Q-fan on ASUS P7P55D-E LX?

[ricno]

Hello,

I am having trouble with a constant high cpu fan rate (2000 rpm) on my new build. I have heard of the Q-fan feature which should be able to control the cpu fan.

My question is if that is the recommended way to solve the fan speed? Do you use it? If so, with which settings?
Is there any risk for the CPU to become overheated?

The components are these:

CPU: Intel Core i7 860 2.8 Ghz
FAN: ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER 7 PRO REV.2
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P7P55D-E LX

I have left all BIOS settings at default for the moment.

I mostly want to reduce the noice from the fan. Thank you in advance for any answers.

 

[GhislainG]

You don't want to enable Q-Fan, but you complain about the CPU fan. Why not enable fan control in the BIOS as most of us do? The CPU won't overheat if the HSF is mounted properly. The fan speed will increase if need be, but it will be quiet at low CPU utilization.

 

[ricno]

You don't want to enable Q-Fan, but you complain about the CPU fan. Why not enable fan control in the BIOS as most of us do?

I have not said I do not want to enable Q-fan. My question was if that is the recommended way, or if it should be done through software (speedfan or similar)?

 

[Gamer-girl]

are you sure you plugged your fan into the "cpu fan" header and not the another one on the motherboard?

 

[ricno]

are you sure you plugged your fan into the "cpu fan" header and not the another one on the motherboard?

Quite sure, but I will of course check again. If it would be in the wrong header, would the fan spin at all? Or perhaps as now, at a high speed?

 

[Gamer-girl]

If it's not the cpu fan header then the speed of the fan does not adjust to cpu temp. It would just stay at full speed.

 

[GhislainG]

I have not said I do not want to enable Q-fan. My question was if that is the recommended way, or if it should be done through software (speedfan or similar)?

It can be enabled because it's the best solution. Why use software when the BIOS can do it? The only reasons to disable Q-Fan are:

1. Your system is in a hot place and keeping the fan at full speed is a mandatory requirement;
2. You are using an aftermarket fan and Q-Fan forces it to spin faster than it really needs to;
3. You enjoy the noise of fans running at full speed all the time.

 

[suat]

You can enable CPU Fan Control and the other Fan Control in BIOS and set Profiles to Standard. I have been using my fans this way for 6 months. I do not hear any fans spinning. My Radeon HD5770 fan is also at 35% of rated speed. I am not a gamer but I watch bluray movies from time to time at 1920 by 1080 setting on a Sony HD TV set. Heat has never been an issue for me with fans spinning low.

 

[ricno]

Why use software when the BIOS can do it? The only reasons to disable Q-Fan are:

Since it actually is disabled by default on my new motherboard I was curious if it was a good reason why ASUS put it that way. I would of course like it to be done in hardware if possible.

 

[GhislainG]

The reason is that Asus have no clue as to what fan you'll use and what your environment is like. Enable it and be done with it.

 

[ricno]

You can enable CPU Fan Control and the other Fan Control in BIOS and set Profiles to Standard. I have been using my fans this way for 6 months. I do not hear any fans spinning.

Thank you for your reply. I have tried to set the profile to Standard and the RMP of the cpu fan did go down from 2000 RPM to around 900. The CPU cores temperature did raise from about 20 to 30 in idle, but I guess that is still no problem.

My Radeon HD5770 fan is also at 35% of rated speed. I am not a gamer but I watch bluray movies from time to time at 1920 by 1080 setting on a Sony HD TV set. Heat has never been an issue for me with fans spinning low.

I also have a HD5770 card (XFX) and I am also not a gamer, and I have also noticed that the fan is reported at 35%. However the total noice from the fans (CPU and GPU) is quite high I think. It is hard to tell from which fan the noice comes from as they are so close to each other. I do suspect the graphic card.

How is your fan noice?

 

[GhislainG]

It's very easy to determine which fan is noisy. Stop one fan with your fingertip and you'll know if it's that one causing the noise or not. It also is possible that both are somewhat noisy. You left out an important factor. Are you using a quiet case case or one with lots of airflow? There's no such thing as great cooling and very low noise that requires padding or high quality and low-RPM fans. Like you I dislike PC noise and that's why I use quiet cases and fans, but my PCs obviously don't run as cool as they could.

 

[suat]

Thank you for your reply. I have tried to set the profile to Standard and the RMP of the cpu fan did go down from 2000 RPM to around 900. The CPU cores temperature did raise from about 20 to 30 in idle, but I guess that is still no problem.




