
Of course the applications can read out the data only if your computer is equipped with the necessary sensors, and if Mac OS X can access them without needing third-party device drivers. Beginning in summer 2002, Apple has begun to massively drive forward the use of monitoring probes in the PowerMac series, the Xserve series, and in portable computers. Some models are equipped with 100 and more sensors. But Temperature and Hardware Monitor can detect sensors on many older systems as well if they are available.
We try to detect all sensors on as many Macintosh computer types as possible. However, a prediction which sensors are available in which models is not possible, because Apple very often releases "silent product updates", where the hardware equipments of some models are changed but the names are not (specifications are"subject to change without notice"). The particular graphics card and hard disk configuration used is also important because these parts can include independent sensors, too.
Please note that Apple does not support an official or standardized way of reading out sensor data in Mac OS X (the only exception is the Server Monitor application for the Xserve series). Moreover, there is no documentation or other technical note about the individual function of the sensors. For this reason, the development of Temperature Monitor and Hardware Monitor is very costly because the necessary data has to be determined by reverse engineering and tests run on a variety of computer models. Please support the development of the applications by purchasing a registration key for Hardware Monitor.
Our complete Monitoring Application Suite
This program is part of a whole application suite which consists of 9 different programs in total. To learn more about the different versions, please refer to the following table:
| Application Name | Part of download package | Description | free of charge? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware Monitor | Hardware Monitor | main program with all features | no |
| Hardware Monitor Lite | Hardware Monitor | version running in the menu-bar only | no |
| Hardware Monitor Widget Edition | Hardware Monitor Widget Edition | no remote features, to be used with Dashboard | no |
| Hardware Monitor Remote | Hardware Monitor Remote | "agent" program running on remote computers in a network | no |
| hwmonitor command-line tool | Hardware Monitor | version for the BSD command-line of Mac OS X | no |
| Temperature Monitor | Temperature Monitor | main program, limited to displaying temperature sensors only | yes |
| Temperature Monitor Light | Temperature Monitor | version running in the menu-bar only, temperature sensors only | yes |
| Temperature Monitor Widget Edition | Temperature Monitor Widget Edition | no remote features, to be used with Dashboard, temperature sensors only | yes |
| tempmonitor command-line tool | Temperature Monitor | version for the BSD command-line of Mac OS X, temperature sensors only | yes |
Features
- Temperature display selectable in degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin
- Display of many other sensors, if supported by Mac OS X on the specific computer model
- Display of the sensor equipment of the system, and their permissible limits (if released by Apple)
- Display of current readings in a horizontal or vertical window that can be customized
- Display of current readings in a "floating" screen display or on the background of the Desktop
- Output of no, one, or two selectable current readings in a Dock tile
- Output of no, one, or up to eight selectable current readings in the menu-bar
- Definition of an unlimited number of history graphs that visualize readings in a time interval between 12 minutes and 1 week
- Adjustable refresh interval between 1 second and 1 hour
- customizable labels and display options for all sensors
- periodic automatic recording and safe storage of history data for defective, unstable computers
- customizable announcements of current readings via speech output
- customizable definition of alarm triggers for each sensor
- definition of alarm actions, e.g. opening an alert panel, speech warnings, Growl notification, launching an application or script
- export of readings or history data sets into text files or CSV files
- readings can also be acquired by scripts or in Terminal. The application comes with a special command-line tool to achieve this.
- display of hardware details, e.g. serial numbers or manufacturing data
- display of system management data on Intel-based systems
- definition of artificial sensors that monitor aspects of the operating system, e.g. CPU load, number of processes, disk usage, memory usage, paging activity, network interface activity (only in 10.4 or later), SMART verification status, status of Mac OS X software RAIDs, electrical power, remaining battery capacity
- display of detail information and SMART status of all currently attached hard drives
- display of detail information about all currently attached battery units
- display of detail information and operational status of attached Xserve hard drive modules
- remote monitoring of computers via a TCP network in connection with the add-on application Hardware Monitor Remote
- control of external LCD panels, including freely customizable output definitions. Alphanumeric liquid crystal displays compliant with the original Hitachi HD44780 industry standard are supported. The LCD panel must be connected via a USB control unit "IO-Warrior 24" a product of Code Mercenaries Hard- und Software GmbH. Alternatively, the application supports the CF-632 and CF-634 USB display series from Crystalfontz America, Inc.