ThermalTake NiC C4 dual fan issue

[BRANDON DAVIS]

I just installed a new Thermaltake NiC C4 CPU cooler that arrived earlier this afternoon (link is to the Thermaltake product page for the C4).

This cooler has two fans in a push-pull configuration. The fans are factory hard-wired - using shrink-wrap - together in "Y" configuration, and then the power and control cable splits into the three pin power plug (to plug into a mainboard header), and a fan speed switch.

I've plugged this cable into the regular CPU fan header on the GA-990FXA UD3 mainboard.

The problem is, the push fan is running at full speed. All the time. It doesn't seem to respond to the fan speed switch at all. Noisy sucker, too (but I knew that going in, and that's not the issue). The pull fan IS responding to the fan speed switch (and at full speed, it's pretty loud too).

Since the C4 is brand new, I don't want to hack it up. Yet.

(I don't really want to return it either, because it fits the case so well, seems to be otherwise more effective than the factory cooler, and since I only have $20 into it ...plus I'd likely miss the rebate that means getting it for the $20 lol.)

I'd appreciate any suggestions. TIA.

 

[BRANDON DAVIS]

Solved ...solved it myself.

The following instructions are specific to the Gigabyte GA-990FXA UD3 v4 mainboard (but the general principal is probably applicable to other mainboards).

Power down, and plug the NiC C4 (which use a Y'ed 3 pin connector with a "VR" fan speed knob to power both push and pull fans) into either of the 4 pin fan headers.

The 4 pin fan headers are both PWM, and can be controlled in UEFI. The upper header is labeled CPU Fan and the mid-board header is labeled Sys 1 Fan. You might want to plug into the Sys 1 header simply because it will be much easier to use the VR knob (and the cooler's power cable is plenty long enough to reach the Sys 1 mid-board header on the GA-990FXA).

(I have a PWM 140mm top case fan, and I plugged that into the CPU Fan header.)

After powering up, hit the DEL key and enter the UEFI configuration. Scroll down and enter the "PC Health Status" menu.

Now scroll down to CPU Fan speed control (or 1st System fan speed control ...whichever header you plugged the NiC C4 into), and set it to Disabled.

...if you use any of the other settings, your fans will run at dissimilar speeds, and the VR knob will only affect one of the fans (bringing it up to the same speed as the other).

And that's why you must use one of the 4 pin headers: because those headers can be disabled in UEFI.

(Plugging into either of the 3 pin fan headers on the mainboard will result in the push fan running at full rpm - and yes, the single fan running full out is loud - and then using the VR knob to increase the speed of the pull fan ...and yes, both fans at full speed are really, really loud lol. But they cool an FX8320 way down, too.)

Save and exit. Your fans will now both be at the same speeds. Done ...well, sort of.

Option: As several reviews of the NiC C4/C5 have noted, it's pretty inconvenient to have to take the side panel off every time you want to adjust the fan speed from idle (and I can't really hear the NiC C4 fans over the sound made by the other fans ...so at idle - 1000 rpm or so - they're quieter than a few Arctic Cool F12's lol).

What I did was download and install the current Speedfan, and I use it for fan speed control instead of the hardware VR fan control. I just left the VR control knob turned to full, and with the NiC C4 fans set to around 1200 rpm (about 45%) in Speedfan, I can't really hear them (I'm certainly not bothered by them, at least). And it's a simple matter to increase the speed using Speedfan. And the NiC C4 itself is pretty effective. My CPU temp with the FX8320's unclocked and the NiC C4 fans at 1200rpm, is 6°C ...the other two temp probes are at 24°C and 26°C respectively at an ambient room temp of approximately 19°C (so my four case fans - front, side, rear, and upper - and the case air flow, have a delta of about 6°).

Works for me.

NOTE: If anyone else would like to know how to set up Speedfan, just note it in a reply, and I'll post a step-by-step How To to make it easy for you. Just ask.

 

[aldoreyes]

Hi Brandon, I'm interested on how did you setup speedfan to work with the 3 pin connector of the nic c4 fan, I haven't been able to use speedfan to control this.

Thank you.

 

[BRANDON DAVIS]

Hi Brandon, I'm interested on how did you setup speedfan to work with the 3 pin connector of the nic c4 fan, I haven't been able to use speedfan to control this.

Thank you.

Sorry Aldo, but I really couldn't get the C4 to work properly with a 3 pin header, and as I recall Speedfan didn't make 3 pins work (on my mainboard at least).

I used a 4 pin header that I disabled - and disabling the header was the **only** way to get the C4 speed control knob to work properly - and only then was able to use Speedfan to control both fans simultaneously **after** leaving the speed knob in the full on position (so I didn't have to bother with the knob further).

When I tried three pin headers, the C4 controller would only control one fan, bringing it up to the speed of the other (depending on the BIOS settings, you could have half speed max, or full speed max for both fans).

I think if you're limited to headers you can't disable, you're probably better off just rewiring the fans to use separate headers ...and either use Speedfan, or some custom hardware fan controller (there's lots of choices) to control the speed.