Oh, please, some of you using a Gigabyte P35 could tell which fan controlling options it has? AFAIK, the Abit ones allow the user to specify a target temperature, a % of fan speed when temperature is under that, the rythm of increasing this speed when the temperature goes above that limit (I don't know if depending on time or temperature, that would be another usefull thing to know about Abit ones)... good controlling options. It lacks a max speed though, I believe.

But by reading the Gigabyte's manual, I can't find which options they give in the bios to fan controlling, and I'm trying to decide between an Abit or a Gigabyte P35 board (other factors also considered aside fan controlling, of course). Are more or less the same? Or the board controls the fan speed without let you choose nothing?

You can only enable or disable "CPU Smart FAN Control".
As for the "CPU Smart FAN Mode" you can choose Auto, Voltage or PWM.

The fan control options are pretty scarce.

Yeah, I think you'll have to use something like speedfan to get more control of the fans

Great, lots of thanks. So I understand that while the board has the possibility to control the fans speed, there's software (like that SpeedFan) that can give you the controlling options that the bios doesn't. I've never used such a software, so sorry if I've been a little ignorant here...

And then it seems that Gigabyte can control fans both PWM and voltage ways. I don't remember Abit MBs can do this. So doesn't it make the Gigabyte better than Abit to control fans? I've been read that Abit ones were the best to fan control...

Can you use that fan controlling software to control fans through the voltage regulation method in a Gigabyte, or that software is only useful with the usual PWM system?

I’m using Speedfan to control 3 pin fans that don’t use PWM in a G33M-S2.

I've used speedfan with my 3-pin fans also, but I've only used it a little while testing my temperatures to get a consistent fan speed.

I haven't yet figured out how to use speedfan to do your more sophisticated controlling, but from the basic operations that are supported, it should be possible...

Actually, I wonder if there are public API's available for this stuff. I'd like to write a simple tool that does just that.

I can't say whether Abit supports both types of fans or not; I haven't had an Abiut motherboard in years. I did read about Abit's superior fan control in reviews also, but I think they might have been referring to the number of fans that are controllable. My GA-P35-DS3P can only control two fans.

I just built a system over the weekend for a friend with the P35-DS3R Rev. 2.1. The CPU_FAN header seems to have been gimped. It won't control 3-pin fans and 4-pin fan control is limited to ~6V. The other 4-pin header is fully controllable for both 3 and 4-pin fans though.

Well, damn, I'm starting to feel really ignorant. If only 4 pin fans can be PWM controlled, then Abit boards can use voltage regulation to control fans, since CPU fan header admits both 3 pin and 4 pin fans (you must select the correct one in the bios), and the other controlable fan, system fan, only admits 3 pin fans so in fact it must use voltage regulation to control it.

I don't know why I had the idea that 3 pin fans could be controlled by PWM perfectly, except that there would not be rpm monitoring signal or some other similar minor drawback.

Actually, it's true I'm really ignorant in fan controlling issues. Side effects of having a really crappy and old Dell mobo which is even unable to read CPU temperatures, nor a single 5.25 or 3.5 free bay to install a fan controller.

Pre-built computers: Nunca Más



WTF??? Do they use revisions to go back instead of forward, or what?

Did you plug the cpu fan in the other 4-pin header in the end? I wonder if it would boot if you put nothing in the cpu_fan header.
I've just built a new computer with a ep35-ds3r and a e8400, and the cpu fan won't go lower than 2000rpm (even if the pc is idle!) no matter what I try. Speedfan won't control it, so yes, I don't know what they changed, but they changed something

I had a 2.0 P35-DSR -- everything worked fine for me.

Replaced a dying Asus with a EP35-DSR. DES is nice, but as the poster above says I see now the fan speed control is poached!!

2.0 could control the fan on the CPU and and PWR_FAN connectors, the 2.1 is poached -- all fan's are 100% all the time. Updated to the latest bios - no help. The system is really noisy now, I hope this is not a hardware glitch.

Yup. You can disable the CPU fan speed warning in the BIOS though I don't remember having to do so.

Farinorco, According to what I've read 3-pin fans can be controlled either by varying voltage linearly OR by PWM, but only low-frequency PWM. A side effect of this sort of low frequency PWM is an audible clicking noise at very low speeds, but what you do gain is a greater control range.

High-freqency PWM requires the 4th "PWM" lead. What I'm not sure about, however, is just how 3-pin fans or 4-pin fans are controlled by either the BIOS or SpeedFan.

Does SpeedFan adjust voltage levels, or does it adjust PWM frequency? How does the BIOS alter fan speeds?

Could anyone please clarify whether or not the 4-pin case fan on these boards is BIOS-controllable now? As mentioned, the manual does not address this. Only the CPU fan is regulated (must now be a 4-pin fan?) according to the manual. Thanks...

Impossible to know because... the 4-pin SYS_FAN2 simply doesn't work.
I tried installing an Arctic Cooling 120mm PWM fan and it doesn't spin.

BTW, more people are having the same problem on Gigabyte P35 boards: http://forums.tweaktown.com/showthread.php?t=25690

Wow. I think it's safe to say that, with only one BIOS-controllable fan (CPU fan), and with a 4-pin SYS fan header inoperable, the mid-range Gigabyte motherboards should not be recommended here. Or, are there other things to consider other than fan headers?

I bought yesterday my GA-P35-DS3 rev.2.1.

I can control 3-pin fan in the Sys_fan2 connector with speedfan.

But I can't get control of another 3-pin fan in the CPU_FAN connector, neither with speedfan nor even with bios The options in the bios for fan control are very scarce, I don't find any option that may help to control the CPU_FAN.

