Temps and setting fan speeds?

I've never had this many fans before and I'm new to a liquid cooler and Commander Link, so I've been trying to figure on temps and fan settings.

 

I have three ML 120 RGB Pro fans set as exhaust, two more ML's on my H80i v2 as a push/pull, and another ML as an intake. So, I have 3 exhaust and 2+ intake (figuring that the push/pull combo don't count as a full 2), and that seems pretty balanced to me. Is it better to keep all the fans about the same rpm, or should exhaust or intake be greater?

 

Since the CPU is the main factor, I'm wondering what are good operating temps? I want as quiet as possible, so it's like how low can I go on the fan rpms? Right now I'm at 27C, which seems really low. Should I be willing to accept 40C as an idle temp? Or even higher?

 

According to Corsair, the tech specs on the ML 120 have a minimum of 400rpm. What does that mean, as I've been able to set them half that in Commander Link?

 

Do the motherboard temps mean much?

 

In the H80i v2 box it shows the fan at 360rpm. Is that accurate, or do the two fans on the split connecter halve it? Should the cooler fans be running faster than the case fans, since they would have the most effect on the CPU temp?

 

In the memory box under Timings, why does my DRAM Frequency show as 1069.1 MHz? My memory is 2166MHz, though I think the BIOS has them set at 2133MHz.

 

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In your current 2 in/3 out set-up, you would be biased toward exhaust. Keep in mind even with two fans on the radiator, you likely can only move half the air volume at 800 rpm that a single unrestricted fan could move. That doesn't mean you need to blast the front fans, but there also is no reason to crank up the exhaust set unless there is a need. Total air exchange (intake//exhaust) has the most direct effect on general case ambient temperature. It is mostly unimportant, right until you start to heat the case with high watt GPU for a long spell. How much speed is needed and if has a meaningful effect is something you will have to see through trial and error. My guess is you can keep all the exhaust fans under 1000 rpm and still see good load temperatures.

 

The H80i fan speed is a bit different. I would largely ignore setting its speed for intake/exhaust purposes and focus on noise vs CPU cooling efficiency. The H80i fans help remove heat from the coolant stream (H80i v2 Temp). The lowest it can be is your internal case ambient. In the screen shot above, that would be 22C. 300 rpm is pretty low for a radiator speed and the coolant delta is roughly 5C above that value. If you want to compare that to my 8700K delta over ambient, it is 1.5C on a H115i Pro with 140x2 at 600 rpm at idle. Thus, if we swap CPUs, my end CPU temps would be 3.5C lower than yours. At the desktop level, who cares. That is a meaningless difference and your room temp can swing up and down by that much. You will want more when under load. You can take stock of the fan speed's effectiveness by looking at that coolant temp to ambient case temp difference. I will have to estimate for a H80i v2, but I think most people will see normal load deltas of 6-8C with a maximum around 10C. If you are running stock clocks, this is all mostly academic and the difference is 50C vs 45C end CPU temps. Not something to be concerned about. You likely can run a bit faster with nominal increase in noise, but I am sure you can figure that out as well. There is no need to blast the fans here either. I can't see any reason why you ever need more than 1500 rpm on the stack, even for stress testing. That is enough to cool my Titan X(P) on a skinny 120mm cooler. That would be overkill for 1/3 the wattage on 8600K. Just remember that for each +1C the H80i v2 temp goes up, your baseline CPU temp also goes up +1C. In two identical systems with coolant temps of 25C and 30C, the first H80i v2 would always be -5C cooler at the CPU end temperature -- or at least the average.

 

Ignore all the motherboard temp sensor data in the first Z370 motherboard box. Most of it is gibberish. If you can confirm some of them as valid, pull them onto the case picture in the Configuration tab. You can use that as a more refined monitoring center. The temp probe you used to measure ambient temp does have value, as mentioned above. You can also compare that to the motherboard temp sensor to check if there are differences in the case.

 

A lot of fan controllers use little tricks to boost the fan at start up and then lower the minimum value. I don't like to run too close to the edge because the fan can stall. I can see all mine, but in an obstructed view case that would be irritating. Since there is no real tangible decrease in volume between 400 and 200 rpm, I would not bother setting them that low. I find 500 to be nice minimum for 120mm fans, but this is user preference.

 

DDR stands for Double Data Rate and thus your single data rate of 1069.1 becomes 2166MHz when doubled, with the usual rounding. I don't know why we still show it both ways. Presumably there is a programming reason to do so.

c-attack: Thanks for taking the time with that. It's very helpful. One thing I should clarify is that the temp sensor Ambient I have in the Link screen, is actually external of the case. I thought it would be helpful to know how room temps affect things. I should put another temp sensor somewhere in case to measure ambient air in the case.

One thing I am noticing on Commander Link is how the CPU Package temps can vary so widely. It will jump 10C in a split second, and then jump back 10C, then several seconds later do the same thing. When configuring the fans, Commander Link defaults to the CPU Package group.

 

Anyway, for configuring the fans, I think I'll just change the group to something more consistent, either Core #1 or an internal ambient temp sensor I just installed.

One thing I am noticing on Commander Link is how the CPU Package temps can vary so widely. It will jump 10C in a split second, and then jump back 10C, then several seconds later do the same thing. When configuring the fans, Commander Link defaults to the CPU Package group.

 

Anyway, for configuring the fans, I think I'll just change the group to something more consistent, either Core #1 or an internal ambient temp sensor I just installed.

 

I suggest one of the CoPro's temp sensors. The other advantage is that the fan curves will run without requiring Link.

 

Plus ... case fans are actually trying to control the internal case temp, not the CPU temp.