SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
Eddie Spaghetti
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Holland

SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by Eddie Spaghetti » Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:54 am

I just built a system with an Asrock Z68 Extreme3 mobo (see my sig). Now I want to automatically control the speeds of the case fan and the CPU fan, both depending on the CPU temp. So I connected them to the CPU1 and CPU2 headers.

With Speedfan I can only control the speed of the CPU2 fan - and only manually. CPU1 is always 100%, whatever I do. Speedfan only shows the rpm of CPU1 (so 100%, or 0 if I unplug it).

In this thread the headers of this mobo are discussed. Strange thing is, CMThomson has the opposite situation: only CPU1 can be controlled, and not CPU2 :?

I spent hours trying to get it to work (also followed this guide), but no luck..
Last edited by Eddie Spaghetti on Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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

Re: Fanspeed with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:08 am

Which fans are you using?

Eddie Spaghetti
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Holland

Re: Fanspeed with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by Eddie Spaghetti » Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:13 am

Yeah, forgot to mention (will include it in my sig). A Noctua S12B as a case fan and a Noctua P12 for the heatsink. Both have 3-pin connectors.

Btw, the BIOS gives the right rpm.

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

Re: Fanspeed with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:23 am

Eddie Spaghetti wrote:Yeah, forgot to mention (will include it in my sig). A Noctua S12B as a case fan and a Noctua P12 for the heatsink. Both have 3-pin connectors.

Btw, the BIOS gives the right rpm.
It's a bit odd: theoretically (I don't know your board) voltage controlled fans (as your Noctuas) shouldn't work on ASUS-based (ASRock is ASUS) boards when connected to CPU fan headers, and even cmthompson says that one CPU fan header is for PWM fan only.

At anyway, IMO it is no more important: with SpeedFan you have not to connect the case fan to the CPU fan header.
You have to connect the case fan to a controllable case fan header and then, as also seen into the guide you already know, you have tell to SpeedFan through the "Temperatures" configuration tab, to change its speed according to the CPU temp.

Image

So just swap the actual fan header.

Eddie Spaghetti
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Holland

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by Eddie Spaghetti » Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:51 am

Thanks for the reply, qfs :)

I connected the heatsink fan to CHA3, and now it works almost perfect. This is how I configured SF:

Image
Image
Image
Image

As you can see, the fan is set to 64%, though the temp is way below the desired temp (2nd image), so it should be on minimum, which is 40% (1st image).

I even got the fan on CPU controlled :)

But sometimes it works, and sometimes not. I have yet to find out how to run it smoothly.

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

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:34 am

Eddie Spaghetti wrote:But sometimes it works, and sometimes not. I have yet to find out how to run it smoothly.

Just a note: if the above images are the actual ones of your current setup, probably you have to check a second checkbox under the "CPU" section of the "Temperature tab": as a matter of fact, if it were as I see, currently SpeedFan should control just the case fan accordingly to CPU temp, while the CPU fan should be still managed by the ASRock BIOS. With reference to that, it looks like a bit odd to me that the "PWM Mode 3" under "Advanced Tab" is still set to "Smart Fan IV" (and not "Manual" or "Software controlled").

You may also link the same case fan speed even to other temp sensors at the same time: for example the GPU temp, in order that the case fan will speed up either when CPU temp ramps up, or when GPU temp rises.

cmthomson
Posts: 1266
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:35 am
Location: Pleasanton, CA

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by cmthomson » Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:24 pm

I've never actually used the CPU2 header (I use the CPU1 header); I just reported what others have said about it. Apparently both CPU1 and CPU2 speeds are controlled together (CPU1 is a 4-pin PWM-only header, and CPU2 is a 3-pin [PWM not voltage] header). Speedfan can't read the RPM of the CPU2 header (or control the speed of the CHA2 header) because those use a chip that Speedfan doesn't recognize (yet).

The only header on this board that is fully compatible with 3-pin fans and SpeedFan is CHA3. CPU1 and CHA1 are 4-pin PWM headers, CPU2 and CHA2 are 3-pin but not fully supported by SpeedFan. PWR is 3-pin but always 12V.

