Question Fan Control

[SillyGooseStuff]

Hey!

I'm looking for some advice on the best software/tips for setting and controlling all of my fans and AIO. I have armoury crate and just found out it has its own fan control, but wanted some expert advice. I also see it has an AI fan controller and was wondering if that is just the best way to go? I see when that is on, it locks my AIO at 80% when I have read it should jsut be left at 100% all the time.

Any tips and help is greatly appreciated!

 

[hotaru.hino]

If you want a set and forget method, you could go into the UEFI settings of your computer and tweak the fan curves. However I find this kinda lacking as your only options for temperature points are the CPU and somewhere on the motherboard (likely the chipset). For gaming, I don't find this ideal, since most of the heat is going to be from the video card.

For me what I do is I have only the CPU fan plugged into the motherboard, mostly on the belief the computer will keep complaining every time it boots if I don't have something connected to it. My case fans are then hooked up to an NZXT Fan Controller, like one of these. It does require NZXT CAM to use, but I'm fine with it over others since 1. you can use it in guest mode and 2. it doesn't require admin privileges to run. But the benefit of doing this is I can set my case fan curves either via the CPU's temperature or the GPU's. So I have the case fan on the bottom front controlled by the GPU's temperature, which makes more sense.

EDIT: For video card fans I use MSI Afterburner, since it can muck around with the other video card settings anyway.

 

[SillyGooseStuff]

If you want a set and forget method, you could go into the UEFI settings of your computer and tweak the fan curves. However I find this kinda lacking as your only options for temperature points are the CPU and somewhere on the motherboard (likely the chipset). For gaming, I don't find this ideal, since most of the heat is going to be from the video card.

For me what I do is I have only the CPU fan plugged into the motherboard, mostly on the belief the computer will keep complaining every time it boots if I don't have something connected to it. My case fans are then hooked up to an NZXT Fan Controller, like one of these. It does require NZXT CAM to use, but I'm fine with it over others since 1. you can use it in guest mode and 2. it doesn't require admin privileges to run. But the benefit of doing this is I can set my case fan curves either via the CPU's temperature or the GPU's. So I have the case fan on the bottom front controlled by the GPU's temperature, which makes more sense.

EDIT: For video card fans I use MSI Afterburner, since it can muck around with the other video card settings anyway.

Thank you! I will look into a controller. I never really messed around with fans so I appreciate the breakdown. Are you doing all fan tweaking in that program and leaving BIOS alone?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Thank you! I will look into a controller. I never really messed around with fans so I appreciate the breakdown. Are you doing all fan tweaking in that program and leaving BIOS alone?

The only fan my BIOS touches is the CPU one. NZXT CAM controls my case fans, while MSI Afterburner does the video card ones.

 

[Paperdoc]

To help understand, any fan connected to a mobo fan header will be controlled by the mobo systems. Even other software tools that control such fans apparently do so by sending instructions to those mobo systems on what their settings should be.

However if you install a separate third-party Fan Controller unit and plug any fan into that instead of into a mobo header, then that Controller does all control of that fan and the mobo has no function for it. What the Controller does normally is configured by a software utility supplied with it, or by some connected manual button box. In the software method, communication between the software and the box usually is via a cable from the box to a USB2 mobo header, but that is solely for communication - it does not give the mobo control over the box. In the case cited above by hoatru.hino that gave him an unusual capability. There is no "standard" way for a video card added to a PCIe slot to send back to the mobo the temperature readings of the video card components, so you cannot use that information to guide fans connected to the mobo headers. (Many video cards monitor their own GPU chip temperatures and use that to guide their own on-board cooling fans. Often the software tools supplied by the video card maker will show you that temperature, but there still is no standardized way for the mobo to access that info.) The particular Controller and software pair he used does know how to read the temperature info on the GPU chip on his video card and use it for its own ability to control a fan connected to that Controller box.