So my case is Lian Li 011 Dynamic and I have 9 fans. 3 bottom intake, 3 side intake through AIO radiator, and 3 top exhaust. I have all 6 intake fans connected to the CPU_Fan header and the curve is set to 800 rpm until 60 degrees celsius and full power when CPU temperature hits 70 which never happens. Exhaust fans are connected to CHA_Fan header and I think is set to PWM mode. Should I separate my bottom intake fans from the CPU_Fan header and use them together with the exhaust fans or am I alright with this? Is 800 rpm fast enough to cool my CPU and case because that's the speed it operates them 90% of the time under heavy load. Also, I have no idea how PWM works and I dont understand why cant I see any fan curve or RPM anywhere when using that mode. How am I supposed to know how well the fans are performing and what temperatures those CHA_Fan headers are monitoring? I could set custom curves for those as well I quess.
[SOLVED] My fan setup feels strange but I don't know how else to do it.
- Thread starter toybe98
- Start date
Solution
- Oct 7, 2009
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Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
Could you add an image of the fans and the innards in your build? From the way I'm reading it, it's as if you have your fans sandwiched before and after the AIO radiator. You will also need to mention the make and models of all the fans used, as well as the fan splitters or hubs that are used in tandem with the fans. To add, you should mention the make and model of your motherboard as well as the AIO you're working with.
Could you add an image of the fans and the innards in your build? From the way I'm reading it, it's as if you have your fans sandwiched before and after the AIO radiator. You will also need to mention the make and models of all the fans used, as well as the fan splitters or hubs that are used in tandem with the fans. To add, you should mention the make and model of your motherboard as well as the AIO you're working with.
This is how I have them set up. The motherboard is b450m-pro and fans are lian li st120 and sl120 I believe. Unihub is being used to control the RPM of the top exhaust fans and now I connected the bottom intakes to work with the same header as well. So now top and bottom are together and AIO fans on the side are using the CPU_Fan header with the custom fan curve I said earlier. Can I use silent mode (800rpm) with top and bottom fans and still get enough airflow or should I just stick with PWM mode? Only issue with PWM is it ramps up and down a lot and is very loud.
- Dec 26, 2012
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The only thing being cooled by airflow is the gpu. The aio takes care of any cpu temps, so is a moot point there, can be ignored. The psu is its own ecosystem, doesn't affect case or temps so is moot. What's left over is the gpu and motherboard.
That's all that's needed.
Rpm is moot. Air just has to move effectively, whether that's at 600rpm or 1000rpm doesn't matter, as long as it moves. The only issue I see is the custom fan curve. Not how the fans ramp up, but when. With that amount of airflow possible, you could set a static fan speed, no ramp at all and still be good. You don't need full blast.
That's all that's needed.
Rpm is moot. Air just has to move effectively, whether that's at 600rpm or 1000rpm doesn't matter, as long as it moves. The only issue I see is the custom fan curve. Not how the fans ramp up, but when. With that amount of airflow possible, you could set a static fan speed, no ramp at all and still be good. You don't need full blast.
Six items I'll comment on.
1. Any mobo fan header can deal with the speed signal returned to it from only ONE fan. So any fan Splitter or Hub will send back to its host header the speed of the ONLY fan connected to its marked output port (often Port #1) and ignore all the rest. You will never "see" the speeds of those "other" fans on the Hub, but you can assume they are the same if all the fans are the same. This has NO impact on ability to control the fans' speeds. It DOES impact another secondary function of the mobo fan header. It uses the fan speed signal to detect fan FAILURE (zero fan speed signal), but it cannot do that for the fans whose speeds are NOT being sent back from the Hub. So from time to time YOU should check all the fans to be sure they still are working.
2. I believe you already have made this change The AIO system rad fans should be connected to the CPU_FAN header as directed in the instructions for that system. This header always uses the temperature sensor inside the CPU chip to guide it operations. ALL of the fans involved in case ventilation should be controlled from a different mobo fan header, one of the CHA_FAN ones. IF the configuration options for this header give you a choice, make sure to set it to use the temp sensor on the motherboard, not the one inside the CPU chip.
3. As Karadjgne has said above, the six case vent fans control air flow for cooling the mobo and the graphics card, and CPU cooling is done separately. Now the graphics card itself has its own fan cooling system and controls that all by itself - no mobo or case fan direct involvement. But there is a secondary effect from case fans: there needs to be an adequate supply of cool air through the case to ensure that the graphics card's fan system CAN get enough air to cool itself. Usually that is NOT a problem, especially in this case with six fans doing that job. You can examine the graphics card's own cooling system and the GPU temperature using a software utility provided with that card, but NOT via the mobo BIOS. As long as that card is being cooled sufficiently, it is VERY likely that your case vent fans are doing all they need to do.
4. You have no fan mounted at the rear of your case, and it is common to mount one exhaust fan there. On a related note, the arrangement you do have can cause an issue at the top front of the case. The top intake (on the AIO rad) fan is right next to a top front exhaust fan. This results in an air flow "short circuit" so that the air flow in is routed right out of the case and "lost" from a case cooling perspective. I suggest you move the top front exhaust fan to the rear panel as an exhaust. This will ensure better use of air entering through the top intake fan, and better flow of air towards the rear of your case.
