Fan controller options / limitations

new boy

new boy

new boy

Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2009
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Location
Weston-super-Mare
Hi.

I was previously controlling all my case fans and my CPU fans with ASUS' fan xpert 2. This was a perfectly acceptable setup on my 3570k, I could create custom fan curves based upon the CPU temperature, and apart from a few niggles, I was satisfied with that setup.

I then upgraded my CPU to a 2600k (due to a razor blade "accident"), and for whatever reason, the ASUS utility cannot read the temperature of the CPU in an anyway usable way... At idle it reports 31c, and at full load it reports 33c, while realtemp reports 22c and 60c. I've flashed to the latest bios, tried a few versions of the software and had a clean install of windows, none of which helped.

Now I'm stuck either setting a flat RPM, which massively limits my overclocks, or letting my bios control the fans, but "silent" is far to loud at idle for me.

What can the fan controllers you can buy do exactly? Can they somehow grab the cpu / gpu core temps and let you set fan curves based of that? Or are we talking analog knobs and/or temp probes that measure less usfull case temperatures?

I'm happy to spend some money on something that will let me do what I want to do, but I don't want to waste money on something that really isn't a complete solution to the problem.

Thanks.
 
new boy said:
Hi.

I was previously controlling all my case fans and my CPU fans with ASUS' fan xpert 2. This was a perfectly acceptable setup on my 3570k, I could create custom fan curves based upon the CPU temperature, and apart from a few niggles, I was satisfied with that setup.

I then upgraded my CPU to a 2600k (due to a razor blade "accident"), and for whatever reason, the ASUS utility cannot read the temperature of the CPU in an anyway usable way... At idle it reports 31c, and at full load it reports 33c, while realtemp reports 22c and 60c. I've flashed to the latest bios, tried a few versions of the software and had a clean install of windows, none of which helped.

Now I'm stuck either setting a flat RPM, which massively limits my overclocks, or letting my bios control the fans, but "silent" is far to loud at idle for me.

What can the fan controllers you can buy do exactly? Can they somehow grab the cpu / gpu core temps and let you set fan curves based of that? Or are we talking analog knobs and/or temp probes that measure less usfull case temperatures?

I'm happy to spend some money on something that will let me do what I want to do, but I don't want to waste money on something that really isn't a complete solution to the problem.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure whether your mobo or CPU is faulty, which lead to not able to detect the hardware temperature via BIOS or software.

Other than RMAing your CPU/Mobo, you can use actual temperature probe which can be attached to your CPU, between the IHS and the CPU cooler, to measure the CPU temperature. This is actually more accurate than software then BIOS.

Like doyll said, AQ makes very nice fan controller and includes quite a few temperature probes tgt with their Aquaeros.

AQ 6 PRO is in promotion now and is a superb deal :)
 
deFiniLoGy said:
I'm not sure whether your mobo or CPU is faulty, which lead to not able to detect the hardware temperature via BIOS or software.

Other than RMAing your CPU/Mobo, you can use actual temperature probe which can be attached to your CPU, between the IHS and the CPU cooler, to measure the CPU temperature. This is actually more accurate than software then BIOS.

Like doyll said, AQ makes very nice fan controller and includes quite a few temperature probes tgt with their Aquaeros.

AQ 6 PRO is in promotion now and is a superb deal :)
Click to expand...

Neither are faulty. Its just the crap software utility that is broken. Core temp reads it fine, my bios' auto fan can change the fans depending of temp fine, its just the program that cant grab the right sensor by the looks of it.

hmmm. I've been put off by the idea of probes, but maybe they would be a viable solution after all...

What's a good model to look at? £50 would be nice. I'd pay more if I needed to, but I wanna make sure its going to be doing the job well for me for years to come if it starts getting up towards double that lol.
 
Using a probe really isn't a problem, even if temperture is low or a little slower rising. than a direct core reading.

That said, The Aquaero range from a Aquaero 5 LT USB for £56.99 on up. All do the same functions with USB interface. Custom loop people often use them. Read some of the literature and reviews of how they work and perform.
 
Reading the user review on OCUK for that model (LT), it sounds like it will do exactly what I want it to do. I think its going to take some serious geeking out to get it doing it, but I'll take a proper look tomorrow to check if/how it can do it, but it looks like thats the one I'm going to want. I also really like the fact that its not bling in any way lol.
 
LOL.
I have an Aquaero 5 Pro .. for over a month now. Still haven't mastered even half of what it is capable of doing.
 
doyll said:
LOL.
I have an Aquaero 5 Pro .. for over a month now. Still haven't mastered even half of what it is capable of doing.
Click to expand...

HA! yeah, sounds like its pretty in depth stuff, but it looks like I can use AIDA64 sensors to control the fans, which is exactly what I want :)
 
They are not too hard to setup. I just haven't done any more than just what i needed. :D
That said, it has so many features and functions it is probably the most complex fan controller I know of .. and not much bling either.
 
Ordered it (not from OCUK, as no stock)

Annoyingly I didn't order a heat sink for it, which I now gather is pretty much required...

Hopefully I'll be able to get it added onto my order, otherwise I'll have to pay delivery from somewhere for a stupid tiny heat sink lol.
 
Yeah, it is the bare bones model. :D
Hopefully you can get the heatsink added to order .. and make sure it comes with temp probe or whatever other bits you might need. ;)
 
doyll said:
Yeah, it is the bare bones model. :D
Hopefully you can get the heatsink added to order .. and make sure it comes with temp probe or whatever other bits you might need. ;)
Click to expand...

Heatsink all added fine, CS were on the ball today. I think it comes with everything else I need. Don't even plan to use the temp probes as I'll be using "open hardware Monitor" sensors, but it does come with some probes anyway :)

Really Looking forward to getting it, but not looking forward to rerouting all the fan cables and trying to work out what my mass of splitters and extension leads hidden in the side panel are actually for lol.
 
I know what you mean about snake pits. :D
I use one temp probe to monitor airflow temp. Not so much after airflow is optimized, but is very handy to know how much warmer case air is going into coolers than room. ;)

I usually just use a cheap wired indoor outdoor digital thermometer when setting up new builds. This is one of them
e65759c3-fbf9-414f-9f1f-f5941d540397_zps2fe90c77.jpg

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26159770&postcount=7
 
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