Are Zalman fan's compatible with Asus's QFan control ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skybuck Flying
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Skybuck Flying

Hello,

I would like to know some things:

1. What is the noise/decibel level of the standard/default CPU cooler/fan
for the AMD X2 3800+ dual core processor.

I have seen this fan run at:

1500 rpm, still hearable, (what is the decibel level ?)
3000 rpm, noisy, (what is the decibel level ?)
4000 rpm, very noisy, (what is the decibel level ?)

When Q-Fan control is disabled the fan runs at 3000 rpm. Q-Fan control can
be enabled via the bios or via asus's PC Probe II software. When it's
enabled Q-Fan will reduce the fan's speed to 1500 rpm. The CPU temperature
rises a bit and the motherboard temperature also resises a bit. So Q-Fan
enabled could reduce the lifespan of the components. So the CPU fan also
helps to cool the motherboard, therefore it would be unwise to use a
heatsink only solution.
(Asus a8n32-sli motherboard)

When playing Company of Hero's or other CPU intensive games the CPU Fan will
spindle up to 4000 rpm which is quite noisy. The rest of the system is
amazingly quiet. Even both gtx 7900 cards are very quiet so I believe at
this point in time. So reducing the noise of the CPU fan will greatly reduce
the overall noise of the system.

However large heatsinks are probably not smart because they could actually
block airflow and keep the heat inside especially with a weak rare case fan
which is the case in my case... only 1500 rpm for back rare case fan.
I would also be concerned about trapped heat underneath the large heatsinks.

Zalman has some interesting product: The Zalman CNPS 9500 and GNPS 9700.

Some good points:

1. Less blockade of airflow.
2. Wind turbine will probably cool motherboard as well.

Doubtfull points:

3. Ball bearing fans not cleanable, however injecting oil might still work,
when fan dry on oil.
4. Ball bearing fan might be replaceable (?)

Biggest questions is which leads me to question two:

2. Are these Zalman fans compatible with asus Q-Fan control in case I want
to use Q-Fan to reduce system noise.

3. How does the Zalman fan noise compare to the stock/defaults/standard fan
noise of the mentioned processor ?

And finally in case the Zalman's are too noisy:

4. What other heatsinks * with fans * are people like you running on an asus
a8n32-sli motherboard ?

I did see a picture of the ninja on a a8n32-sli but I believe the fan was
left off because it didn't fit because of space conflict with memory ships
?!?

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
The amount of noise depends on the size of the fans. Your standard 8x8
cm fan will need to be around 3000 RPM to do it's job and be relatively
quiet at it, while a 12x12 cm fan will get the same airflow at 1500 RPM
or less and will sound like jet engine if wound up to 3000 RPM.

Note that QFan or voltage based fan regulators will not know the
dimensions of your fan, which is why there should be settings that
allow you to configure the temperature versus RPM chart. Basically, you
should configure it so that it keeps your chips on a constant
temperature when they are warming and quiet the fans when not needed.

Also, the task of configuring a system for optimal cooling is a tough
one. The bottom line is that your system should be kept on a sensible
temperature, all else is rather secondary. If you feel the chipset is
overheating, install a fan directly onto the chipset cooler. If you
feel the case fans aren't pulling out heat well enough, get a different
kind of PSU or install additional case fans.

Determine what temperatures we are talking about here and what you can
do about it. Also, please note that most of the things you see in
different coolers is eyecandy. Special heatsinks are fans are mainly
sold to fanatics who care more about appearance and don't do very much
research on the actual heat-dispensive abbility and airflow.

Oh and one last thing, you mentioned PC Probe II... last computer I had
with that thing installed also had a program called AINOS or something
like that, which overclocked the CPU automatically, whenever the CPU
usage reached 100%. Take that and a program which uses 100% of the CPU
regardless of actual performance and you have an introduction into an
overheating, overnoising dissaster.


