a question about undervolting fans

JohnFL · Post by **JohnFL** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:45 am

Being fairly new into the quiet pc field, i am wondering how fan speed can be controlled.

On my Asus P4P800 SE , there are 3 pin connections for a CPU_fan1, a CHA_fan1, and a PWR_fan1. I am looking at getting the Nexus 120 mm real silent case fan black / white sleeved. These fans have connectors for 3 pin ( mother board connection ), and also 4 pin power connectors.

I take it that i would not use the 4 pin power connectors, but use the 3 pin mother board connectors, so that i could then use SpeedFan to slow the fans down?

Getting a fan controller is not an option, as all my bays are filled up.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:05 am

You have to connect to the motherboard to control fan speeds.

Many ASUS motherboards come with a fan control mechanism in the BIOS. Look in there for some fan control mechanism (usually under hardware/health information). If it's not there and you have an up-to-date BIOS (if you don't know how to flash your BIOS then its probably not a good idea to update it), then get speedfan.

You should also consider Speedfan if you find the fans noisy even after the ~35% slowdown that ASUS provides. If you want more control over your fans install speedfan and read the FAQ on how to link your fan speeds to CPU and chipset temperatures.

acyf · Post by **acyf** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:24 pm

speedfan will do the job, but the annoying thing, at least to me, is that the program needs to be initiated (manually or automatically) every time the computer boots up...takes a couple of seconds to load...not too long but i hate that...just me...

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:10 pm

acyf you can solve that by creating a shortcut on the desktop. Drag the shortcut to Start - Programs - Startup and drop it there. Next boot, speedfan should be started as well.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:16 am

spookmineer wrote:acyf you can solve that by creating a shortcut on the desktop. Drag the shortcut to Start - Programs - Startup and drop it there. Next boot, speedfan should be started as well.

That's what I think he meant about 'automatically'. The problem with that is the computer will be howling before the program is initiated by Windows or whatever OS you're using. With BIOS control the fans usually ramp down right after POST, with Speedfan, you'll have to wait 2-4 minutes for Windows to start and initiate the program.

I solve the problem by rebooting my computer only about once a week

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:11 pm

Whoops sorry, I read right over the "automated" part