Control fans with GPU temperature

[grec]

Hi, wondering what peoples recommended/personal approaches are to fan control beyond the basic CPU/"Motherboard temp", potentially using VRM and GPU temperatures if possible.

Personally I'd rather avoid hardware solutions in favour of something that read the temperatures directly from the motherboard/GPU and could control my fans using the motherboard headers, but I'm open to other solutions

My current setup is a ASRock B450M Pro4M with 4 PWM 12V Noctua case fans, unlikely to get more, and I have a spare USB2.0 header in there

 

[Dawelio]

I've also had this on my thoughts, so I'll be watching this thread

 

[grec]

I've been considering Argus Monitor, which seems to do everything I need, so I'm giving it a try for the 30 day trial period and seeing how I go

Despite the slightly archaic UI it seems to have really regular updates for new hardware and all that

https://www.argusmonitor.com/

 

[Dark NighT]

I've been considering Argus Monitor, which seems to do everything I need, so I'm giving it a try for the 30 day trial period and seeing how I go

Despite the slightly archaic UI it seems to have really regular updates for new hardware and all that

https://www.argusmonitor.com/

This looks pretty good to be honest, isnt that crazy expensive either if it really works well.

 

[Dawelio]

I've been considering Argus Monitor, which seems to do everything I need, so I'm giving it a try for the 30 day trial period and seeing how I go

Despite the slightly archaic UI it seems to have really regular updates for new hardware and all that

https://www.argusmonitor.com/

Please feel free to come back here and let us know how your experience was

 

[grec]

Will do, so far it's been great, everything works perfectly, can rename the fans and sensors and so on so been very easy to use, and some interesting additional merged options for sensors and so on. I'll give it another few days before committing so I know everything's stable, but it's looking like I'll be sticking with this unless I run into bugs

 

[Dawelio]

Sounds like a very good start and first impressions

A question though, does it recognize if you have more than 1 fan on a single header or just sees it as one? Just out of curiousity here.

 

[looz]

Sounds like a very good start and first impressions

A question though, does it recognize if you have more than 1 fan on a single header or just sees it as one? Just out of curiousity here.

I don't think that is possible, especially at OS level. Fans have wildly varying power draws, so you can't use that for that data. PWM header only gives the fans a control signal, they can't reply back. RPM/sense readout is going to be from the first fan AFAIK.

 

[grec]

Sounds like a very good start and first impressions

A question though, does it recognize if you have more than 1 fan on a single header or just sees it as one? Just out of curiousity here.

Splitters are passive so it'll just see one per header yeah, it can interact with additional controllers though.

It's a hardware issue with fan splitters as they are passive hardwired connections linking the pins for Power(5V-12V), Ground (0V), and if it's a 4-pin fan then also the PWM line (The speed output), so that they all operate as one (Usually/Sort of), then they will usually wire up the tachometer line (The signal the fan sends back to the PC so the PC can work out what RPM the fan is going at) of one of the fans and leave the rest disconnected, without any kind of active signalling or processing or merging of the lines.

 

[Dawelio]

I don't think that is possible, especially at OS level. Fans have wildly varying power draws, so you can't use that for that data. PWM header only gives the fans a control signal, they can't reply back. RPM/sense readout is going to be from the first fan AFAIK.

Splitters are passive so it'll just see one per header yeah, it can interact with additional controllers though.

It's a hardware issue with fan splitters as they are passive hardwired connections linking the pins for Power(5V-12V), Ground (0V), and if it's a 4-pin fan then also the PWM line (The speed output), so that they all operate as one (Usually/Sort of), then they will usually wire up the tachometer line (The signal the fan sends back to the PC so the PC can work out what RPM the fan is going at) of one of the fans and leave the rest disconnected, without any kind of active signalling or processing or merging of the lines.

Ah I see, I was thinking more of like Lian Li's UniFans for example. They are daisy chained togheter and only uses 1 PWM cable for up to like what, 5 fans at max?

 

[Dark NighT]

4 fans max for those Unifans

 

[Dawelio]

4 fans max for those Unifans

You can do 5 with those in a single row, although no case can technically support more than 4 so, not sure how much usage you'd get from 5

 

[FTLN]

Using Argus monitor here.

At first the software didn't support the fan controllers on my motherboard (Nuvoton NCT6683D chip), after a couple of emails with their support they advised that they will buy add support for this chip.

A couple of weeks later got a mail asking if I'd like to test a beta version, it worked perfectly.

Obviously after this type of support I bought a lifetime license

The software is currently controlling my Case and X570 chipset fans via Nuvoton chip, NZXT Kraken X53 Pump and Radiator fans, GPU fans and X570 chipset fan & RTX 3070 FE Fans.

Customising fan profiles based on a variety of temperature sources is really great, blows Corsair iCue software out of the water completely.