So I'm restricted to only 1 fan connector to control things

If I find the way to control fans with the CPU_FAN I will let you know

I had the same issue on my rev2.1 GA-P35C-DS3R (F10 bios), which I RMA'd last Friday due to an unrelated problem. But before that I e-mailed Gigabyte about this. Below is my question and their response, which arrived today. I can't check the CTRL-F1 thing as I am motherboardless at the moment, but think I tried that and it didn't work. I suspect they just blew me off. Can someone please confirm?


---


MY QUESTION:

Hello,

I am trying to control CPU fan speed using standard 3-pin fan connected to the CPU fan header on my rev 2.1 motherboard. According to the manual (page 51), there is supposed to be a BIOS setting called "Smart FAN Control Mode" which can be set to Voltage for control of 3-pin fans. However, I can't find this setting in my F10 BIOS.

My CPU fan is currently running at full speed and is unbearably loud. Changing settings in Easytune has no effect on fan speed. How am I supposed to control fan speed on my motherboard?

Thank you!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model Name : GA-P35C-DS3R(rev. 2.1)
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 2.1
BIOS Ver : F10
Serial No. :
Purchase Dealer :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA Brand : Nvidia Model : 8800GT
CPU Brand : Intel Model : E8400 Speed : 3.0 GHz
Operation System : Win XP SP : 2
Memory Brand : Corsair Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 4 GB Speed :
Power Supply : 420 W




GIGABYTE'S RESPONSE:

Hi,
To see all advanced settings in the BIOS you should first press CTRL+F1 at the main BIOS menu.
Recommended BIOS settings for fan control:
4pin fan connector (on the fan): use PWM or Voltage
3pin fan connector (on the fan): use Voltage

From what I can see there have been some problems reported with speed control on 3-pin fans and some CPU models. If that is the case for you, then it it hopefully solved with the next BIOS release for this motherboard - I do not know when this will be released, so you should check the BIOS page for this motherboard for any update. You might want to try using a 4-pin fan for speed control.

Best Regards,
===========================
Technical Support Team
Gigabyte Technology
===========================

I have the EP35-DS3 board and there is NO possibility to set the fan control in the BIOS (and yes, I am in the M.I.T. menu).

On my P35-ds3p board, fan control settings are under the PC Health Status menu, NOT the M.I.T. menu.

The two options are smart fan control method and smart fan control mode

The DS3L also has 1 IDE header, like the rest of the range. An excellent budget board if you don't need RAID, Firewire, the extra LAN connector and a few other features of the more expensive boards

Fan thermal control settings in BIOS (PC Health page) are essentially enabled or disabled, then voltage control or PWM control. If you want to set operating temperatures, etc, as in Speedfan, you'll need suitable software running in your OS.

I'm running a Ninja's 3-pin fan on the 4-pin CPU fan header (DS3L board), the board's thermal control works very well. Idle speed is about 700RPM, rising to 1150RPM under stress-test. There's a second 4-pin header (and two 3-pin) but I've not tested that one. The manual is slightly vague on whether or not it has control.

I know where it is located in the bios, however I do not have the options as you can see in the picture I took of my PC Health Status menu:

Are you running with the latest (F12) BIOS? Or maybe (as this is a recent revision board) the BIOS-makers just settled for an unlisted 'Auto' which works with most fans, 3 or 4-pin. The 'Voltage' mode is only really needed for 4-pin PWM fans that don't conform to the Intel specification, to over-ride 'Auto' setting the PWM-mode. With all standard 3-pin fans 'Auto' will automatically give voltage control if Smart Fan is enabled.

I have the F2 BIOS because my board is the new EP35-DS3.
I asked the same question to gigabyte, but I haven't received an answer until now.

My P35-DS3L Rev 2 (and Conroy's DS3P) is different to what's shown in your manual. Looks like Gigabyte have found a way to save a few cents by cutting out the over-ride on the more recent boards.

F2 is your latest BIOS.

I have a P35-DS3R 2.0 and I did have to change a few settings to get Speedfan to work with the 2 out of the 4 headers that it can control; I’m using 3 pin headers with both:

I set CPU Smart Fan control to disabled in the BIOS (F11).
In Speedfan (4.34 Beta 40) I entered the Configuration page and clicked on Advanced. I then selected the IT8718F chip and I set PWM 1 - 3 mode to ‘Software controlled’ and ticked the ‘Remember it’ check box. I know have full control of both fans. I haven’t tried a 4 pin fan with this system.

Errrr, yes, I know that and that's the one I have installed (like I said in the post right above yours).
Actually, there is the F3b, but I don't like beta BIOS, so I'll wait for the full release.

Still no reply from Gigabyte in the meantime.

Just received a reply from Gigabyte tech support:




Excuse me?
Not only do they treat me like an ignorant fool, now they say there is no smart fan control mode.
And this picture of a P35-DS3 bios shows what?

I don't think they're treating you like an idiot. I believe Smart Fan control is for direct BIOS control of CPU fan speed depending on CPU temperature, and doesn't have anything to do with SYSFAN2 or enabling manual fan control in general. Smilingcrow's post seems to imply this.

Can someone else confirm smilingcrow's results that both CPU fan and SYSFAN2 are controllable on a rev 2.0 or rev 2.1 P35-DS3R? This is important to me, otherwise I'll try to exchange my DS3R for a different model as it returns from RMA.

So the smart fan control only controls the CPU_FAN?
If this is the case, what is the use of the SYS_FAN2 on the motherboard because when I connect a 4-pin fan to it nothing happens.