EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM Pump & Asus Z170 Deluxe Mobo - Pump Speed Issue

[MrMan365]

Hi everyone

Each time i boot my pc, it starts with the water pump at max rpm (4800rpm). I have to then launch Asus fan xpert 3 and click on a profile, normally standard. It then drops to a silent level of 800rpm and idles there. A nice silent speed.
Before im about to launch a game, I normally select the Turbo profile and it increases to 1362rpm and idles there nicely. However, during the game, the pump seems to fluctuate up and down in speed all the time and not staying at a consistent level. This is very annoying to listen to.

So my issues are:
Can the pump not start up at the Standard profile level without me having to manually launch and select it myself each and every time I boot the PC?
Can I stop the pump fluctuating up and down as it does when under load and instead maintain a consistent speed?

I have the following specs and configuration:
Asus Z170 Deluxe Mobo
EK Water Blocks EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump)

Water pump connect to water pump header on the mobo.
Water pump is set to PWM in the Bios settings.
(I have tried setting water pump mode to DCM, but the pump just runs at full speed (4800rpm) and becomes unresponsive to any speed changes both in the bios and on any profile in the asus fan xpert 3 control. It just idles at maximum speed)

Thanks all

 

[Nebulous]

Just a guess, but have you tried connecting the pump to the CPU fan header instead, and then setting the CPU fan control in the bios?

 

[Lochekey]

I would set the fan speed to manual in the bios and then set it to run at your "turbo" setting that you mentioned above. It should then set the speed on boot and hold it there. The reason you see the fluctuation is because the system is speeding up and slowing down based on the cpu temperature. Those preconfigured profiles are actually a speed curve and not a static speed setting. To give a better example the silent profile takes the cpu temperature and multiplies by 25 and thus generates the pump speed of about 800rpm. The turbo profile instead multiplies the temp by 45 thus giving you a speed of 1360rpm (assuming an idle load of 30C). This then will cause the pump to speed up and down based on temp of the cpu because when the cpu hits lets say 50C the system is now telling the pump to run at about 2,270 rpm.

Please bare in mind this is an over-generalization of what is actually happening and I randomly picked those multiplication values as an example.

 

[trents]

I just have my Swiftech pump connected to he CPU fan header. In bios on my ASRock motherboard I have the CPU fan profile set to "Silent." The other choices are Standard and Turbo I believe. I do not use any fan control software in Windows. Under light loads the pump runs about 2250 rpm and is barely audible (to me). When the CPU gets to about 80c it revs up to 4000+ and I can hear it but it is not particularly objectionable.

I imagine you can also configure your Asus Xpert fan control software to load a certain profile at Windows startup.

 

[MrMan365]

Thanks for your replies guys. And for your explanation Lochekey. Much appreciated.

I cant see a Manual setting in the Bios for the pump.
Only disabled, DCM and PWM mode.
Both Disabling and DCM makes the pump run at full speed all the time with no response to reducing its speed in the BIOS or in Windows.

Leaving it on PWM, I do see duty cycle % and temp thresholds. Min, Middle and Max. These were set to 100 for everything. I reduced these to numbers to what I think could work, I dont know what they should be set to.. (attached)
This worked for my first issue! So im pleased about that. When PC boots, it automatically reduces to 803rpm.

But the very annoying fluctuating still occurs during gaming.

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[Nebulous]

I'm seeing upper temp =75
middle temp =60
lower temp =40

This is why you're getting fluctuations. When temps hit those set in the bios, the pump will ramp up. That's normal. You can try setting those temps to 35 and duty cycles to something like 50%. So in this state when the temps hit 35 (or higher) the pump will ramp to 50% duty cycle. It's all in the math

You can also set duty cycles to lower than 50%. Gotta play with those settings (duty cycles & temps) and see what works best for you.

 

[R_Pierce]

Thanks for your replies guys. And for your explanation Lochekey. Much appreciated.

I cant see a Manual setting in the Bios for the pump.
Only disabled, DCM and PWM mode.
Both Disabling and DCM makes the pump run at full speed all the time with no response to reducing its speed in the BIOS or in Windows.

Leaving it on PWM, I do see duty cycle % and temp thresholds. Min, Middle and Max. These were set to 100 for everything. I reduced these to numbers to what I think could work, I dont know what they should be set to.. (attached)
This worked for my first issue! So im pleased about that. When PC boots, it automatically reduces to 803rpm.

But the very annoying fluctuating still occurs during gaming.

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View attachment 190328

are you sure its the pump you are hearing and not your fans? Seems like an obvious question, but just curious. I have that exact same pump, and even at 100% cannot hear it running.

 

[R_Pierce]

Ok, just replicated this on mine this weekend. For some reason when I changed the pump curve (mine is plugged into the HAMP header so that I have PWM control) it would also ramp up one of my chassis fans. Once I figured that out and went back and reset the chassis fan to a fixed RPM again, no more ramping up during games. Worth looking at.