5. Personally, I am not a fan of setting fixed fan speeds, or even of doing the two-step fixed "fan curve" you are using. I'm not clear whether you have used that curve on only the rad fans, on only the case fans, or on both. But try out using the mobo's normal default "fan curve" on BOTH the CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN headers. You may well find that you get fully adequate cooling of your entire system for a full range of workloads, but with LESS noise at lower workloads.
6. Recognize the difference between fan PROFILE and fan MODE on a mobo fan header. PROFILE is the method it uses to decide what fan speed to use, and this has options like "Standard", "Manual" (set your own fan curve), "Quiet" (fixed low speed), and "Turbo' (fixed full speed). Separately you can set the MODE, which often has options of "PWM", "DC" or "Voltage", and "Auto". These are HOW the header sends to the fan the signals to achieve the speed that the Profile setting has decided. For using newer 4-pin PMW style fans, set this to PWM; for use with 3-pin fans, set it to DC or Voltage; I recommend not using "Auto" here. Do NOT mix 3-pin and 4-pin fans on the same header.
1. Any mobo fan header can deal with the speed signal returned to it from only ONE fan. So any fan Splitter or Hub will send back to its host header the speed of the ONLY fan connected to its marked output port (often Port #1) and ignore all the rest. You will never "see" the speeds of those "other" fans on the Hub, but you can assume they are the same if all the fans are the same. This has NO impact on ability to control the fans' speeds. It DOES impact another secondary function of the mobo fan header. It uses the fan speed signal to detect fan FAILURE (zero fan speed signal), but it cannot do that for the fans whose speeds are NOT being sent back from the Hub. So from time to time YOU should check all the fans to be sure they still are working.
2. I believe you already have made this change The AIO system rad fans should be connected to the CPU_FAN header as directed in the instructions for that system. This header always uses the temperature sensor inside the CPU chip to guide it operations. ALL of the fans involved in case ventilation should be controlled from a different mobo fan header, one of the CHA_FAN ones. IF the configuration options for this header give you a choice, make sure to set it to use the temp sensor on the motherboard, not the one inside the CPU chip.
3. As Karadjgne has said above, the six case vent fans control air flow for cooling the mobo and the graphics card, and CPU cooling is done separately. Now the graphics card itself has its own fan cooling system and controls that all by itself - no mobo or case fan direct involvement. But there is a secondary effect from case fans: there needs to be an adequate supply of cool air through the case to ensure that the graphics card's fan system CAN get enough air to cool itself. Usually that is NOT a problem, especially in this case with six fans doing that job. You can examine the graphics card's own cooling system and the GPU temperature using a software utility provided with that card, but NOT via the mobo BIOS. As long as that card is being cooled sufficiently, it is VERY likely that your case vent fans are doing all they need to do.
4. You have no fan mounted at the rear of your case, and it is common to mount one exhaust fan there. On a related note, the arrangement you do have can cause an issue at the top front of the case. The top intake (on the AIO rad) fan is right next to a top front exhaust fan. This results in an air flow "short circuit" so that the air flow in is routed right out of the case and "lost" from a case cooling perspective. I suggest you move the top front exhaust fan to the rear panel as an exhaust. This will ensure better use of air entering through the top intake fan, and better flow of air towards the rear of your case.
5. Personally, I am not a fan of setting fixed fan speeds, or even of doing the two-step fixed "fan curve" you are using. I'm not clear whether you have used that curve on only the rad fans, on only the case fans, or on both. But try out using the mobo's normal default "fan curve" on BOTH the CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN headers. You may well find that you get fully adequate cooling of your entire system for a full range of workloads, but with LESS noise at lower workloads.
6. Recognize the difference between fan PROFILE and fan MODE on a mobo fan header. PROFILE is the method it uses to decide what fan speed to use, and this has options like "Standard", "Manual" (set your own fan curve), "Quiet" (fixed low speed), and "Turbo' (fixed full speed). Separately you can set the MODE, which often has options of "PWM", "DC" or "Voltage", and "Auto". These are HOW the header sends to the fan the signals to achieve the speed that the Profile setting has decided. For using newer 4-pin PMW style fans, set this to PWM; for use with 3-pin fans, set it to DC or Voltage; I recommend not using "Auto" here. Do NOT mix 3-pin and 4-pin fans on the same header.
- Dec 26, 2012
- 30,750
- 4,552
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Ordinarily I'd agree on the short circuit, but not with the 0-11. Normal setups, the intake fans outward airflow is basically directed towards the exhausts, channeled by the case sides. With the 0-11, that intake faces the case side and there's enough SP that the vast majority of air from those aio intakes actually bounces off the side panel before mixing with the lower intakes. Literally bypassing any low pressure draw from the front exhaust.
But that's particular to this case.
Moving the fan to rear exhaust overall does nothing but slightly change airflow direction from straight up to slightly angled. This can have a very minor impact on ram temps (DDR4 or prior) or a somewhat larger impact on cooling of DDR5, as the ram doesn't then benefit from directed channeled airflow from below as the air is now pulled at an angle to the corner area.
