Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

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

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mkygod
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Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by mkygod » Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:10 pm

I'm a big fan of the old abit uGuru system and any fan management system that lets you twealk fan voltage w/ the ability to auto-adjust based on temperature of each component. This allows me to set-and-forget the fans for optimal cooling sort of speak.

Are these pretty much standard features right now for most modern motherboards? What z68 motherboard should i get that would have features like this? I'm looking for a fullsize ATX board.

My current mobo is the Abit IP35-pro.

kater
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by kater » Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:35 am

Try Intel boards - judging by what Burrage (clicky) lets you do, I'd say Intel's Z68 boards will be equally good.
AFAIK GB boards only let you control 2 fan headers - CPU_fan in full range, sys_fan to a limited range. Can't guarantee that as I only connect the Ninja's fan to the 4-pin header and let the PWM do the rest. My 2 case fans are hooked up to a manual controller, and the VGA runs the fan itself (and it runs it wild!).

Pity there's no more Abit, I had IP35 and miss it dearly :(

cmthomson
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by cmthomson » Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:43 pm

Asrock Z68 Extreme boards have four controllable fan headers (3 from SpeedFan, 4 from BIOS/UEFI).

mkygod
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by mkygod » Fri Sep 09, 2011 2:02 pm

cmthomson wrote:Asrock Z68 Extreme boards have four controllable fan headers (3 from SpeedFan, 4 from BIOS/UEFI).
Thanks for the info. How you liking your Asrock z68 btw? It seems like a really good board for the money compared to GB and ASUS offerings. Does have temperature controlled fan settings? I don't have any experience w/ Asrock as a brand, so that may be the only reason im not completely sold on it.

cmthomson
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by cmthomson » Sat Sep 10, 2011 10:45 am

mkygod wrote:
cmthomson wrote:Asrock Z68 Extreme boards have four controllable fan headers (3 from SpeedFan, 4 from BIOS/UEFI).
Thanks for the info. How you liking your Asrock z68 btw? It seems like a really good board for the money compared to GB and ASUS offerings. Does have temperature controlled fan settings? I don't have any experience w/ Asrock as a brand, so that may be the only reason im not completely sold on it.
It's a solid board, easily overclocked (my previous boards were ASUS and there are a lot of similarities). There are issues with the USB3 driver (Eltron) but that's to be expected with a new standard. (I don't have any USB3 devices yet, so not a problem for me) Here's a thread full of gory detail: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... ch-issues! I did replace the SB heat sink with a copper pin-fin because the stock HS isn't very good.

Three headers can be set to Full On (allowing SpeedFan control), Automatic or Manual in the BIOS. The fourth has four manual settings (all too fast for my taste). I've never tried the BIOS automatic mode; the manual implies it's tied to the CPU temperature. Of course with SpeedFan you can tie any fan to any temperature (CPU, GPU, MB, HDD, etc).

sssttt
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by sssttt » Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:04 pm

kater wrote:Try Intel boards - judging by what Burrage (clicky) lets you do, I'd say Intel's Z68 boards will be equally good.
AFAIK GB boards only let you control 2 fan headers - CPU_fan in full range, sys_fan to a limited range. Can't guarantee that as I only connect the Ninja's fan to the 4-pin header and let the PWM do the rest. My 2 case fans are hooked up to a manual controller, and the VGA runs the fan itself (and it runs it wild!).

Pity there's no more Abit, I had IP35 and miss it dearly :(
That particular Intel board has good fan control options. But Intel's only Z68 board is from their Media series (DP67BG is part of extreme series) and would be more comparable with the DH67CL which is also reviewed on this site: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Intel_DH6 ... therboards. As you can see the options are a bit more limited.

You can also see Asus fancontrol options in that review, which I assume are representative of all their boards. Except for their ROG series boards, these have quite a few fanheaders which are all pwm controlled, as many as 8 on the Maximus. Assuming they can control 3-pin fans too (?) that board must be the answer to your question. But it's a bit overkill for normal usage and has drawbacks in other areas (price, power consumption).

Gigabyte is just very poor on fanmanagement. The only good thing is that the cpu fan header can both control 3-pin and 4-pin fans automatically (or using Speedfan). Except for their high-end boards (UD5/7), they all have just one controllable casefanheader. Don't be fooled by the fact it's a 4-pin header. It will not control pwm fans, the 4th pin is purely cosmetic. In fact it will not control any fan, it just runs at 50% all the time. But at least Speedfan gives full control over this header. All 3-pin headers run 100% all the time and cannot be controlled, not from the bios nor using Speedfan.

As stated above Asrock offers decent control (thanks for that information, maybe you could tell exactly which header cannot be controlled by Speedfan?). I think MSI is comparable, but i'd like to hear from actual owners.

Another strong contender in the fancontrol area is EVGA. All their fanheaders can be controlled independently from the bios, and I assume also by Speedfan. Their boards come with a decent amount of headers too.

Finally Biostar: not too many headers on their boards (usually 2 on the atx boards) but Speedfan can control them.