I also have a HD5770 card (XFX) and I am also not a gamer, and I have also noticed that the fan is reported at 35%. However the total noice from the fans (CPU and GPU) is quite high I think. It is hard to tell from which fan the noice comes from as they are so close to each other. I do suspect the graphic card.

How is your fan noice?

I rarely hear fan noise barely. CPU temp is 39-40 deg C and GPU temp is 41-42 deg C when PC is @ idle with ambient temp of 24 deg C. I have SSD as the hard drive. Therefore, I hear no hard drive noise, either.

 

[ricno]

Thanks for your reply.

It's very easy to determine which fan is noisy. Stop one fan with your fingertip and you'll know if it's that one causing the noise or not.

That is an interesting tip! If I am careful when stopping, the fans would not get damaged by this?

It also is possible that both are somewhat noisy.

The cpu fan is supposed to be quiet, but that is not sure of course. Here it is:

Fan: ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER 7 PRO REV.2

The graphic board I do not know if is should be silent:

GPU: XFX Radeon HD5770 XT 1GB (My is HD-577X-ZNEA, not exactly the same on the page)

You left out an important factor. Are you using a quiet case case or one with lots of airflow?

It is also supposed to be a quite case. I bought the whole set with some different intentions, and one of them was that is should be as quite as possible. However after putting it all together I was a little disapointed to the noice factor.

The case: Antec P183

 

[GhislainG]

If I am careful when stopping, the fans would not get damaged by this?

I've never damaged one doing it.

The graphic board I do not know if is should be silent

They rarely are.

It is also supposed to be a quite case. I bought the whole set with some different intentions, and one of them was that is should be as quite as possible. However after putting it all together I was a little disapointed to the noice factor.

The P183 is a nice performance case with decent cooling and relatively low noise, but it probably isn't as quiet as the Sonata Plus 550 that I use. Are your fans set to Low?

 

[ricno]

The graphic board I do not know if is should be silent

They rarely are.

So graphic board do produce noice even when just displaying ordinary Windows desktop graphics?

The P183 is a nice performance case with decent cooling and relatively low noise, but it probably isn't as quiet as the Sonata Plus 550 that I use. Are your fans set to Low?

They are set to low. When at medium or high the noice is much more noticable.

 

[GhislainG]

So graphic board do produce noice even when just displaying ordinary Windows desktop graphics?

Except for the fanless cards, they all do at various levels. Just stop the fan and you'll know right away if yours is quiet or not. That's how I determined that I couldn't support the noise level of a GPU that's now sitting in it's box.

 

[ricno]

Thanks for your replies! I will be away from the computer for one week now so I can not test this, but I will when I get back and post the results.

 

[ricno]

I have now checked the various fans by stopping them, and identified that the fan making the most noice was one of the case fans. A little surprising I think for the Antec P183 case, but the top fan was mostly responsible.

The second place is shared between the back fan and the GPU fan. I think I will start by buying new case fans and see how much that improves things. Hopefully I can keep my current graphic card.

 

[GhislainG]

You're not the first person who finds the P183 fans a bit loud even when used at their lowest speed. According to some info that I found, the sound level of the top fan on low is 22 dBA@1m and the rear fan is 17 dBA@1m.

 

[ricno]

You're not the first person who finds the P183 fans a bit loud even when used at their lowest speed. According to some info that I found, the sound level of the top fan on low is 22 dBA@1m and the rear fan is 17 dBA@1m.

That seems quite reasonable as the noice level is perhaps not high, but noticable. I hope to be able to lower it with new case fans.

The CPU fan is however very quiet.

 

[ricno]

Best answer selected by ricno.

 

[suat]

I thought you would get BSOD if you stopped the cpu fan by hand. But you apparently did not. This was a surprise for me because I thought the M/B constantly monitored cpu fan rotation.

In my previous build with Gigabyte M/B, I tried to stop cpu fan by hand, which gave me immediate BSOD.

 

[GhislainG]

I thought you would get BSOD if you stopped the cpu fan by hand. But you apparently did not. This was a surprise for me because I thought the M/B constantly monitored cpu fan rotation.

In my previous build with Gigabyte M/B, I tried to stop cpu fan by hand, which gave me immediate BSOD.

The reason for the BSOD wasn't stopping the CPU fan, but something else like a slightly loose connector, a static discharge, etc.