Skybuck Flying je napisal:
 
Skybuck Flying said:
Hello,

I would like to know some things:

1. What is the noise/decibel level of the standard/default CPU cooler/fan
for the AMD X2 3800+ dual core processor.

I have seen this fan run at:

1500 rpm, still hearable, (what is the decibel level ?)
3000 rpm, noisy, (what is the decibel level ?)
4000 rpm, very noisy, (what is the decibel level ?)

When Q-Fan control is disabled the fan runs at 3000 rpm. Q-Fan control can
be enabled via the bios or via asus's PC Probe II software. When it's
enabled Q-Fan will reduce the fan's speed to 1500 rpm. The CPU temperature
rises a bit and the motherboard temperature also resises a bit. So Q-Fan
enabled could reduce the lifespan of the components. So the CPU fan also
helps to cool the motherboard, therefore it would be unwise to use a
heatsink only solution.
(Asus a8n32-sli motherboard)

When playing Company of Hero's or other CPU intensive games the CPU Fan
will spindle up to 4000 rpm which is quite noisy. The rest of the system
is amazingly quiet. Even both gtx 7900 cards are very quiet so I believe
at this point in time. So reducing the noise of the CPU fan will greatly
reduce the overall noise of the system.

However large heatsinks are probably not smart because they could actually
block airflow and keep the heat inside especially with a weak rare case
fan which is the case in my case... only 1500 rpm for back rare case fan.
I would also be concerned about trapped heat underneath the large
heatsinks.

Zalman has some interesting product: The Zalman CNPS 9500 and GNPS 9700.

Some good points:

1. Less blockade of airflow.
2. Wind turbine will probably cool motherboard as well.

Doubtfull points:

3. Ball bearing fans not cleanable, however injecting oil might still
work, when fan dry on oil.
4. Ball bearing fan might be replaceable (?)

Biggest questions is which leads me to question two:

2. Are these Zalman fans compatible with asus Q-Fan control in case I want
to use Q-Fan to reduce system noise.

3. How does the Zalman fan noise compare to the stock/defaults/standard
fan noise of the mentioned processor ?

And finally in case the Zalman's are too noisy:

4. What other heatsinks * with fans * are people like you running on an
asus a8n32-sli motherboard ?

I did see a picture of the ninja on a a8n32-sli but I believe the fan was
left off because it didn't fit because of space conflict with memory ships
?!?

Bye,
Skybuck.
Click to expand...
Get one of these: http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1C32242E
Its cheap, almost inaudible (in my Antec P180 at least!) and does a great
job of cooling my X2/4600

SteveH
 
SteveH said:
Get one of these: http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1C32242E
Its cheap, almost inaudible (in my Antec P180 at least!) and does a great
job of cooling my X2/4600
Click to expand...

I did read many reviews about coolers. I thought the reviews werent to good
about this one.

But maybe this is another model or maybe my memory is deceiving me.

Whatever the case may be... I did recently see this model on a sort of
intermediate webstore where buyers of product can write small reviews... and
everybody was really happy with this one...

I shall have to look further into it.

I don't really like it's looks... and my mind says... it didn't have the
best review.. but maybe the reviewer was overcritical... or maybe the other
heatsinks were better because they were much larger...

I am having doubts about these larger heatsinks... especially with a
passively cooled motherboard like a8n32-sli ;)

Comparing really big heatsinks with smaller heatsinks might not be really
fair ;)

It's very though decision for me...

Airflow at least for me is invisible and therefore acra-cadabra.

Maybe it would be a nice idea if cooler makers would include some kind of
smoke to test and see the airflow ;)

Now it's just guessing mostly.

It makes deciding which one is best really hard.

Especially since all the reviews are all over the place... there is not one
single website that has reviewed all coolers...

Sigh.

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
DustWolf said:
The amount of noise depends on the size of the fans. Your standard 8x8
cm fan will need to be around 3000 RPM to do it's job and be relatively
quiet at it, while a 12x12 cm fan will get the same airflow at 1500 RPM
or less and will sound like jet engine if wound up to 3000 RPM.
Click to expand...