Akustyk
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by Akustyk » Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:41 pm

sssttt wrote:
Another strong contender in the fancontrol area is EVGA. All their fanheaders can be controlled independently from the bios, and I assume also by Speedfan. Their boards come with a decent amount of headers too.
Another vote for EVGA in Z68. They have PWM technology implemented well on that board. I haven't tested it personally, but it appears to be one of the best PWM motherboards for the chipset in question.

cmthomson
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by cmthomson » Sun Sep 11, 2011 4:37 pm

sssttt wrote:As stated above Asrock offers decent control (thanks for that information, maybe you could tell exactly which header cannot be controlled by Speedfan?).
The Asrock Z68 Extreme4 board has six fan headers. Here are the details:

CPU1: 4-pin, PWM fans only (3-pin 12V always), controllable from BIOS or Speedfan.
CPU2: 3-pin, 12V always, sensed by BIOS but not SpeedFan*.
CHA1: 4-pin, PWM fans only (3-pin 12V always), controllable from BIOS or Speedfan.
CHA2: 3-pin, four speeds in BIOS, sensed but not controllable from SpeedFan*.
CHA3: 3-pin, controllable from BIOS or SpeedFan.
PWR: 3-pin, 12V always, sensed from BIOS or SpeedFan.

* Currently SpeedFan does not recognize the chip used by this MB to sense CPU2 and control CHA2. There is a bug report filed, and likely some future version of SpeedFan will fix this.

sssttt
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by sssttt » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:11 am

Excellent, thanks for this information. I wish this was included in every mobo review.

Slightly disappointed though about the fact there's not too many options for 3-pin fans. It's nice to see 2 cpu headers for push/pull, but maybe let us control both too?

Also a bit weird cha3 can be controlled but cha2 cannot. Lets hope a new version of Speedfan brings support.

Akustyk
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by Akustyk » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:20 pm

sssttt wrote:Excellent, thanks for this information. I wish this was included in every mobo review.
I agree! I am continually disappointed with the fact that only a handful of motherboards support PWM, fully. Speaking of which, I just ordered the EVGA Z68 SLI for my next build. I will test it to see how it compares to the Intel DP67BG, which has, in my opinion, an excellent implementation of BIOS-level fan control. I will post my impressions here, once my test is complete.

cmthomson
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by cmthomson » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:04 pm

sssttt wrote:It's nice to see 2 cpu headers for push/pull, but maybe let us control both
You can run two CPU fans off the CPU1 header by using the daisy-chain feature of the AC12 PWM fan (use another header for the second fan sense line). But why would anyone on SPCR want to do push-pull?! A single slow fan on a Megahalems keeps my overclocked i7 well cooled...

Abula
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by Abula » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:42 pm

If you are planning on using the supplied software, i would probably go with an ASUS mobo, the Asus Suite (at least on the Maximus and Sabertooth series) can control all fans to your likings, i personally not a fan of using software, i just set them up via bios, but if you wish to see a little more on the asus and the fan management, ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard Overview (AMD Bulldozer) | JJ's Corner

sssttt
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by sssttt » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:39 am

cmthomson wrote:
sssttt wrote:It's nice to see 2 cpu headers for push/pull, but maybe let us control both
You can run two CPU fans off the CPU1 header by using the daisy-chain feature of the AC12 PWM fan (use another header for the second fan sense line). But why would anyone on SPCR want to do push-pull?! A single slow fan on a Megahalems keeps my overclocked i7 well cooled...
Sure, or an y-splitter if you have 3-pin fans. And no, you don't need push/pull.

But it was more an observation of the thoughtproces behind the feature:
Asrock guy 1: hey, many people use 2 fans on their cpu cooler nowadays.
Asrock guy 2: maybe we should put 2 cpu fan headers on our mobo's then?
Asrock guy 1: great idea, but make sure only 1 has the ability to control fanspeed.

pikox
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Re: Best z68 motherboard for fan managment?

Post by pikox » Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:15 pm

CPU1: 4-pin, PWM fans only (3-pin 12V always), controllable from BIOS or Speedfan.
CPU2: 3-pin, 12V always, sensed by BIOS but not SpeedFan*.
CHA1: 4-pin, PWM fans only (3-pin 12V always), controllable from BIOS or Speedfan.
CHA2: 3-pin, four speeds in BIOS, sensed but not controllable from SpeedFan*.
CHA3: 3-pin, controllable from BIOS or SpeedFan.
PWR: 3-pin, 12V always, sensed from BIOS or SpeedFan.
I just built a new system with asrock pro3 with z68 chipset, and CPU2 header is NOT static 12V. I cannot confirm if it's linked with CPU1's output when in automatic mode (set in BIOS) but that certainly seems to be the intent. I can confirm that it CAN be controlled in SpeedFan via same fan control that controls CPU1 fan (which is PWM or 12V on 3-pin). 3-pin fans work on this connector.

The reason CHA2 fan cannot be controlled via SpeedFan is that it seems to be hooked up to a separate chip. Nuvoton's SuperIO chip only has 3 fan output controls, 2 PWM (CPU1, CHA1) and one voltage-controlled (CHA3). Asrock added a 'duplicate' voltage controlled CPU2 so you can use either PWM or 3-pin fan on your CPU heatsink, or both, both throttled by same CPU temp sensor. You just have to pick PWM/non-PWM fans accordingly.

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