Fan profile (/etc/thinkfan.conf) for keeping Skylake Thinkpads silent at work

thinkfan.conf

# This fan config helps to keep Thinkpad silent at work

# With it eg. 200$ second-hand 2-core Skylake laptop T460 and onwards can encode 1440p 30fps h264/h265 with 
# Intel QuickSync HW encoder via proprietary VA-API driver https://wiki.debian.org/HardwareVideoAcceleration,
# silently, and stream it via OBS (RTMP/SRT/NDI..) etc..

# To use this fan config on a single-fanned Thinkpad with Debian and systemd, run:

# sudo apt install thinkfan
# sudo echo "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf

# Then copy this file to /etc/thinkfan.conf, restart and then run Thinkfan service:

# sudo service thinkfan start


# Then fans should go silent when computer is under load. 
# If it does not work yet, figure it out from official docs https://github.com/vmatare/thinkfan.
# And https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_control_fan_speed.


# The sensor config setting here has been verified working on T460s, T470s and T480s.

sensors:
- tpacpi: /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal
indices: [0]

fans:
- tpacpi: /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

# Main work laptop profile
# Fan stays off during light load and keeps low at level 1 until medium hot,
# speeds up to not let it go too hot to touch.
#levels:
#- ["level 0", 20, 50]
#- ["level 1", 50, 80]
#- ["level 2", 80, 85]
#- ["level 7", 85, 95]
#- ["level full-speed", 95, 255]


# OBS / video encoder laptop profile
# Fan stays off during light load and keeps low at level 1 until very hot
# and gets too hot to touch but speeds up to not the let hardware cook too far.
levels:
- ["level 0", 20, 50]
- ["level 1", 50, 90]
- ["level 2", 90, 95]
- ["level 7", 95, 99]
- ["level full-speed", 99, 255]


# Some notes of level settings vs actual rpm and noise generated.
# Staying at level 1 works good for 14" Thinkpad laptops (T460 =<). 
# Smaller models like X270 have more nasty sounding fan even lowest rpm level. 

# level 0 off
# level 1 ~3000 - near silent, 
#                 can well run 80-90 degrees celsius at this setting but gets hot to touch.
# level 2 =<    - too loud, needs noise isolation in studio