Controlling a Swiftech MCP-35X with Speedfan

[Martinm210]

FYI,
So I'm generally pretty happy with my new P67 MSI board "EXCEPT" the CPU fan PWM control is extremely lacking. The MSI "Control" center allows you three options, 100%, 75%, and 50%. Considering the majority of the PWM control on the 35X is in the 30-70% range, switching to 50% only reduces RPM from 4600 to 4200...which is not much..:(

I don't have much experience with Speedfan, but it works fine for pump control. You can either pick the PWM% via the buttons at 5% increments, OR you can type in to 1% resolution. There are programming options too I'll have to tinker with.

Anyhow, Speedfan will fill the gap if your motherboard left you without much for control..:up:

I also wanted to play around with using the PWM to control my sunbeam rheosmart, so this might be a good tool for that as well. Here is my quick but functional CPU loop, air cooling wasn't cutting it with the 2600K, so I couldn't help putting something together quickly. This leaves the 35X suspended via tubing, so it operates very silently being decoupled like this.:up:

Anyhow, just wanted to share that Speedfan works fine to control a 35X..:up:

[Martinm210]

FYI, got it running, here are some steps helps:

The second post here walked me through it:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1285260


Before starting, if you are using speedfan to control an important temp, make sure that it loads with windows. The way you configure fan speeds in speed fan, assuming your mobo supports it, is as follows:

1. Disable any on-board fan control (Asus Q-Fan) in bios. Note: This will cause your fan to spin at 100% until the system boots and speedfan loads, which can be really annoying is you have a really powerful fan like I do.

2. In speedfan, under the button marked "Configure", check the box for "Automatically control fan speeds"

3. Click the "Configure" button. This will bring up the temperature tab. For each temperature, you can click the + sign and show a list of fans. Clear all of the checks next to each fan for each temperature. This step is probably the most tedious part if you have alot of temps.

4. Choose the temp you want speedfan to maintain, and select the fan you want it to control by checking the box next to the fan under that temp's pull down menu.

5. Now click on the temperature itself, and on the bottom of the screen you can select the desired temp and the warning temp. The desired temp is the temp at which speedfan will increase the fan speed if the temp goes above it. The warning temp is the temp at which speedfan will adjust the fan to 100%.

6. Click the "Speeds" tab up on top. Now select the fan you chose before. Set the minimum and maximum speeds. The minimum speed is the speed it will run whenever your temp is below the desired temp, and the maximum speed is the speed that the fan will run when your temp is between "desired" and "warning". Your fan will run at 100% when its over "warning".

7 Close the configure window and wait. It takes like 5 seconds for speedfan to apply those settings. You fan should slow down to its minimum speed now (or faster depending on your temp).

For example, I have a quad core, and I set my desired temp at 40c and my warning at 50c. My fan runs at 5% most of the time, 50% when above 40c (usually during heavy encoding), and it hasn't ever hit 100% yet. I'm on water though, and I use speedfan to control my rad fan.

Important note: Even though the OP doesn't have a quad core, it's important that if anybody who is reading this has a quad core, they adjust the temperature offset in the configuration. Speedfan cannot properly read quad temps, and is off by a set # of degrees. For me, it was 15 degrees. But you just need to set the offset and you're good.

The trick is you need to set up the "Temperatures" tab as well as the "Speeds" tab.

[mlee49]

Nice, someone was just asking me about this. I'll send them here.

[MagisD]

Sweet solution to a problem i was having. Now i just need speedfan to read my i970 at its real temps instead of 15 degrees lower.

Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk

[Martinm210]

Sweet solution to a problem i was having. Now i just need speedfan to read my i970 at its real temps instead of 15 degrees lower.

Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk

You can do that, it's under Configure>Advanced>
Select the Intel Core Chip:

And you can adjust the temperature offsets there. 12 or 13 is pretty close on the 2600K.


I'm really enjoying this dynamic pump silence... at 30% is completely silent when I'm just doing web/office type stuff and it only winds up when rendering a video or gaming. It works good and makes a bigger dent in noise than I expected.

[SpuTnicK]

Hey Martin, how to set the pump to manual PWM control via Speed fan? do you need something esle *cough*rheosmart *cough* besides pump?

[SpuTnicK]

Hey Martin, how to set the pump to manual PWM control via Speed fan? do you need something esle *cough*rheosmart *cough* besides pump?

Nevermind that, already findout myself

[86 5.0L]

yeah under 30% it gets nearly silent without a hit in my temps. amazing little pump