Controlling the CPU fan speed without AI Suite on Maximus VI Hero

I had been using the Asus AI Suite from the very first day I bought the Maximus VI Hero motherboard. I used the fan controlling feature of it but wasn’t really happy that I couldn’t limit the maximum fan speed to a value that I liked.

Two things happened recently.

1. I sold the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler and went back to the old Antec Kuhler 620 with a Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-29 fan cooling the radiator
2. I decided to shred the bloat-ware off the PC to maintain the system responsiveness

The Gentle Typhoon fan came with a molex cable for powering itself up. I cut the cable and attached a 3-pin header to control the fan speed using the fan controller. Back then I had a hardware fan controller also made by Scythe. After I installed the cooler recently, I used AI Suite to control the fan speed. AI Suite was too aggressive with it’s sensitivity which made the noise vary rapidly depending on the CPU load. That was really irritating.

[Rant] Asus Fan Xpert 2 vs. the dust

When I was deciding on a motherboard for my Haswell rig, one of the things that I looked at was automatic fan controlling capabilities. I has a hardware fan controller bay but it was automatic. And it was a cable hell. Asus boards were on top of that chart with their "mature" Fan Xpert 2 software. So I settled for the Asus Maximus VI Hero motherboard.

Since then I had been using the Fan Xpert 2 software to control the fans of my PC. It currently controls the two CPU fans, 180mm two bottom intakes, 120mm top exhaust and 120mm back intake. (Yes, it's a weird fan setup but that's by Silverstone Raven RV03 case's design).

Anyways, one of the cool feature of this software is that it can completely turn off the case fans when the CPU temps are low enough. (Basically when the CPU is idling.) But it doesn't turn off the CPU fans completely. Must be a safely feature.

I think this feature is causing the dust to pile up inside the case. Basically, when the case fans are not running, the airflow inside the case is governed by the CPU fans and the GPU fans. Since the positive air pressure is not maintained (by making intake fans' CFM > exhaust fans' CFM) this causes air to sneak in from places that you don't want them to sneak in from. Air doesn't just come in alone - it comes with dust. Dust doesn't come in from the holes where intake fans are installed because they are properly filtered. It's the other gaps in the chassis that let the dust in. There is no way to prevent dust from sneaking in through those gaps except for creating a positive air pressure.

So I've changed how the Fan Xpert 2 controls the fan speeds. I don't let the intakes completely come to a halt anymore. I can stop the top exhaust fan completely because it is an exhaust fan.

You can see the fan speed graphs in the following two screenshots. (click on the images for a clearer, larger image)

 

I should have cleaned the case internals but it is a tedious thing to do. I don't have time nor the motivation. Plus, I don't want to arouse the dust inside the apartment because of the baby. At least now the dust problem will be controlled. I will probably clean up the internals next time I upgrade some component inside the case. But it isn't happening in the foreseeable future.

[Article] From a dedicated fan controller to Asus Fan Xpert 2

One of the reasons why I chose an Asus motherboard was because their so called exquisite fan control software. They call it Fan Xpert 2.

I had a nice looking fan controller installed in my case. It was a Scythe Kaze Master Ace, 6-channel fan controller. It had three issues.

• No automatic fan controlling depending on the temperature. I like to run the fans at low RPM, but there have been times where the graphics card had been scorched because of this.
• The cable mess. Since it is 6-channels, there are 6 cables for temperature sensors, 6 cables for fans and 1 cable for Molex power. As I have a non-modular PSU, there is already a huge cable mess behind the motherboard. I surely didn't want more cables. And these cables are so ugly. Red and white. These issues were not new, but I had to give in because fan speed controlling on my old board was utter crap.
• The PWM fans on my Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler had a hard time starting up. Since I am sensitive to noise, I keep the fans running at 1100RPM. Since the fan controller only supports voltage based controlling, that voltage is not enough to start them. Once started, they can work without issues. So when the fans don't spin up, an alarm goes off and it is really irritating. I can disable it, but then I don't know if something happened.

I could buy a new fan controller, or I could buy a motherboard that came with one. Fan Xpert 2 seemed to do just that. All Asus Z87 boards support it actually. The only difference is the number of headers each board have onboard. My Maximus VI Hero board comes with 5. Sadly, the Z87 Pro comes with 6. But I had to get the Hero because of its audio.

[Article] Upgraded the rig. Haswell it is.

So, I moved to Haswell after all the bad things I said about it. This was the primary reason, but I wanted to try out something new as well. Right now I'm trying to find the best overclocked settings for the CPU and it is hard work.

I only bought the CPU and the motherboard, but I made some other changes as well. Replacing the X-Fi Titanium with onboard SupremeFX audio and removing the fan controller are the two main things.

To the newest specs then.

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K @4.4GHz / 1.280V in BIOS (still testing)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SilverArrow SB-E Extreme
Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus VI Hero
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 9/9/9/24/1T/1.35V
Video Card: Palit GTX670 JetStream @1056MHz (base clock)/6800MHz RAM
SSD: Samsung 840 series 250GB
HDDs: Toshiba DT01ACA300 3TB, Western Digital Caviar Green WD30EZRX-00DC0B0 3TB
Display: Iiyama Prolite E2773HDS
Case:  Silverstone Raven RV-03
PSU: Corsair TX850
Mouse: Logicool G500
Mouse Pad: Steelseries QCK / Razer Sphex
Keyboard: Logitech G15 V2
Headset: Roccat Kave 5.1
Speakers: Logicool Z623
Webcam: Logicool C910

Still there is a lot of things to check with the new setup. I've been trying to get my overclock stable. Currently trying 4.4GHz. The temps go up ridiculously when you stress test with Haswell CPUs, and I have to use a different method to stress test. So it is taking a bit longer.

Cheers.