SPCR

I just moved from an Asus Z87 to a Z97 for true PWM on all fan headers. My last setup my CPU cooler had 3 pin phanteks that I used on the chipset fan output and my Noctua case fans I ran off the CPU fan header to get complete control. Now I only got control of a group of case fans not each fan. So with the Z97 I am able to run my CPU fans on the CPU fan header and get control even tho 3 pin. My case fans on the other hand should all be using PWM but the Asus software isn't letting me get the PWM Noctua fans below 800rpm.. WHY??? I was able to run them down to 350RPM before off the CPU Fan header. It's like it's using DC control instead of PWM control. Would be CPU fan being DC mess with how the Chassis fans are controlled? I am lost and very unhappy with my setup at the moment. This was supposed to give me more control but has only provided more noise. I tried auto tune on the fans but no luck.. 800rpm is the least.

Which model Asus Z97 board is it?

lodestar wrote:Which model Asus Z97 board is it?

Asus Z97 Deluxe.. firmware is on the latest revision. From what Asus told me ALL Z97 boards they make have full PWM control on each fan header.

Copyright wrote:My case fans on the other hand should all be using PWM but the Asus software isn't letting me get the PWM Noctua fans below 800rpm.. WHY??? I was able to run them down to 350RPM before off the CPU Fan header.

In the past, on Asus motherboards, that had the ability to use the CPU fan as PWM or 3pin Voltage controlled, was done by entering the bios and switching the Q-Fan settings from AUTO to ADVANCED, by default the CPU_FAN header always came as AUTO so it was set for PWM, but switching it to ADVANCED made it voltage controlled. So try this for your other headers, maybe they are set as voltage controlled by default.

Btw did you tested the Fractal fans? how low they reach?

You are correct, I actually figured this one out before I saw your reply. I had kinda thought in the back of my mind it would be on Auto and I have a different setting to change but it was in fact in the bios and I had to set each port to DC or PWM.. After setting to PWM I can run my fans as low as 250rpm... my PC is very quiet at idle and light use. My only complaint is my Phanteks CPU heatsink fans wont go below 600... I would have loved to get those running 400ish but as it sits right now ant farts are louder so I can't complain.

Copyright wrote:I would have loved to get those running 400ish but as it sits right now ant farts are louder so I can't complain.

You can always get some aftermarket fans, for example my NF-A14 PWM can go as low as 250rpms, if you like the REDUX colors you shoudl check the Noctua SSO Bearing Fan Retail Cooling NF-P14r redux-1500 PWM, personally i havent tested, but all noctuas i have in the past have gone sub 300rpms on Asus motherboards.

Abula wrote:personally i havent tested, but all noctuas i have in the past have gone sub 300rpms on Asus motherboards.

With the right mobo they can be dialed down to sub-200rpms (though largely unnecessary).

I recently upgraded to an ASUS Z97 Pro, and also had fan issues. Speedfan pretty much stopped working at all (the beta version mostly worked), and about the only sensor software that worked was the ASUS supplied AI Suite 3.

As the OP said, you need to manually set each fan header's configuration in the BIOS.

In the end, I gave up on Speedfan (too bad; I'd been using it for about 10 years), and went with AI Suite 3.

cmthomson wrote:As the OP said, you need to manually set each fan header's configuration in the BIOS.

Yes, because the default setting for the chassis fan headers in the BIOS is DC mode and there is no equivalent of the Auto setting on the CPU header to detect if a PWM fan is plugged in.

cmthomson wrote:Speedfan pretty much stopped working at all (the beta version mostly worked)

Which version are you referring to?

quest_for_silence wrote:

cmthomson wrote:Speedfan pretty much stopped working at all (the beta version mostly worked)

Which version are you referring to?

I started with 4.50, which did not support the board's chips, then switched to 4.51 beta, which did. But the sensing would often drop to zero, and the control was iffy at best. It seemed like the BIOS and Speedfan were both trying to run the fans.

ASUS AI Suite 3 has these issues too, but its control function is much more reliable. Seems like this board is a little *too* cutting edge.

4.51 final didn't make things better? Why not disable all bios control, remove Ai Suite 3 and use only speedfan?

Tzeb wrote:Why not disable all bios control

That didn't worked on ASRock AM3+ boards, which had similar issues at time, so the mileage may vary (broadly speaking and a bit off topic, it's maybe more interesting what SpeedFan developer said, that the 4.51 final should work now on most of the Gigabyte boards: it would be interesting whether Lawrence and Mike may check it out).

Tzeb wrote:4.51 final didn't make things better? Why not disable all bios control, remove Ai Suite 3 and use only speedfan?

Well, I just tried 4.51 final, and there are still serious issues: none of the voltages reported make any sense (eg, vcore is stuck at 0.9v), most of the temperatures are bogus (core, mb and hd1 temps are ok). I bailed before testing fan control.

This is probably specific to Z97 Pro. I like Speedfan, but not for this board.

Why bail so soon? Do some testing, provide feedback, help others.

Disable bios control and ai suite and give speedfan a chance.

Having some bogus temps and voltages is no reason to bail. You know you can configure this tool to display what you want, right?

Have a look at how it looks once you make it pretty -

Hit configure, untick bogus stuff, rename headers, fans, whatever. In configure/advanced/chip, set the headers to manual.

After you do all this, at least you can provide info about how many headers are speedfan controlable.

cmthomson wrote:Well, I just tried 4.51 final, and there are still serious issues

Please report the details to the developer.

Um, I'm not a noob.
I did all that. And I've done it for a decade.