The chimney affect works very well in this case, since there's no air tower to confuse things.
With 3+3? Intakes and 3 exhaust, you'll have 3x sets of instructions, all 3 at variable speeds. The cpu intakes are constantly variable and the exhausts should be set slightly higher rpm curve to compensate for that variable, plus whatever is added from below. The lower intakes only need supply the gpu, so should be set in line with its demands. Pretty much, the lower intake set will be slower than the cpu, which is slower than exhaust.
I'd set exhaust to constant 1000rpm, cpu to 800 and bottom to 600, then temp test both cpu/gpu individually. Then drop rpm 100 across all 3 and retest. Do it again, drop 100rpm. Then test heavy gaming at high and low setpoint and see how that affects cpy/gpu temps. That'll show the affects of the airflow changes and give you an estimate of where the fans speeds need to be at at full loads, so you can set curves in reverse.
Gonna take several hours or more, but at the end you'll have custom curves that'll actually work as needed, without the ramp ups and temps you can live with, which will be different than just blasting away to get the lowest possible temp.
But that's particular to this case.
Moving the fan to rear exhaust overall does nothing but slightly change airflow direction from straight up to slightly angled. This can have a very minor impact on ram temps (DDR4 or prior) or a somewhat larger impact on cooling of DDR5, as the ram doesn't then benefit from directed channeled airflow from below as the air is now pulled at an angle to the corner area.
The chimney affect works very well in this case, since there's no air tower to confuse things.
With 3+3? Intakes and 3 exhaust, you'll have 3x sets of instructions, all 3 at variable speeds. The cpu intakes are constantly variable and the exhausts should be set slightly higher rpm curve to compensate for that variable, plus whatever is added from below. The lower intakes only need supply the gpu, so should be set in line with its demands. Pretty much, the lower intake set will be slower than the cpu, which is slower than exhaust.
I'd set exhaust to constant 1000rpm, cpu to 800 and bottom to 600, then temp test both cpu/gpu individually. Then drop rpm 100 across all 3 and retest. Do it again, drop 100rpm. Then test heavy gaming at high and low setpoint and see how that affects cpy/gpu temps. That'll show the affects of the airflow changes and give you an estimate of where the fans speeds need to be at at full loads, so you can set curves in reverse.
Gonna take several hours or more, but at the end you'll have custom curves that'll actually work as needed, without the ramp ups and temps you can live with, which will be different than just blasting away to get the lowest possible temp.
I did a lot of stress tests using Heaven and noticed that my GPU temps are 70-73 degrees under heavy load and changing the bottom intake fan speed didn't make any difference. Same results with 800 rpm and full blast 1900 rpm so I went with 800 (minimum). The top exhaust is now set to 1000 rpm and AIO fans on silent mode which means 800 rpm idle and 900-1200 rpm under heavy load. The pc runs pretty quietly with this setup but I have to keep testing it a little bit more. Before this, I tried to run the bottom intake and top exhaust on PWM mode but it was ramping up and down way too much even on idle. Idk which sensor it is monitoring but it was absolutely crazy.
- Dec 26, 2012
- 30,750
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The motherboard has various temp sensors in different places, usually somewhere near a header. Afaik they do try and stay away from heat sources, there's zero point in putting a thermal case sensor right next to the pch or Sata chip as those can easily reach 90°C+ and would mess with general temps through radiated heat.
70-73 in Heaven is seriously good temps, many cards are taxed heavily and can easily hit much higher. If you think about fan placement and distance and displacement, you've pretty much got 2x 120mm size fan cfm that's only got to go a couple of inches to hit the bottom side of the gpu. And it's direct air, not a sideways pull like with standard layout cases. So makes total sense the gpu not needing uber high volumes of air from high speed fans, it's own fans are only going to use whatever they supply pushed through the heatsink, the rest just goes up and around with any exhaust.
The best airflow case temp case on the market, and has been, is one of the Silverstone Raven series. It uses 3x 180mm fans at bottom, nothing else. Total chimney, heat all going naturally out the top vent holes. That's pretty much what you have going, and without a sideways mounted cpu cooler, and 3x exhaust fans, and very little obstruction, you end up with a solid stream of air push/pull through the case bottom up.
Sometimes simple is just the best way.
70-73 in Heaven is seriously good temps, many cards are taxed heavily and can easily hit much higher. If you think about fan placement and distance and displacement, you've pretty much got 2x 120mm size fan cfm that's only got to go a couple of inches to hit the bottom side of the gpu. And it's direct air, not a sideways pull like with standard layout cases. So makes total sense the gpu not needing uber high volumes of air from high speed fans, it's own fans are only going to use whatever they supply pushed through the heatsink, the rest just goes up and around with any exhaust.
The best airflow case temp case on the market, and has been, is one of the Silverstone Raven series. It uses 3x 180mm fans at bottom, nothing else. Total chimney, heat all going naturally out the top vent holes. That's pretty much what you have going, and without a sideways mounted cpu cooler, and 3x exhaust fans, and very little obstruction, you end up with a solid stream of air push/pull through the case bottom up.
Sometimes simple is just the best way.
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