Case Fans - set and forget?

Nitefly · 7 Sep 2023 at 16:59

***background***

Hey there, I have a Lian Li XL white case noob build and I’m sick of those Lian Li SL120 fans making it sound like a helicopter, so I’m getting some noctua fans in there which can run on lower RPMs. Huzzah!

The CPU is cooled by a kraken radiator (yes it’s the full noob build) with the fans blowing out heat as an exhaust (top of the case). I tend to set the fans on the rad at a constant ‘this is what I can tolerate noise’ and leave them be. This tends to be around 1250RPM. The other case fans are at the low as they can go (850RPM).

CPU temps go up to 85ish max and liquid temps can get to high 40s… but that’s in this hot hot hot weather!

***question***

When reading about how people configure the case fans, I’m surprised that most people set their case fans to their CPU temp rather than their MB temp. Eh, really? I know you can configuring it all with fan curves but I would have thought that this causes ramping up and down more than what is ideal. Also, as the CPU rad is an exhaust, it’s only the gpu that’s getting things toasty… so again I’m more of a ‘set and forget’ approach anyway.

So what do you do? Just interested to hear

Ch3m1c4L · 7 Sep 2023 at 23:43

Set fans on all rads, which are all my fans, to be based on the temperature of the water in the loop, with a minimum speed on the thick rad fans, and let some others spin down if its cold enough with a light enough load. Also have the max speed at a level I still can't hear them over the pump/psu fan is quiet mode.

Tealc · 8 Sep 2023 at 13:44

I have my three case fans running off a fan controller that has sensors. I don't see the speed of the fans moving very much, they usually stick around 600-700rpm.

pastymuncher · 8 Sep 2023 at 13:58

I have my case fans (4x 200mm) running off a fan controller which is set to a silent 600rpm. My cooler fans are connected to the CPU fan header on my motherboard which is set to the "silent" profile in the bios. They never ramp up and are also just about silent.

PC777 · 8 Sep 2023 at 14:08

You can limit fan speed in software such as Argus fan monitor and potentially keep the Lan Li's, I have ML140s and 120s that go up to 2000RPM (or similar) but I never run them that high as it sounds like a plane taking off. Have all fans set for 500 rpm or under at idle/web browsing/video watching for silent operation. Going up to about 800 or 900 max when gaming.

I've even got two horribly loud SP140's that came with my case I forced to run lower than their standard RPM as well for silence at under 500RPM, bios won't allow lower than 700RPM even at lowest setting but Argus fan monitor will. Also got a couple of Silentwings fans on my CPU cooler to compare a silent type fan as well, but I've got all different types of fans as quiet as the other, basically all are silent at idle. No matter the fan it generally can be tuned for silence with software.

clone · 10 Sep 2023 at 07:43

Times like this makes me glad I bought the Lian-Li infinity fans with its connect 3 program, take me a few minutes to set the fans up if I need more air or less.

Firegod · 13 Sep 2023 at 16:08

Nitefly said:
***background***

Hey there, I have a Lian Li XL white case noob build and I’m sick of those Lian Li SL120 fans making it sound like a helicopter, so I’m getting some noctua fans in there which can run on lower RPMs. Huzzah!

The CPU is cooled by a kraken radiator (yes it’s the full noob build) with the fans blowing out heat as an exhaust (top of the case). I tend to set the fans on the rad at a constant ‘this is what I can tolerate noise’ and leave them be. This tends to be around 1250RPM. The other case fans are at the low as they can go (850RPM).

CPU temps go up to 85ish max and liquid temps can get to high 40s… but that’s in this hot hot hot weather!

***question***

When reading about how people configure the case fans, I’m surprised that most people set their case fans to their CPU temp rather than their MB temp. Eh, really? I know you can configuring it all with fan curves but I would have thought that this causes ramping up and down more than what is ideal. Also, as the CPU rad is an exhaust, it’s only the gpu that’s getting things toasty… so again I’m more of a ‘set and forget’ approach anyway.

So what do you do? Just interested to hear

I have my case fans set to go off mobo chipset temp if higher than CPU in the Asus software. They're on a custom fan curve and most of the time the Silent Wings 3 are at 800rpm. I have ramp up and down delays added so that it smooths out the fan noises if they do ramp up.