Z390 Aorus & H110i Help

I am in need of some clarification, or even advice.

I have a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master M/B coming in, and currently using the Corsair H110i Liquid Cooler.

Setting up it, I followed the attachment - Pump connector attached to CPU_Fan, and the Radiator Fans are attached to the 2 connectors off the Pump. The USB cable from the Pump is connected to a JUSB header on the MB.

My question: Is the above setup correct? I have a Noctis 450 case - which has a PWM FAN HUB which is to be connected to the CPU_Fan header on MB.

I have read on forums where some people are connecting the Radiator fans to the CPU_Fan and CPU_Opt, and connecting the Pump cable to the PUMP SYS_FAN_PUMP.

What is the best way to set this up for maximum control and cooling Too many items need to be connected to CPU_Fan and I'm just looking for a direct, solid answer with some clarifying details?

I currently do not know if the "speed" I see if for the pump, on how fast it's circulating liquid, or if this is the speed for the radiator fans....

Thank you in advance for these noob questions!

In the past, a lot of manufacturers would specify CPU FAN fopr their PWM hub connection because back then it might be the only PWM fan header on the motherboard. Now they are all PWM except in the very low price point market. Every header on your new board should be PWM and you can connect the hub to any other. CPU fan may not be best the one because normally it is tied directly to CPU temp with no fan hysteresis (or very short). That will make all of those fans race up and down with CPU temp.

Corsair recommend using CPU fan for a different reason, but like above it is not totally necessary. 1) You have to have something on CPU FAN to boot or the BIOS will stop you from loading into Windows. That can be deactivated, but it also serves another purpose. If the CPU pump has an electrical/mechanical fail, it is going to throw the warning up at you and you instantly will know something is wrong. Furthermore, for the H110i, the pump/fans are SATA powered and the motherboard connection reports a pump speed. It does not offer control, so the above limitation about using CPU temp and fast changes doesn't really matter. It just sits feeding a speed signal to the MB. All that said, you can move it to any header on the board and it does not need to be connected at all if you won't miss the pump speed reading. However, since CPU fan has limited other uses for non-air tower fan control, putting the control-dead cooler lead on CPU fan solves several problems.

So I got it installed - I have the Pump cable connected to the CPU_Opt, the cooler fans connected to the Y cable coming from the Pump. I have the PMW for my Noctis case plugged in to the CPU_Fan.

Is this correct? I am also noticing, even if I open up Chrome, the cooler fans rev up and get fairly loud. I haven't explored the Corsair LINK program (I did install it though). Im assuming I can tweak the fans in there?

Thanks again for all the help!

CPU_OPT should be fine for the H110i GT since it does not take a control signal from the header, only reports the pump speed.

Look in Link/iCUE at the fan curve for the cooler. If you are using any of the presets, the fans should not be reactive. It will follow the native "H110i GT Temp" (coolant temperature) as the control source. If you made a custom curve, verify you are still using that as the sensor value. Most people will coolant temp range between 25-40C with room temp and load being the heavy factors.

The other possibility is it's not the radiator fans you are hearing, but the case fans from the PWM hub. CPU fan likely can do only CPU temp as the control source. That setting and any fan delay/hysteresis options will be in the BIOS for the CPU fan header. By nature, CPU fan is often very responsive to change since it was designed for small air cooler fans.

So, very weird.

I took off front cover and used a flashlight to verify it is the radiator fans, and not the PMW fans. While in Link, the fans were acting funny until I entered the Configure tab, and then click on one of the H110 fans. Then they calmed down.

I am not seeing any fan curves that can be adjusted. I have the preset set to Balanced.

I am using LINK 4.9.7.35 and have not been able to find any fan curve to see or manipulate. Weird. So far it seems to be normal now just by opening LINK and going to Configure. I'm at a loss but THANKS!