Upgrading my PC's Memory+Cooling Fans & Cleaning it Out

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  1. Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #21

    Ophaq said:
    EDIT:
    @Derekimo thank you for the information! I may be a bit dull (or just too tired) to understand the full brunt of the information you posted but does it mean that 3/4 of my motherboard headers are PWM compatible? If so, then the above still applies then. Which header(s) # aren't compatible if the others are?
    I would say only the CPU and 2 and 3 are capable from the info I found, which leaves 1 and 4 out of the capable list.

    Ophaq said:
    "Three of those headers fit the criteria." - Doesn't this mean that 3 out of 4 of the headers are PWM ready then? I compared it to the manual (and as I was searching for the page I randomly opened it up and there it was), and the information he posted matched it.

    There are 5 total headers I see, so 3 of the 5 fit the criteria.


    Upgrading my PC's Memory+Cooling Fans & Cleaning it Out-2016-04-13_21h32_32.png
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #22

    Ophaq said:
    "Three of those headers fit the criteria." - Doesn't this mean that 3 out of 4 of the headers are PWM ready then? I compared it to the manual (and as I was searching for the page I randomly opened it up and there it was), and the information he posted matched it.
    There are 5, count 'em, 5 headers.

    CPU plus 4 for the case.

    2 of the 4 case fan headers are supposedly, I say supposedly, PWM. 2 are not.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #23

    Okay, so the highlighted in yellow are the ones that support PWM right? Will they be able to support fan splitters for two different PWM fans without making me not able to POST? I read that that can happen with split fans.

    As for the CPU header, that may be occupied by my H60. If it isn't then its a bonus header to work PWM with. And that's like if you said, the other 2 are supposedly PWM.
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  4. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #24

    see comments in bold

    Ophaq said:
    Okay, so the highlighted in yellow are the ones that support PWM right?

    If, as Derekimo said in post 17, you want to believe the manual.


    Will they be able to support fan splitters for two different PWM fans without making me not able to POST? I read that that can happen with split fans.

    To repeat, you will need trial and error. I use 2 Noctua NF-F12 fans off the same PWM header without any problems on a Gigabyte board.

    That doesn't mean you won't be tearing your hair out.





    As for the CPU header, that may be occupied by my H60. If it isn't then its a bonus header to work PWM with. And that's like if you said, the other 2 are supposedly PWM.


    The key word in your last sentence is "supposedly". I'd do what I said a couple of posts back--build it with minimal fannage and evaluate.
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  5. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #25

    Okay, so I will build it with minimal fannage then. How many fans do you recommend I start with? The two on the radiator, one side panel fan to blow air onto my GPU and maybe one front intake fan?

    So maybe I'll take off the 140mm and a 120mm to be safe?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #26

    Ophaq said:
    Okay, so I will build it with minimal fannage then. How many fans do you recommend I start with? The two on the radiator, one side panel fan to blow air onto my GPU and maybe one front intake fan?

    So maybe I'll take off the 140mm and a 120mm to be safe?
    I have no idea whether your water cooler is designed for 1, 2, or 33 fans.

    Ignoring the water cooler, I'd build it with 2 more: one intake on the front and one exhaust at the rear. Evaluate that. Then maybe swap those 2 around to the top or side to see if temps and noise change appreciably.

    I probably would NOT buy a 140 mm fan to start with because there's only 1 place you can use it and you can't really evaluate that until you get a couple of good standard 120s installed to test. The 140 might be unneeded even after evaluation and why have a 140 laying around if you don't need it. At least unused 120s can eventually be used if an existing fan fails.

    There's a point of diminishing returns on fans--4 isn't necessarily better than 3.

    But you may be a fanaholic--a common disease.

    Or you may like incessant fiddling--an even more common disease.

    Or you may be indifferent to expense.

    Etc.

    The thing isn't going to explode with minimal fannage.

    If temps don't go above 80, I wouldn't much worry.

    But you may think that 65 degrees is always better than 70. Intel CPUs can run indefinitely at 70 and higher.

    I have no idea how much your GPU will contribute to case heat and you wont' either until you do a base evaluation with minimal fans.

    Maybe you then decide PWM is useless to you and buy one more 3 pin. Maybe you decide the side fan is much more important than the top fan. Maybe you decide 2 fans up front is better than 1 up front and 1 on the side.

    And so on and so forth.

    Only experimentation can give you answers.

    Ambient temp is highly important. You'll likely run near 10 degrees cooler at 70 ambient rather than 80 ambient.

    I use 1 intake, 1 exhaust, and 1 on my air cooler. Ambient about 80. No graphics card. Severe load temps are never above 65. Your situation will be different, but you have to develop a baseline with minimal good fannage and re-adjust if necessary.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #27

    Yeah, I think I will have to fiddle with it but at the moment, I found those PWM fans that I linked earlier which got good reviews and airflow so I will stick with those and just get them all. I want a bunch of fans in my PC and I don't really mind having so many in there, as long as there's good cooling. If some need to be taken out then so be it. XD

    I made this diagram based off of what Derekimo made highlighting the "possible" PWM headers. Even if the headers aren't PWM, the fans are still good fans to use as is.



    The x2 noctua on the radiator are exhaust.
    The x2 cougar are intake up front.
    The side panel cougar is intake as well.
    The 140mm is exhaust.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 50
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #28

    Hello all, just an update. I cleaned everything out and did as described above. All of the fans work great and my PC does too luckily! XD

    So, a few questions to any who know an answer to them:
    1. The Sys_fan4 header causes any fan to run at max which is 4000rpm according to hwmonitor. Is there any way to change this? I looked at SpeedFan and in my BIOS and found nothing.
    2. I attached an LNA to the 140mm noctua fan (which is running at 4000rpm) and it still runs at 4000rpm. Should I just take the LNA off then? Why does it not reduce the RPM? I also attached an extension to the LNA because the fan can't reach the header without the extension. Is this double extension safe?

    Thanks in advance. :)
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #29

    Ophaq said:
    Hello all, just an update. I cleaned everything out and did as described above. All of the fans work great and my PC does too luckily! XD

    So, a few questions to any who know an answer to them:
    1. The Sys_fan4 header causes any fan to run at max which is 4000rpm according to hwmonitor. Is there any way to change this? I looked at SpeedFan and in my BIOS and found nothing.
    2. I attached an LNA to the 140mm noctua fan (which is running at 4000rpm) and it still runs at 4000rpm. Should I just take the LNA off then? Why does it not reduce the RPM? I also attached an extension to the LNA because the fan can't reach the header without the extension. Is this double extension safe?

    Thanks in advance. :)
    What does XD mean? I see it in nearly all of your posts.

    Re 1: I'd be very surprised if you had no BIOS control over that fan speed, but you are the one looking in the BIOS. You could also buy an adapter to cut the voltage from 12 volts down to 10 or 7. Or you could buy a slower fan. Or you could likely buy a fan controller to control voltage that way.

    2: The LNA makes very very little difference even if it works. The extension should be safe. You'd have to experiment with it on other fans and headers to come to a conclusion. It's typically used by those obsessed with the lowest possible noise, but I couldn't tell the difference when I tried it.

    Not sure why you intentionally bought a 4000 rpm Noctua fan if you wanted it to run slower than that.

    You may find that HWinfo doesn't correctly identify fans by name (location). It should be accurate for the CPU fan, but I'd stop each fan manually with my finger and then see which fan in HWinfo was then shown as 0 rpm to be sure you and HWinfo are on the same page.

    Or even try a different monitoring tool entirely.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 31,238
    Windows 11 Pro x64 [Latest Release and Release Preview]
       #30

    ignatzatsonic said:

    what does xd mean? I see it in nearly all of your posts.
    XD is a quick code for an large smile emotion Here it's : and D which gives
      My Computers


 
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