 

[S_I_N]

I've never understood the reasoning behind increasing the pump speed once its bled out. After mines bled I set it to 3 and forget it.

 

[R_Pierce]

what exactly is "3"?

 

[S_I_N]

It's the middle setting I think it's around 3300rpm you may see a 1-2 degree diff in speeds but as far as noise it's normally the most tolerable spot plus a set speed will keep it from spinning up and down that drives me nuts lol but you have to have the one with a speed dial on it or set bios on that header to 50% thru all temp stages

 

[MrMan365]

Yep definitely the pump I can hear whining up and down during gaming. Hate it!!
Ive tried fixing the RPM as suggested but in the BIOS, selecting DCM mode and changing the values makes no difference and the pump spins at full speed.
And once booted, in the Asus fan expert software, the option to fix the RPM is greyed out.
Ive set both the lower and middle cycles to 25% in BIOS. When PC boots and before I launch a game, I select turbo in Asus Fan expert. I can see the graph change bypassing what I set in the BIOS. So Its this that is causing the pump to go mental.
So, I adjusted the slider in Asus Fan expert and saved it under a new profile of my own.
Now when I play a game it doesn’t change the pump speed.
But the gripe now is I have to launch Asus Fan expert, click Load profile and choose the profile from the drop down list each time.
Or I could just launch a game and forget about selecting any profile at all? Not sure if that’s a good idea for temps?
I have a high end machine and I just want to boot my pc and forget about it! Sometimes I regret installing watercooling because of this. Or at least I wish I bought a pump with a manual adjuster instead of a PWM one.
Before I commit to living with it until I buy a new pump is there another software I can use?
Thanks again guys.

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[trents]

If you want to have manual control over your pump rpm then just install an analog drive bay fan speed controller. Make sure you get one that will handle the power draw of your pump which is 23 watts. There are some fan speed controllers that handle 30 watts or more.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...Black_GV-CT-10.html?tl=g34c17s817&id=ekUq37Qp

 

[R_Pierce]

Yep definitely the pump I can hear whining up and down during gaming. Hate it!!
Ive tried fixing the RPM as suggested but in the BIOS, selecting DCM mode and changing the values makes no difference and the pump spins at full speed.
And once booted, in the Asus fan expert software, the option to fix the RPM is greyed out.
Ive set both the lower and middle cycles to 25% in BIOS. When PC boots and before I launch a game, I select turbo in Asus Fan expert. I can see the graph change bypassing what I set in the BIOS. So Its this that is causing the pump to go mental.
So, I adjusted the slider in Asus Fan expert and saved it under a new profile of my own.
Now when I play a game it doesn’t change the pump speed.
But the gripe now is I have to launch Asus Fan expert, click Load profile and choose the profile from the drop down list each time.
Or I could just launch a game and forget about selecting any profile at all? Not sure if that’s a good idea for temps?
I have a high end machine and I just want to boot my pc and forget about it! Sometimes I regret installing watercooling because of this. Or at least I wish I bought a pump with a manual adjuster instead of a PWM one.
Before I commit to living with it until I buy a new pump is there another software I can use?
Thanks again guys.

Just set the AI suite to boot with windows and it will default to whatever profile you had saved/used last.

 

[MrMan365]

Just set the AI suite to boot with windows and it will default to whatever profile you had saved/used last.

Thanks but it already boots when windows starts. It minimizes to the taskbar.

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If you want to have manual control over your pump rpm then just install an analog drive bay fan speed controller. Make sure you get one that will handle the power draw of your pump which is 23 watts. There are some fan speed controllers that handle 30 watts or more.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...Black_GV-CT-10.html?tl=g34c17s817&id=ekUq37Qp

Great Idea! Thanks.
I have a NXZT Sentry 3 in my cupboard i used to have installed. But its a 15w.
Will order one like you suggested.

Will this be ok?
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-sentry-mesh-5-channel-30w-fan-controller-525-black

 

[trents]

Thanks but it already boots when windows starts. It minimizes to the taskbar.

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Great Idea! Thanks.
I have a NXZT Sentry 3 in my cupboard i used to have installed. But its a 15w.
Will order one like you suggested.

Will this be ok?
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-sentry-mesh-5-channel-30w-fan-controller-525-black

Just remember this very important precaution. If you put it on a fan controller like I linked, you don't want to ever, ever turn the speed control knob all the way off. If you do, you risk killing your CPU because the pump would not be pumping. Also realize that the pump may stall (because of impedence) even when the speed control knob is not turned way down. With analog control you are controlling the voltage to the device. 12 volts would be full speed. But 6 volts would not necessarily give you half the rpm of full speed and the pump may stall out at 6 volts or a little less.

So, I would strongly suggest that to start with you have the speed control knob turned all the way up. Then use HWMonitor or some fan/pump rpm monitoring software and play with the speed control knob to see where the right position of the knob would be. On my Sunbeam fan controller there is a little black dot on each knob so I can reference that to set the knob position at say 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock.