ASRock Fan Control

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Lucky Luciano
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Location: Bucharest, Romania

ASRock Fan Control

Post by Lucky Luciano » Sat Dec 20, 2014 9:22 am

Since ASRock motherboards seem to have good fan control options I thought we could share our experiences with them seeing as ASUS are always talked about here, with some MSI and Gigabyte thrown in as well.

My model is Z97M Pro4. It can control the following
- CPU Fan 1 (4-pin) and CPU Fan 2 (3-pin) - they are tied to the same controller(same percentage of speed)
- Chassis Fan 1 (4-pin)
- Chassis Fan 2 (3-pin)

For each of the 3 controllers you can associate 5 different pairs of temperatures - speeds (in percentage, from 1 to 100, though going below 20% didn't have any noticeable effect).

Notes:
- CPU Fan 1 (4-pin) and Chassis Fan 1 (4-pin) cannot be turned off. Even at 0% they will keep spinning at the minimum rpm.
- There's no hysteresis option like in SpeedFan
- Fans control options are similar in BIOS and the A-Tuning app but they save their settings independently so you cannot control the BIOS settings from Windows. So I've used the Windows app for testing and then set my final options in BIOS. I've only played a bit with SpeedFan on this new system but the hysteresis option is the only thing that would entice me to use it.


I've tested the following fans.
- Scythe Kotetsu stock fan (400+/-200 - 1400 rpm, 4-pin) - minimum speed obtained: ~ 550 rpm
- Intel stock cooler fan (2000 rpm, 4-pin) - minimum speed obtained: ~950 rpm
- Scythe Slip Stream SY1225SL12L (800 rpm, 3-pin) - minimum speed obtained: ~120 rpm
- CoolerMaster Silencio 550 stock case fan (800 rpm, 3-pin) - minimum speed obtained: ~300 rpm (+some weird readings)
- Arctic Fan 12 (1500 rpm, 3-pin, old model) - minimum speed obtained: ~500 rpm
- Arctic Fan AF8 (2500 rpm, 3-pin, even older model) - minimum speed obtained: ~900 rpm

Results according to the A-Tuning fan test
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Hybrid Vigor
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:39 pm
Location: Germany

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by Hybrid Vigor » Mon Jan 19, 2015 2:38 am

Lucky Luciano wrote:
Notes:
- CPU Fan 1 (4-pin) and Chassis Fan 1 (4-pin) cannot be turned off. Even at 0% they will keep spinning at the minimum rpm.
You can plug the 4pin fan on the 3pin connector, leaving one pin out. That gives you the opportunity to set a fan profile from 0% to 100%. My CPU fan for example, starts spinning at 65 C°. This means it remains off all the time.
Might not work with all PWM fans but should work with most of them.

Gunbuster
Posts: 98
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:27 am
Location: Scotland, UK

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by Gunbuster » Mon Jan 19, 2015 6:09 am

Good to know.

I have an Asus P6X58D-E and the fan control is very basic and not Speedfan-able.

My CPU is fine, but if I did change it would be because of IO and features like Fan Control.

I wish there was a Fan Control list. Having the ability to set fans completely off via the BIOS/UEFI is a major boon. Something I would want. Knowing Asrock do at least a decent job is nice to know.

cerbie
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 3:21 pm

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by cerbie » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:47 am

Lucky Luciano wrote:Notes:
- CPU Fan 1 (4-pin) and Chassis Fan 1 (4-pin) cannot be turned off. Even at 0% they will keep spinning at the minimum rpm.
Interesting. On my B85M Pro4, I can set mine down to off, with Noctua NF-P12 and NF-S12A. Around 5% or so, they will start and stop, not being able to keep up the duty cycle.

I don't get why the hysteresis option is important at all, TBH. What makes Speedfan a must have for me is that the ASRock app, and BIOS, only work by the CPU temperature. Yet, the CPU is not what generates the most heat. Speedfan allows the GPU temperature and CPU temperature to both be used for controlling the same fans.

Hybrid Vigor
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Location: Germany

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by Hybrid Vigor » Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:57 am

cerbie wrote:... with Noctua NF-P12 and NF-S12A.
They seem to be voltage controled (3pin), these can be turned off easily by nature. The 4pin PWN fans plugged to their designated 4pin socket keep a minimum duty cycle, even when the fan curve is set to 0%. Plugging them to a 3pin socket should turn them to voltage controled fans, which can be turned off easily. See here:

http://www.quietpc.com/faq/28

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Jan 21, 2015 3:49 am

Lucky Luciano wrote:Results according to the A-Tuning fan test

Unfortunately, like FanXpert 2, A-Tuning isn't that reliable at testing fan: some fans like the Scythe Glidestream PWM seen on the Kotetsu can be controlled and stopped using them on independent voltage controlled headers (mines can be dialed down to 32% - 400rpm but, if you stop them, then they won't start reliably under 40% - 550rpm, so it's a bit tricky to cook a custom curve, even with SpeedFan).

Hybrid Vigor wrote:The 4pin PWN fans plugged to their designated 4pin socket keep a minimum duty cycle, even when the fan curve is set to 0%.
Quite correct, but it depends of the specific fans: some PWM fans (like for instance the Noctua P14r) can also be stopped (so their inherent minimum duty cycle is actually 0%) even when hooked up to a proper PWM header.

cerbie
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 3:21 pm

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by cerbie » Wed Jan 21, 2015 12:20 pm

Hybrid Vigor wrote:
cerbie wrote:... with Noctua NF-P12 and NF-S12A.
They seem to be voltage controled (3pin)
They're PWM models. The ASRock utility reported down to 85 RPM w/ the S12A at 10% w/ the resistor (I don't recall for the P12s), and 0% makes them stop moving. RPM gets misreported if too low on the CPU header (somewhere under 250 RPM), not using the ASRock utility (I wonder of it's a single ample v. multiple samples issue, but haven't gone too deep into it, since the ASRock utility was messing up Speedfan).

Lucky Luciano
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:23 am
Location: Bucharest, Romania

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by Lucky Luciano » Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:04 pm

EDIT: Tried it, fan always stays at full speed.

Can I control a 3pin fan on a 4pin header?

Or is it at least safe for the motherboard to connect one?

quest_for_silence
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Location: ITALY

Re: ASRock Fan Control

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Feb 21, 2015 7:11 am

Lucky Luciano wrote:Can I control a 3pin fan on a 4pin header?

It depends of the specific motherboard.

Lucky Luciano wrote:Or is it at least safe for the motherboard to connect one?

There's no problem, but as you found usually you will run the 3-pin fan just at full speed (when hooked up to a true PWM header).

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