I have a Cooler Master cm storm with 2x200m (font and top) and 1x120mm (rear). Specs are in my signature. The top fan is not connected due to a lack of motherboard fan headers. I'm currently running the i7-6700k at stock with a Noctua NH-L9i on it at the moment with a standard 25mm thick Noctua fan rather than the standard thin one. I work with my computer next to me and even with editing my thesis that fans are annoyingly loud. What are my best solutions? Connect the 2x200mm to the same header? will this cut their speed? Buy a fan controller? ASUS AI Suit? After I have the money to pick up a pair of 8tb external drives to shuck and maybe a 4bay NAS I will be moving to an mITX case so I don't want to invest in new fans unless it is necessary and an affordable option. I ran Sound Meter on my phone for 30 seconds with no other noise. The phone was placed in front of my keyboard. Average 36dB with a peak of 43dB. I know it isn't the most accurate.
IIRC, no. But even if it is on by default, there are multiple profiles and/or scope to tweak things more to your liking. Stuff like turning fans off under a certain temp [that one definitely isn't on by default].
Thanks, I will look into this more. Is it possible to adjust these setting from Windows? I was able to do this with my Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3.
I have an ASus Z170i Pro Gaming, and I found that the BIOS-based fan control was absolutely useless. I use the Windows-based utility instead (AI Suite 3) and that's a lot better - you can set four different profiles and switch between them, with each profile having its own fan curves for each header. It also supports hysteresis, whereas the BIOS-based fan control on the Z170i doesn't. FWIW, connecting two fans to the same header won't affect their speed. If you want to run them at a lower speed then you'll need a resistor cable.
That's what I'm looking for, something that doesn't require restarting into BIOS to make minor adjustments. Is it worth plugging in the second 200mm fan on the top? Can I connect 2x200mm fans to a single fan header? How will this effect fan speed?
Definitely plug in the roof fan. You can connect 2 fans to the same header using a splitter and still control their speed, but they will have to run at the same speed, so would be best to do this with the 2x200mm fans. The fan control software for Asus board (fan xpert 2) is pretty good, it can test the fans and calculate min and max speeds and set automatic fan curves for different profiles (quite, mid, max cooling) as well as letting you set your own. This is usually done off cpu temps so can be a bit jumpy, so don't set the temp reading frequency too high or the fans will spin up and down a lot.
I found the AISuite fan control to be utterly hopeless [mainly because the AISsite widgetry is so damn crash-happy]... It's worth tweaking the Bios settings as that's what it'll fall back to if the AISuite throws a hissy fit.
It would be nice if the widget wasn't needed. You would think it could automatically switch fan profiles if CPU usage >X for y duration or while gaming. I will order a 4-pin fan splitter to connect the top fan and play around with the bios settings later tonight.
Out of curiosity I tried AISuite again... and it broke windows so comprehensively I had to reinstall... ...****
It seems to work ok so far. I can't seem to adjust how quickly it ramps up (seen in the video), but I can adjust the graph.
I’m a big fan of the aquaero series from aqua computer. It’s not cheap but the level of control, temperature sensors and graphical control is awesome.