Good to know this.

However I shall take it with a grain of salt... since it's the first time I
have read such a thing ;)

Maybe I should take a look at some specifications of fans...

I think some parts of the specification mention how much air is
displaced/moved ;)
Note that QFan or voltage based fan regulators will not know the
dimensions of your fan, which is why there should be settings that
allow you to configure the temperature versus RPM chart. Basically, you
should configure it so that it keeps your chips on a constant
temperature when they are warming and quiet the fans when not needed.
Click to expand...

Hmm I am not sure if it's possible to set this...

Maybe Q-Fan control is a try-technology..

Maybe it simply increase the speed of the fan and tries to learn how it
works... etc..

Probably not though...

It probably has some fixed settings or so like:

5 volts, 7.5 volts, 10 volts, 12 volts ?
Also, the task of configuring a system for optimal cooling is a tough
one. The bottom line is that your system should be kept on a sensible
temperature, all else is rather secondary. If you feel the chipset is
overheating, install a fan directly onto the chipset cooler. If you
feel the case fans aren't pulling out heat well enough, get a different
kind of PSU or install additional case fans.
Click to expand...

The motherboard is 47 degree on idle and 55 degrees on full load which is
too much for my liking (?)

The rare case fan is spinning at 1500 rpm.

The power fan is spinning at only 700 rpm. (Only 50 procent).

Which is kinda weird.

The power supply probably has it's own temperature reading and probably
spins slower because the rare case fan has taken over.

Or maybe Q-Fan is controlling the power supply fan.

I don't really like how it's working at the moment.

I have almost no control over it.

It would be nice if I could control all fans and set their speed.

I did read about NVidia's Tune tool... but it seems the A8N32-SLI
motherboard is not supported yet ?

I tried the tool... but the computer instantly frooze up when I ran the tool
:(

I shall report it in a thread on the nvidia newsgroup later on...

Maybe it helps, maybe they'll support it and maybe the tool could be handy.
Determine what temperatures we are talking about here and what you can
do about it. Also, please note that most of the things you see in
different coolers is eyecandy. Special heatsinks are fans are mainly
sold to fanatics who care more about appearance and don't do very much
research on the actual heat-dispensive abbility and airflow.
Click to expand...

I don't agree that must people buy it for eye candy... that makes no
sense...

They don't look that good.. unless somebody is a christmast-tree freak and
gets all-excited over a led ;)

I'd rather have no leds at all ;)

I don't want the case to distract me when I play games for example :)
Oh and one last thing, you mentioned PC Probe II... last computer I had
with that thing installed also had a program called AINOS or something
like that, which overclocked the CPU automatically, whenever the CPU
usage reached 100%. Take that and a program which uses 100% of the CPU
regardless of actual performance and you have an introduction into an
overheating, overnoising dissaster.
Click to expand...

Yes AINOS is a feature of the motherboard etc.

I have it disabled.

Automatically overclocking sounds dangerous ;)

Thanks for the post it was kinda interesting.

I shall pay more attention to the ammount of air displaced by the fans in
the future ;)

Bye,
Skybuck.
 
Skybuck Flying je napisal:
Good to know this.

However I shall take it with a grain of salt... since it's the first time I
have read such a thing ;)
Click to expand...

Odd that you do. Tho I'm quite sure you'll be able to find a way to
support my claims.
Maybe I should take a look at some specifications of fans...

I think some parts of the specification mention how much air is
displaced/moved ;)
Click to expand...

Best of luck. ;)
Hmm I am not sure if it's possible to set this...
Maybe Q-Fan control is a try-technology..
Maybe it simply increase the speed of the fan and tries to learn how it
works... etc..
Probably not though...
It probably has some fixed settings or so like:
5 volts, 7.5 volts, 10 volts, 12 volts ?
Click to expand...

No, no... QFan and voltage regulation are two worlds. Voltage
regulation goes by lowering the voltage on the power pins, QFan works
by sending a timer signal on the fourth wire of the connector to
control the circuit that makes the brushless engine of the fan spin.

