SpeedFan (Fan Control)

Discussion in 'hardware' started by Rasheed187, Mar 11, 2015.

  1. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I don't get it, SpeedFan does not seem to work correctly on my Win 8 ACER desktop. Only if I disable "Smart Fan Control" in the BIOS, I can control the CPU fan. But if I disable this setting, my fans run at 100% on system startup. And according to the BIOS and SpeedFan, my system fan is not even running? And do I need a separate tool to control my Nvidia GPU fan?
     

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  2. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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    Did you change the setting in speed fan that dictates what the fans are controlled by? See this picture:
    http://i47.tinypic.com/8vvtyh.jpg

    As for Nvidia control, it never worked for me. I think some are compatible with it, but it seems to be hit or miss. If you do want to use a separate program, I'd recommend MSI Afterburner.
     
  3. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Why do you think you even need to control your fan speeds in the first place? The BIOS is perfectly capable of controlling the CPU fan based on the CPU's temperature. Same with the graphics fan.

    If they are running too loud, that means your components are running too warm/hot. As those 115°C temps should be telling you. And in that case, your fans need to running full speed AND you should be look at your case cooling. Remember, it is the case's responsibility to provide a sufficient supply of cool air flowing through the case. The CPU fan need only toss up the CPU's heat into that flow.

    I like Speedfan as system monitor (but prefer CoreTemp for my CPUs and url=http://www.piriform.com/speccy]Speccy[/url] for general monitoring of everything else), but I don't recommend using Speedfan to control your fan speeds (except maybe case fans). Modern hardware is fully capable of doing that itself.
     
  4. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I will check it out, I do know that on my old HP desktop, I could control just about every fan, it's a bit frustrating.
     
  5. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    To be honest, I never hear my fans go louder even if the CPU is used extensively, that's why I'm thinking something might be wrong. On my old system I always increased the RPM of CPU and GPU when playing videogames.
     
  6. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I don't believe that those 115°C readings are correct. But I do wonder why my system BIOS and SpeedFan can't read my "System Fan", I guess I will have to open up my system once again to see if all fans are running.
     
  7. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Do not assume what you had to do with old hardware or versions of Windows (in particular, XP) is right for new hardware or W7 or W8. Newer hardware typically come with larger fans, which means they move more air while spinning slower (and making less noise). Plus new hardware tends to be much more efficient - meaning they generate less heat. Plus new hardware is better at monitoring heat and controlling cooling. And newer versions of Windows are MUCH better at managing all the hardware.

    Another reason to maybe not use Speedfan.
    Not all fans can be monitored. And typically, "system fan" refers to the chipset (or northbridge) fan and because newer hardware is more efficient, many motherboards just use "passive" (heatsink only, no fan) cooling.
     
  8. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    Exactly which Acer desktop is yours? And which motherboard?

    No, but you can do it with MSI Afterburner (as mentioned above) or similar programs.
     
  9. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    I just ordered a CPU cooler/fan the other day that's better than the one I have, and much quieter. And also a regular fan that's very quiet. I figured after changing to SSD's I'd take other steps to try to make my boxes as quiet as possible.
     
  10. jpcummins

    jpcummins Registered Member

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    Bill, I am utilizing the Hard Disk Sentinal 4.40 PRO software to monitor the temperature of my computer. I also have Speccy and when I first installed it I noticed a discrepancy between HDS and Speccy by a couple of degrees. Have you any experience with the HDS program? If so, would you be willing to share it with me? I just now downloaded CoreTemp but have yet to install it as I wanted to hear from you first. Thanking you in advance

    John
     
  11. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    A couple degrees difference is no big deal - that can easily be accounted for by when the sample is taken - which can easily be a couple seconds apart, plenty of time for temps to vary considerably.

    I have never used Hard Disk Sentinel because I never saw its need, or value. And I note according their Features Page, it does not monitor CPU or system temps, only hard drive temps, as its name suggests. So again, I don't see its value.

    Maybe, if I had a VERY HEAVILY used file server that had VERY disk intensive application or access requirements creating a very heavy and sustained workload on my drives, it might be useful. Otherwise, it just seems to me to be a waste of system resources (CPU cycles, RAM and disk space).

    Core Temp monitors CPU temps in real-time in your system tray and that is about all it does so IMO, it does it very well. It also has a fast sample rate which is nice since CPU temps can vary widely very quickly. Speedfan monitors CPU temps, system temps, fan speeds and more and, but not always reliably. I note it is common for it to put the wrong label to a sensor, or as noted in this thread, give a totally unrealistic, and often confusing reading. Fortunately, Speedfan lets you edit the labels - if you can figure out which goes where.

    Speccy monitors many things and does it well. But not in your system tray in real time. Speccy is great for verifying Speedfan reading so you can then properly match label to sensor - if you can trust the reading is accurate.
     
