CPU Fan speed control

altich88 · 12 Dec 2009 at 10:08

Hi guys, I have a system including:

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard

Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet CPU Cooler (754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366)

and I'm having a bit of trouble getting the motherboard to control the speed of my CPU fan. When the fan is installed without the Zalman fanmate, the fan simply spins at 100% speed all the time. The fan is a 3-pin conenctor on a 4-pin motherbaord. I have tried enabling motherboard CPU control in the BIOS but to the same effect. Am I right in thinking that I need to buy a 4-pin fan for the motherboard to be able to adjust the speed itself? If so which kind should I go for, are case fans different to CPU fans?

Would something like this do:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-010-SY

My system is not overclocked, temps are around 30c idle, but I would like the motherboard to control the speed when I play games etc, as at the moment I'm not really sure how much to turn up the fanmate.

Many thanks, sorry if it seems a stupid question but this is my first build and it's bugging me a bit!

Al

95thrifles · 12 Dec 2009 at 11:55

Just buy this

ANDARIAL · 12 Dec 2009 at 11:58

That fan looks like it will fit ok
In the bios you should be able to control your existing fan speed though,look for something like voltage control in the fan section

ANDARIAL · 12 Dec 2009 at 11:59

95thrifles said:
Just buy this

wrong type of 4 pin i think he wants 4 pin that connects to the mobo so he can use the bios to adjust cpu cooler fan speed

RJC · 12 Dec 2009 at 12:39

Not sure of have tried this, is set the CPU Smart Fan Control to Voltage instead of Auto or PWM.

CPU Smart FAN Control
[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]Specifies how to control CPU fan speed. This item is configurable only if [/FONT][/FONT]CPU Smart FAN Control [FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]is set to [/FONT][/FONT]Enabled[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]Auto Lets the BIOS automatically detect the type of CPU fan installed and sets the optimal CPU fan control mode. (Default) [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]Voltage Sets Voltage mode for a 3-pin CPU fan. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]PWM Sets PWM mode for a 4-pin CPU fan. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]Note: The [/FONT][/FONT]Voltage [FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]mode can be set for a 3-pin CPU fan or a 4-pin CPU fan. However, for a 4-pin CPU [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]fan that is not designed following Intel PWM fan specifications, selecting [/FONT][/FONT]PWM [FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow,Arial Narrow]mode may not effectively reduce the fan speed.[/FONT]
[/FONT]

Alfie · 12 Dec 2009 at 12:55

lol, what are you lot on about?

He means 4 pin as in PWM controlled. The fact is that the fan on the zalman does not support PWM so the fan speed cannot be controlled by the motherboard beyond basic Q-fan on Asus boards maybe.

You will need to use the fan mate or another fan controller to change the speed of the fan or just get a new heatsink/fan that uses a PWM fan.