Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force Intel Z87 onboard fans query?

Space Monkey · 1 Nov 2014 at 19:51

Hi guys,

I've got this motherboard and it has 2 onboard fans, one for each of the main 2 heatsinks (as seen in the pics) but for some reason, the last few months they've been whining constantly, and its especially noticeable when the PCs idle, like web browsing etc... Also the pitch randomly changes and gets louder every so often!

So my question is this, firstly is there any way to stop this happening? and if not, do you think I'll damage or put the motherboard in danger if I disconnect the 2 little fans? At this time I won't be pushing any overclocks, and if I do, they'll be minimal anyway?

(I'm still not sure if the fans are for the watercooling part of the heatsinks, and not needed when used on air?)

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-478-GI

TIA

Nichrome · 1 Nov 2014 at 20:05

Hi,
I don't think disconnecting these fans would damage anything as this is additional stuff and passive cooling is rather most important, though for the first time you would have it disconnected, I'd run Intel Burn Test on "Custom" making sure that you use almost all of your RAM and just watch temps within HWinfo, but also touch these heatsinks once every 10-20mins (for the first 2h) to see if it gets any hotter than before. If after like 5 hours of burn test it doesn't crash (preventing damage) then it should be alright.
No idea if you can slow them down, but maybe some Gigabyte software allows to do it?

Space Monkey · 1 Nov 2014 at 20:10

Good idea, will have a go at that I think (just need to find the time

)

I thought they were controllable in the BIOS, but I can't see anything, though I'm on a newer BIOS than the one that shipped with the board, so I can't go back and check (also the newer BIOS is more stable so I wouldn't go back if I could?)

stulid · 1 Nov 2014 at 22:31

Dont think you can, the Sniper 5 I had didn't have the option either.

Pull the cable out.

Space Monkey · 1 Nov 2014 at 22:34

stulid said:
Dont think you can, the Sniper 5 I had didn't have the option either.

Pull the cable out.

Yeah, think I will and monitor temps, what is the best prog to check mobo temps these days?

What annoys me is that Gigabyte actually make a point in their sales blurb that these fans should be silent, yeah right!

stulid · 1 Nov 2014 at 22:35

Coretemp or Realtemp.