Suggestion for Corsair Link Fan Speed Control

Maybe add a possible grace period before switching speeds past certain thresholds?

Sometimes the CPU will report a jump in temperature of about 20 degrees for a second and go back to the former temperatures but the fans will rev up for that half second and go down, which is loud for no reason and can get annoying. Using the temperature sensor of the AIO cooler is not a good alternative as the temperature exchange between the CPU and the TIM is not fast enough when the CPU legitimately spikes to 80+, for example.

So the current behavior at the moment is something along the lines of

currentSpeed = Current Fan Speed (%)

currentTemp = Package Temperature ©

newSpeed = Fan Speed condition (%)

tempThreshold = Packate Temperature condition ©

if ( currentTemp > tempThreshold ) {

currentSpeed = newSpeed }

What I am suggesting is add an extra timer variable timer(s) and timer condition timerCond to get something along the lines of

if ( currentTemp > tempThreshold && timer > timerCond ) {

currentSpeed = newSpeed }

Where the timer resets if the temperature jumps between temperature step thresholds, so say I set this new threshold to 15C, my CPU jumps for a second from 40C to 65C, then back down to 40C, the fan speed would not change. However if the temp changes from 40C to 65C for 3 seconds, the fan speed would adjust as it would in the original behavior.

I am honestly just tired of hearing my fan revving up while browsing the web for half a second but don't want to set the temperature conditions to the AIO sensors, set some random thing to encode and accidentally BSOD because I hit 100C and the sensor didn't pick up the temperature difference quick enough.

TY!

Hey Shoes51 ...

yeah, you're asking for hysteresis. Often requested and we've been told that they (Corsair) are looking at it.

As for basing your radiator fans on CPU temp vs. radiator temperature ... radiator temperature is really the appropriate temperature, not CPU. When I first got into liquid cooling that seemed wrong to me too but think about it for a second ...

What do the fans on the radiator actually cool?

Well, they blow air through the radiator fins to cool the liquid coolant.

And what actually cools the CPU?

The heat from the CPU is transferred through the cold plate to the liquid. Now, water has a much higher specific heat than air does so it "holds" more heat and heats up (and cools down) slower.

C-attack details this in several posts far better than I can. But suffice to say that setting your radiator fan speed ... or in fact, any fan speed in a liquid cooled system ... to your CPU temperature isn't going to prevent you from overheating. What will prevent you from overheating is cool liquid and a functional pump.

I do a lot of encoding as well. I also test my system with ROG Real Bench. I've done marathon encoding sessions for 5-6 hours. I've run Real Bench for a good solid 2 hours non stop. My max temp ... at 5.1 Ghz ... is 84C. My average under load is in the 70's. At stock speeds, it's about 10-15C lower. And I don't have a single fan in my system tied to CPU temperature.

Hey DevBiker,

Those are some nice temps you got at 5.1Ghz! Is your chip delidded? I still haven't delided mine which I've heard is pretty bad for the Coffee Lake series and could be why I occasionally do hit 95+ temps. If I leave the fans at 100% It'll top at 85C no matter what I throw at it but it'll reach those temps FAST, which is why leaving the settings based on the AIO sensors doesn't work for me at the moment, the heat isn't transferred quick enough and I'll get a crash from it.

Thanks for teaching me about hysteresis, it's a very convenient concept to know about instead of typing up something like this next time haha. Glad to know the dev team is also looking into it, hopefully we get a release version soon!

Yeah it seems you almost HAVE to delid Coffee Lake (and Skylake X) CPUs because of the cheap TIM Intel uses under the IHS. Also, I have been reading that many ASUS Z370 BIOS versions apply stupid high VCore levels at default settings, adding unnecessary heat with no performance gain. You really need to tame the default BIOS settings. Not sure about other brands.

That said, there still is no advantage in increasing fan speeds in response to CPU temp increases. Fans do not remove heat from the CPU. Fans remove heat ftom the coolant. The problem is the factory TIM does not do a good job transferring the heat from the CPU die to the cooler cold plate (and to the coolant). You can spin your fans at 10,000 RPM and it won't make any difference because the CPU die heat is not getting to the coolant in the first place. The fans can't dissipate heat that's not there!

Yes coolant temperature changes are much slower than CPU temperature changes so the CPU temp can (and will) rise much faster than the coolant. There still is no advantage to increasing fan speed when this occurs. All the fans do is blow (and/or suck) air through the radiator. If the coolant is cool, not much heat will be dissipated. The coolant temp can never go below ambient. Running the fans faster will not remove more heat unless there is more heat to remove. If the heat is still on the CPU side of the cold plate, increasing fan speed will just make more noise.

Hey DevBiker,

 

Those are some nice temps you got at 5.1Ghz! Is your chip delidded?

Yup ... look in my system specs.

I used the RockIt Cool and CoolLaboratories Liquid Ultra. Dropped stock temps by a good 20C at load.

And take a note at what SpeedyV said about your voltages. I think we saw another Asus Z370 with stupid high temps due to this ... what are your CPU voltage readings at load? And keep in mind that, by default, Asus technically overclocks your processor for you by sync'ing all cores at Turbo.

And make sure that you are on the latest BIOS rev. Kaby Lake had similar issues at launch and follow up BIOS revs adjusted the voltages applied by default.

Hey Shoes51 ...

What do the fans on the radiator actually cool?

Well, they blow air through the radiator fins to cool the liquid coolant.

That said, there still is no advantage in increasing fan speeds in response to CPU temp increases. Fans do not remove heat from the CPU. Fans remove heat ftom the coolant.

I must have been extra sleepy, I just got this now lol, yes you are both completely correct, it makes no sense controlling temps based on CPU temps directly.

And take a note at what SpeedyV said about your voltages. I think we saw another Asus Z370 with stupid high temps due to this ... what are your CPU voltage readings at load?

Currently topped at 4.8ghz and 3.00 volts, definitely need to delid!

Ryzen had a firmware bug that reported 3 volts when really its 1.35. but intel? pfft i avoid em like the plague.

Most motherboards now have VERY good fan controllers, i know my gigabyte ax370 gaming 5 does, its awsome!