You should seriously consider getting a couple of 4-pin PWM fans, such as the Arctic Cooling AC12. 3-pin fans are getting less support all the time.

Also, as mentioned above, all of the settings in the Advanced/Nuvoton tab should be set to Manual.

Eddie Spaghetti
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Holland

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by Eddie Spaghetti » Sat Oct 22, 2011 4:11 am

quest_for_silence wrote: With reference to that, it looks like a bit odd to me that the "PWM Mode 3" under "Advanced Tab" is still set to "Smart Fan IV" (and not "Manual" or "Software controlled").
If I set it to 'manual', it can only be controlled ... manually :)

There is no 'Software controlled' option.
quest_for_silence wrote:You may also link the same case fan speed even to other temp sensors at the same time: for example the GPU temp, in order that the case fan will speed up either when CPU temp ramps up, or when GPU temp rises.
Good idea!
cmthomson wrote:I've never actually used the CPU2 header (I use the CPU1 header); I just reported what others have said about it. Apparently both CPU1 and CPU2 speeds are controlled together (CPU1 is a 4-pin PWM-only header, and CPU2 is a 3-pin [PWM not voltage] header). Speedfan can't read the RPM of the CPU2 header (or control the speed of the CHA2 header) because those use a chip that Speedfan doesn't recognize (yet).

The only header on this board that is fully compatible with 3-pin fans and SpeedFan is CHA3. CPU1 and CHA1 are 4-pin PWM headers, CPU2 and CHA2 are 3-pin but not fully supported by SpeedFan. PWR is 3-pin but always 12V.
I've hooked up the case fan to CPU2, and it can be read and controlled (set to Smart Fan 4); it works great.

The fan on the heatsink is pinned to CHA3. It can be controlled manually from 0-100%, but when set automatically (Smart Fan 4), it is always 67%. (It's no big deal, because it's inaudible at that level.)

Anyway, I'm happy with this setup. The computer is sitting on the desk, and at idle, it's almost inaudible. When the CPU is stressed to 100% (@4.8GHz), noise level is acceptable, and temps never reach 80C.

cmthomson
Posts: 1266
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:35 am
Location: Pleasanton, CA

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by cmthomson » Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:58 am

Hmm. What you report makes me think your BIOS/UEFI settings need changing.

All the fan headers you intend to control from SpeedFan should be set to "full on" in the BIOS.

mattyc
Posts: 113
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 4:39 am
Location: Hull UK

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by mattyc » Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:20 pm

New version of speedfan with more control and new chip support may solve your problem.

cmthomson
Posts: 1266
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:35 am
Location: Pleasanton, CA

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by cmthomson » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:18 pm

I installed the latest version of SpeedFan (4.45), and it made no difference for this board. It still does not recognize the new controller chip.

neologan
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 11:29 am

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by neologan » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:22 am

does anyone know how to get speedfan to start with windows?

I've had no luck so far, it utterly ruins it!

cmthomson
Posts: 1266
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:35 am
Location: Pleasanton, CA

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by cmthomson » Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:58 pm

It was easy with XP32, but with W7x64, not so much.

Here's what I did:

Run the task scheduler (use the help menu and search for "create task" to launch).
Select action/create task.
Select General/name speedfan, only when logged on, highest privileges.
Select Trigger/at logon/any user
Select Action/start a program C:[path to SpeedFan] (eg, programfiles86/speedfan/speedfan.exe)

The issue is that SpeedFan needs to run with administrator privilege, but is not a system component, so Windows7 won't launch it. The above hack is the way to override Win7 security protections.

neologan
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 11:29 am

Re: SpeedFan with Asrock Z68 Extreme

Post by neologan » Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:26 pm

Thank you. This worked.

I have to wonder why on earth it doesn't have a tick box in Speedfan to start up with windows like all other software of this nature does, but at least there is a workaround :)

Post Reply