Maximus V Extreme & PWM
When building my latest, like most people, I tired to plan the best cooling solution, and it was during this planning stage that I came across this thread. It took me a week to read the entire thread as it existed at that point in time.
In a summary, it was clearly started by people who's main interest was in air cooled overclocking, and the need to tightly control great server type PWM fans in their systems. The first areas that seemed to be covered were in discovering and building simple electronic circuits with manual control. Of later times there has been a divergence into using other sources of control, such as Arduino style items, and then even marrying this type with a micro-controller.
I started with a belief, shared consistantly through this thread, that PWM was the way to go for all the reasons that we are all aware. To that end, I bought a Maximus V Extreme MB, as it clearly showed 8 fan pinouts, all 4 pin PWM type. I built a watercooled system in a Silverstone TJ 11, and later discovered that the pinouts were not as PWM friendly as I had origonally wished. The amount of Duty % control is minimal in the BIOS for 5 of the 8 pin outlets, and for 3 can only be set at one % duty cycle.
Much hype surrounded the latest Fan Xpert 2 from Asus, including TJ making vids with people such as Newegg and Anandtech. However, I discovered that although this software is absolutely great to use.......has excellent visuals and settings, it controls the CPU_FAN outlets (CPU_OPT) via PWM, and converts all other pinouts to 12v DC variable. Further, I have yet to discover what temp source is being used to vary the outlets. I tried to gain some assistance to various question from Asus tech, and the best answer of three I received was to RMA the MB......
I had a chat with a friend of mine, and we discussed what would be the most suitable temp control for modern PWM water-cooled systems. We concluded that three independent cooling controls are needed. One of the pump, one for the fans, and the third for the remaining case fans. Further, the pump speed should be minimally changed according to CPU temp........the Rad fans should be changed according to water temp variation, and the case fans to motherboard temp changes. ..........and for lazy people like me, an automatic speed change to each area, as temps rose or fell.
Although Asus has and is selling motherboards that clearly are made with watercoolers in mind (Maximus V Formula), there is nothing offered either via their BIOS or software to assist the watercooling crowd. Even after market software controls such as Speed Fan, do not suit the MVE as Speed Fan it does not see OP_TEMP 1, 2 or 3. (http://www.bugtrack.almico.com/view.php?id=2050)
So this thread has been the best source of encouragement that I will finally be able to complete a goal commenced months ago. I have the small controller built, that I will use for the PWM pumps, I will control the rad fans via the CPU_FAN PWM outlet, and the remaining case fans via the BIOS.
Meanwhile, I am watching this thread as it advances, and hopeful that those more clued in the electronics and software field will connect a PWM controller with the PC itself. I enclose a couple of photos... one of the rads being used, and another after first firing up the PC.
When building my latest, like most people, I tired to plan the best cooling solution, and it was during this planning stage that I came across this thread. It took me a week to read the entire thread as it existed at that point in time.
In a summary, it was clearly started by people who's main interest was in air cooled overclocking, and the need to tightly control great server type PWM fans in their systems. The first areas that seemed to be covered were in discovering and building simple electronic circuits with manual control. Of later times there has been a divergence into using other sources of control, such as Arduino style items, and then even marrying this type with a micro-controller.
I started with a belief, shared consistantly through this thread, that PWM was the way to go for all the reasons that we are all aware. To that end, I bought a Maximus V Extreme MB, as it clearly showed 8 fan pinouts, all 4 pin PWM type. I built a watercooled system in a Silverstone TJ 11, and later discovered that the pinouts were not as PWM friendly as I had origonally wished. The amount of Duty % control is minimal in the BIOS for 5 of the 8 pin outlets, and for 3 can only be set at one % duty cycle.
Much hype surrounded the latest Fan Xpert 2 from Asus, including TJ making vids with people such as Newegg and Anandtech. However, I discovered that although this software is absolutely great to use.......has excellent visuals and settings, it controls the CPU_FAN outlets (CPU_OPT) via PWM, and converts all other pinouts to 12v DC variable. Further, I have yet to discover what temp source is being used to vary the outlets. I tried to gain some assistance to various question from Asus tech, and the best answer of three I received was to RMA the MB......
I had a chat with a friend of mine, and we discussed what would be the most suitable temp control for modern PWM water-cooled systems. We concluded that three independent cooling controls are needed. One of the pump, one for the fans, and the third for the remaining case fans. Further, the pump speed should be minimally changed according to CPU temp........the Rad fans should be changed according to water temp variation, and the case fans to motherboard temp changes. ..........and for lazy people like me, an automatic speed change to each area, as temps rose or fell.
Although Asus has and is selling motherboards that clearly are made with watercoolers in mind (Maximus V Formula), there is nothing offered either via their BIOS or software to assist the watercooling crowd. Even after market software controls such as Speed Fan, do not suit the MVE as Speed Fan it does not see OP_TEMP 1, 2 or 3. (http://www.bugtrack.almico.com/view.php?id=2050)
So this thread has been the best source of encouragement that I will finally be able to complete a goal commenced months ago. I have the small controller built, that I will use for the PWM pumps, I will control the rad fans via the CPU_FAN PWM outlet, and the remaining case fans via the BIOS.
Meanwhile, I am watching this thread as it advances, and hopeful that those more clued in the electronics and software field will connect a PWM controller with the PC itself. I enclose a couple of photos... one of the rads being used, and another after first firing up the PC.
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to OCF
