How do I set up PWM fan speeds?

[romservo]

I'd like to start using PWM settings to control my fan speed from BIOS but I'm not sure how to set that percentage as I've never done It before. Can anyone give me advice on that or can anyone put up a link that would have some good information on how to set that up? Thank you!

My Components:

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini-ITX

CPU: AMD A10-5800K Trinity Quad-Core 3.8GHz

CPU COOLER: ID IS-40

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600

HDD: WD Blue 500

CASE: Compucase ITX200B

 

[Darkbreeze]

There's nothing you need to "setup" aside from the fan profile you want. I'd set the CPU fan profile to "normal" and the chassis fan profile to "normal" or "silent", and forget about it. Custom profiling the fan speed and slope doesn't offer much you really need to worry about and there are no terrific gains in either performance nor how low the fans can run. Silent brings them down to the miminum PWM signals on most boards and many fans can't go much lower than about 600RPM anyhow. Some have much higher minimums.

Trying to configure the on/off percentages is purely a waste of time in most cases.

 

[romservo]

Hmm... well currently ive got them both set to normal (cpu/chasis) which gives me a good balance on my temps and low noise. I was curious if i could set the fan to adjust automatically to temp from cpu activity. But if leaving them at a constant rate is the best bet then that feels safe anyway.

 

[Darkbreeze]

They already adjust according to temp regardless of whether you're using 3 pin voltage controlled or 4 pin PWM fans as long as they are all on 4 pin PWM motherboard headers or 3 pin chassis fan headers. Fans connected to sys_fan headers will sometimes only run at full speed or sometimes be automatically controlled as well, depending on the motherboard. 3 pins fans will be voltage controlled but lack PWM function. 4 pins will cycle according to PWM function as determined by the bios, but SPEED will be controlled in direct relation to the CPU and chassis temperature sensors on the motherboard. Run Prime95 version 26.6, and only version 26.6, and you should notice an almost immediate increase in CPU fan speed followed by an increase in chassis fan speed at a somewhat slower rate of increase.

Prime95 v26.6: http://windows-downloads-center.blogspot.com/2011/04/prime95-266.html


You can use a different utility to load the system and verify the increase in fan speed if you wish.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Your board apparently only has a single CPU fan header and single system fan header, so it should adjust. Are you using a fan hub or third party fan controller?

 

[romservo]

Interesting you should ask, in fact, im trying to run rainmeter but cant get any readouts on my cpu temps. Or from any program at all. Speedfan, cputhermometer, hwmonitor, etc. Nothing. Im not over clocking anything. Actually i do sometimes get a readout of 1 or 2 °C from speedfan for my cpu but i know thats wrong.

so, to answer youre question. No im not running any controllers because i cant get any real readouts. So for now im just using bios.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Generally, if there are enough fan headers, the bios is the better option for fan control anyhow. Single fan headers can be expanded to additional fans through the use of fan cable splitters. I never recommend more than two fans per header though so the circuit doesn't overload. You can probably easily run three per header, but I don't recommend it as you never know the quality of any individual board and if there is a weakness it will be exposed, possibly with bad results.

What are the CPU temp readings in the BIOS saying?

 

[romservo]

At first i had issues with my cpu overheating massively, then discovered bios had auto set the voltage to the cpu outrageously high idling my cpu/sys temps at 95/70°C! So, i adjusted the voltage to my cpu to proper stock settings and installed an aftermarket cooler, now my cpu/sys temps idle at 50/49.

As you may see, this build was intended to be as compact as possible. Hince, my desire to monitor my temps.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Download and run Core Temp and see if your CPU temps are reported there correctly. If the bios is reporting accurate temps, other utilities should be as well.

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

[romservo]

Ive also tried core temp... but not since i fixed the cpu voltage issue so maybe it will work now... hopefully. And hopefully that will lead me to running rainmeter which would be great.

 

[romservo]

And i agree that if bios is reporting then other programs should as well. Thats actually what led me to discover the cpu voltage issue in the first place. But, yeah, coretemp is one i havent tried again, but will.