I'm guessing the magic trick of QFan is that, you don't need the
voltage regulator elements, which make a lot of heat on their own...
they're transistors really, they regulate the voltage smoothly (not in
steps), but their downside is that they change most of the excess
voltage into heat. These elements are mightily used to regulate AGP /
PCIe voltage on the motherboard and things like that and are one of the
main reasons that chipsets run so hot IMHO.

Otherwise, voltage regulated and QFan regulated fans behave exactly the
same. Personally, I dislike QFan, because it is some fancy technology
that is just as good as a more primitive one, only more elaborate and
less compatible.

I once had a motherboard with QFan tho, it does have one of those
try-auto-sets-itself thingies, where the computer tries all the timer
settings and checks how fan speed responds to that (if you have a
heatsink obstructing airflow, the fan will not be able to spin faster
despite more power)... the result is an S graph. But beside that, there
should also be some configuration in the BIOS... or some application.
It looks like 3 setting fields... no noise temperature, low noise
temperature and high noise temperature. These settings go up and down
in 5 degree steps or something. It could be you have something
simmilar... or maybe not.
The motherboard is 47 degree on idle and 55 degrees on full load which is
too much for my liking (?)
Agreed.

The rare case fan is spinning at 1500 rpm.

The power fan is spinning at only 700 rpm. (Only 50 procent).

Which is kinda weird.

The power supply probably has it's own temperature reading and probably
spins slower because the rare case fan has taken over.
Click to expand...

The last time somebody told me the PSU fan had regulation was when it
was damaged. Visually inspect the fan and try to determine if it is
spinning consistently. The fan usually has 3 coils inside, if one is
fried, the fan will spin very slowly and seem to leap a bit durring
spinning.

But even a perfectly working PSU fan is unlikely to affect chipset
temperature. It is my experience that the chipsets have too small
coolers on top of them to provide necessary cooling these days. My
solution to the problem was to buy a 4x4 cm fan and screw it directly
to the chipset cooler (usually fits great and the screws required for
this come with the fan).
Or maybe Q-Fan is controlling the power supply fan.
Click to expand...

I very much doubt it... unless you actually see 4 thin wires of the
QFan thingie (black, red, yellow, blue) connecting on the motherboard's
PWR_FAN connector. And note that I have never ever seen a PWR_FAN
connector with QFan support... even in those nifty black HP Compaq
thingies that have QFan all over them.
It would be nice if I could control all fans and set their speed.
Click to expand...

Buy a fan regulator control panel... Akasa AllInOne is up to my taste.
If you connect the fans trough that you will have a front panel, a few
knobs and buttons to regulate fan speeds, the motherboard will have
up-to-date info but will be out of the loop as far as control goes. You
will need non-QFan fans tho.
I tried the tool... but the computer instantly frooze up when I ran the tool
:(
Click to expand...

That's the general effect you get when something like that is not
supported.
I don't agree that must people buy it for eye candy... that makes no
sense...

They don't look that good.. unless somebody is a christmast-tree freak and
gets all-excited over a led ;)

I'd rather have no leds at all ;)

I don't want the case to distract me when I play games for example :)
Click to expand...

Most kids I know go nuts over leds and transparent cases. The whole
idea of a case being to HIDE what is inside, it is ugly, but it's still
a show-off thingie that kids adore.
Yes AINOS is a feature of the motherboard etc.
I have it disabled.
Automatically overclocking sounds dangerous ;)
Click to expand...

Agreed. ;)
Thanks for the post it was kinda interesting.

I shall pay more attention to the ammount of air displaced by the fans in
the future ;)
Click to expand...

Also keep in mind that the noise... erm. If the case has too few holes
or has them positioned wrong then the fan will not be able to draw
sufficient airflow... this will result in some kind of high-pitched
noise and will make the fan accumulate loads of dust on the fanblades.
It is also one of the things to be taken into account when trying to
minimize noise.
 
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