  12. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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  13. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    The weird thing is that I could swear I was able to control the "system fan" a couple of months ago, with both the BIOS and SpeedFan. I wonder what happened.

    It always worked just fine on Win XP, but it sometimes does give incorrect readings, I don't even know what the "Aux fan" is? I mainly care about CPU, GPU and HDD temperature.
     
  14. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    OK thanks for the interesting feedback, that makes sense, and according to SpeedFan my system temperatures are all normal, so that's why the fans don't spin any faster, I assume the system decides that itself, like you said. But it is kinda weird that my fans start to spin at 100% if I disable "smart fan control" inside the BIOS. I wish all PC makers would add a standard tool that could control all of the fans in the system.
     
  15. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    It's not the OS but the hardware it must support.

    Aux (auxiliary) fan is just another fan - typically a case fan that connect to the motherboard. Not all motherboards support extra fans.
     
  16. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes correct, I meant to say that it worked fine on my older PC, you would think that SpeedFan would work even better on newer systems, it's a bit disappointing. And I'm guessing SF can't read the motherboard fan correctly.
     
  17. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    There are 1000s of motherboards out there and no industry standard for hardware monitoring. So it is a challenge.
     
  18. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I can imagine that, but at least try to support stuff that is being used by the big 5 PC manufacturers, know what I mean? And the strange thing is that SF is able to monitor temps without a problem, so you would hope it could also control the fans. But I agree, there should be some kind of industry standard, instead of installing garbage on new PC's they should at least offer some system control tools.
     
  19. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    I couldn't find out the maker of your motherboard but you can check that by opening the tower.
    The current line of mobos have good fan control software that you can download from the manufacturers site. Asus FanXpert 3 is particularly good (it comes with the AI Suite 3) but MSI, Gigabyte or Asrock also have their fan control programs.
     
  20. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Yes, but they make up many of those 1000s of different motherboards.

    NO WAY!!!! Totally different features with totally different hardware. Monitoring temps require integrated temperature sensor devices inside the CPU or socket, the GPU and motherboard chipset and then there must be software code in the chipset to interpret the reading from the sensors that Speedfan then uses to translate into Celsius or Fahrenheit temps we (humans) can understand. And none of that has anything to do with any fan.

    Controlling fans is a totally separate process that first requires that fan supports speed control. Then that fan must be connected to a motherboard fan header, and it requires that motherboard chipset supports speed control. None of that is a given, or an industry requirement.

    o_O I am afraid you don't know what you are talking about. Virtually EVERY CPU today comes with an OEM cooler assembly with a fan that is controlled via the chipset based on the CPU's temperature. Same with graphics cards and PSUs.

    If you want create a custom setup that goes against the defaults (which work perfectly fine) then it is up to you, not the PC maker, to design a system that works. It is wrong for you to criticize these makers for not including features (driving up costs and complexity) we don't need!

    So that takes me back to my first paragraph in my first post in this thread -
     
  21. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I understand what you're trying to say, but my point is that most of the time it IS possible to control the fans via the BIOS. So why not offer a separate app, I think ASUS often does this. But anyway, I'm just a bit worried that something is wrong, I saw my GPU getting quite hot (over 50 degrees according to SpeedFan), and my system fan is apparently not spinning either. So at this point I don't really trust the current software that is controlling my fans.
     
  22. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes that is a good idea, because SpeedFan isn't doing me any good, except for monitoring temps, which is also useful of course.
     
  23. Infected

    Infected Registered Member

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    Speefan 4.51 is out. FYI
     
  24. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I would say "some" not most of the time. Again, the BIOS must support that - not all do and also the fan must support that - and not all do. But more importantly, that can ONLY happen with fans that plug into the motherboard. For sure, most motherboards do NOT support case fans, and none support graphics card fans or PSU fans.

    All motherboards support the CPU fan, some also support the "system" fan which is typically for the chipset. If the chipset uses "passive" (no fan) cooling, then a case fan can be connected there. But if more than one case fan, the other fans must be power directly from the PSU and Speedfan has no way of monitoring them.

    That's barely even warm! You need to do your homework! Your lack of knowledge is leading to unnecessary paranoia and potentially dangerous actions!

    GPUs typically run MUCH hotter than CPUs. It is not uncommon for GPUs to sit above 80°C and many can easily run and be stable above 90°C or even higher!!! Note the specs for your GeForce GTX 745 (OEM) state a maximum of 95°C!!! So 50° is almost cold! :(

    Then let your hardware do it - like it was designed to do and stop trying to second "guess" the engineers who are highly educated and do know what they are doing.
     
  25. Infected

    Infected Registered Member

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    What's wrong with wanting to control the fans? I do on my GPU and CPU. It's really not that big of a deal if he wants too, it is not going to hurt anything either....
     
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