Fan speed settings

Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2016
Posts
7,234
Location
Bristolian living in Swindon
Hi all

Ive never really took notice of changing my fan speeds as I thought the pc would work out when they're needed, However ive noticed a lot of people on here say they set fan speeds for when they game, Is this done through a software app or in the BIOS? How do you know what speed to set them at?

Any help appreciated

cheers :)
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
27 Mar 2016
Posts
7,234
Location
Bristolian living in Swindon
Most modern bios will have fan settings for silent or gaming, it will usually adjust the fan speeds depending on load BUT this will also depend on what fans you have. So what is your spec?

i5 6600k
MSI Z170A Tomahawk
16gb Corsair Vengeance 2400mhz
NVIDIA GTX670 Twin Frozr
EVGA 500w PSU

Its an old set up but it will be a gift for a friend when I get my Ryzen parts in February so want to get this one running sweet enough. It has a couple of Arctic cooling P12 120mm fans in.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Dec 2019
Posts
6,441
Location
Planet Thanet
Should be able to set in bios as said
But most likely there's msi software to do it
I prefer software over bios as you can then set your fan curve on the fly depending how temps and noise are rather than reboots to bios
What to set/what curve
It's a balancing act between what temps you are happy with against what fan noise you will put up with really
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
27 Mar 2016
Posts
7,234
Location
Bristolian living in Swindon
Should be able to set in bios as said
But most likely there's msi software to do it
I prefer software over bios as you can then set your fan curve on the fly depending how temps and noise are rather than reboots to bios
What to set/what curve
It's a balancing act between what temps you are happy with against what fan noise you will put up with really

I did wonder if there was some sort of software available, I've never set a fan curve so I'll watch a few videos on that... I don't hear my pc when gaming as I wear a headset, so unless my wife is gaming it doesn't bother me... When I'm watching my wife game it is loud compared to other builds I've done but I think the GPU fans are making the most noise tbh
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Dec 2019
Posts
6,441
Location
Planet Thanet
I did wonder if there was some sort of software available, I've never set a fan curve so I'll watch a few videos on that... I don't hear my pc when gaming as I wear a headset, so unless my wife is gaming it doesn't bother me... When I'm watching my wife game it is loud compared to other builds I've done but I think the GPU fans are making the most noise tbh
Setting fan curve is pretty simple
Usually it's a X and Y graph type thing
Where X is say temp and Y is fan speed
And you just drag usually around 4 to 6 points on the graph
So say at 30c cpu fans are 500rpm
40c fans 600rpm
50c fans 750rpm etc

You pick your own temp and rpm values
Don't know the msi software for it but will be on your motherboard download page

Edit it may be in msi command center software though not 100% sure
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2011
Posts
8,632
I think for MSI motherboards use their "Command Center" to setup fan curves while in Windows. Think it lets user setup temp to rpm point with idle and 4 additional rpm to temp points. But Command Center does not keep setting when system is rebooted so once you figure out what curve works bets go into bios and set it there.
My curves are set basically same for both 400-1500rpm case fans and 400-1300rpm cooler fan:
CPU fan:
0c/0%rpm (default starting point
40c/55%rpm
50c/80%rpm
55c/90%rpm
65c/100%rpm​
Case fans:
0c/0%
40c/50%
50c/70%
55c/80%
70c/100%​
Both case and cooler fans cycle at same points so case airflow matches coolers supplying cool air to them as needed.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
21 Dec 2019
Posts
6,441
Location
Planet Thanet
And msi afterburner can set fan curves for gpu if needed
But weird msi command center does not hold settings after reboot
But still it will let you play about with curves and seeing how they react to gaming etc before applying in bios as said
 
Back
Top Bottom