Hey there,
I'm on the hunt for a H170/Z170 motherboard (CPU is an i7-6700) that has a fan controller that allows for setting a fan curve like that:
(MSI Afterburner screenshot purely as an example)
Meaning: I want the fan RPM to stay the same until temperature X on the CPU is reached. After temperature X is reached the fan RPM should ramp up.
I am aware that there are at least some motherboards that support this. Do you know of any H170/Z170 boards that support this?
This will support software level fan control from three sockets (one is the CPU). All you need to look for is PWM control on any fan header. They will have four pins.
If you have PWM, you can control them in windows with a variety of software. I believe this board comes with AsRock software for this... BUT... you can use something as simple as Speedfan. It is capable of creating custom fan curves for your system:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
I believe some three pin sockets on SOME boards do have some control, but I have not tried it. Four-pin, PWM, sockets are easy to look for.
I thought that the PWM control was managed on UEFI level?
UEFI is software control... well firmware... same thing essentially.
Asus Z170-A would probablly have what you are looking for.
You can set pwm fan control profiles in the UEFI.
Or you could control it from windows due their fan expert software.
You can use a program called SpeedFan to control the fan speeds on any consumer motherboard made in the last 10 years really. 3 pin or 4 pin, its no issue. You can see a tutorial of how to set it up here:
I have a PC with fans on 3-pin sockets. Speed fan will not control those. It is an old Phenom II X6 system.
Are you sure 3-pin sockets are capable of voltage manipulation on all boards?
They should be. I've only ever seen server boards that are 3 pin and can't be controlled.
lol... I opened up my case...
I have two 140mm fans connected via 3-pin socket on my Z77 board. The rest of my fans are on a fan controller, except the CPU fan.
Speedfan does see these fans, but changing the values does nothing.
My CPU fan is on a PWM and Speedfan has no problem changing the speed.
I know some 3-pin sockets can do the job... but definitely not all.
Under configure -> advanced -> chip -> whatever your temp/volt/fan chip is. See if you can chanced the "value" of the system fans you have connected to like "manual" or something alike that. If I go into my advanced page I get like 4 different options for the value, and only one of them works for adjusting fan speed. You have to pick an option and then click the "remember it" option for it to take. I'd mess around with your case fans PWM mode too see if you can get it too work. It takes a good bit of tinkering but I'd think it should be possible with a Z77 board from any good vendor
The two 140s: One is AUX, and one is SYS. Going into the Advanced tab for connection on the mobo I get this:
Anything that can be set to Manual is set that way.
I might jump into the bios, see if there is anything there... yeah I will do that... brb.
@TheCaveman I was able to located the connected fans in the motherboard's bios. I set it to manual, but SF was still not able to change the speeds. I tried a bunch of times thinking the change might be slight on the 140mm fan. I noticed no change though. You made me curious though, I will play around with it a bit.
If I can change the speed in the bios, I should be able to do the same in SF. I guess that is the next test: change the speed in bios.
@TheCaveman I changed the "Level" on each fan in the bios from "Level 9", to "Level 1". I jumped back in to Windows and Speedfan was showing those values (140mm fans) at 33%, but there was no actual change in the speed of the 140mm fans. I turned them up to 100% in SF again... still no change.
IDK I might be doing something wrong. I will try some of the other sockets... another day.
if you want to get nerdy you can get a 12v to 7v adapter and the fans will run quieter. they wont ramp up when hot but it's cheap and gets rid of the jet engine quick.
I bought a 4 pin GPU fan socket-to-4 pin regular fan plug adapter from those guys. An old GPU had a broken fan controller. The adapter cost $2, shipping cost $13. =D
He could also just spend the $20-$30 on a good fan controller or even a fan hub controller.
Sometimes you need to restart speedfan after you set all the fans to manual control, might be worth trying
