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Correct fan setup for H115i Pro and case fans in Air 540


danielvh

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Hi all

 

I've got a question about setting up my H115i Pro and case fans.

 

In my Corsair Air 540 I've got 2 front 140mm fans, the H115i Pro as top exhaust and a 140mm rear exhaust. The way I think of it is that the top front intake and rear exhaust are there to assist the H115i pro in cooling the CPU plus also cooling the VRM and RAM. And the bottom intake is primarily there to cool the GPU.

 

My question is what the optimal fan setup is for powering and controlling all the fans. I was thinking:

- H115i Pro fans connected to the cooler per the instructions and controlled by coolant temp.

- Top intake and rear exhaust connected to the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT slots on my motherboard to be controlled by CPU temperature.

- Bottom intake to be connected to CHA_FAN slot on motherboard to be controlled by general system temp (or GPU temp specifically if the Asus software allows that).

 

Questions:

1) Does that make sense? Should I be setting up the fans differently?

2) If I set the fans up like that do I plug in the 3-pin cable from the H115i Pro to the AIO_PUMP slot on my motherboard? I'm guessing I just leave it unplugged based on the answer below from the FAQ.

 

A7. My pump is powered by a SATA power connection. Do you need to plug in the fan header?

If your pump is powered by a SATA power connection, the pump does not need to be plugged into a fan header for proper operation. The fan header connection on your pump is there to provide a tach signal to the CPU_FAN header so that you don't get a CPU fan warning on boot. Because of this, this should only be plugged in to the CPU_FAN header. This includes the new PRO series coolers as well as some of the previous generation coolers.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

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1) I wouldn't control your case fans based on your CPU temperature in a liquid cooled system. The CPU temperature is complete irrelevant to what the case fans need to do - which is to cool the interior of the case to ensure that your radiator and GPU get cooler air. Most motherboards do have alternate sensors for controlling fan speeds for chassis fans - the CPU_FAN is usually (though not always) locked to CPU temperature. So - I'd use a Chassis fan header for your case fans and use an alternate source. Note that the AIO_FAN headers are usually chassis fan headers with fan speed control disabled. This can usually be enabled to allow you to use it as you would any fan header.

 

2) As stated in the FAQ, that is only there to provide a tach signal to the CPU_FAN header. If you follow my suggestion above, this would be the perfect place for the fan header from the cooler. It's really pointless to put it anywhere else.

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You may not have a lot of extra headers on the Gene. There are going to be some limitations to a few of the headers. Unless Asus decided to dramatically alter course on that model, any AIO or W_Pump headers will revert to CPU Temperature control only when you take off the preset "disabled" fan control (100%). CPU/OPT are also bound to CPU temperature control only. This gives you three headers that can only do CPU temp control and CPU and OPT are inherently bound together. You have no control for OPT. It will do whatever you instruct CPU Fan to do.

 

You might have a T-Sensor input for a 10K thermistor on that board (lower right corner, 2 prong) that then becomes a fan control option. The manual would confirm this, if present. If so, running the little wire up to the top side of the radiator exhaust will mimic coolant temperature and give you some balance from the fans. You won't be able to do GPU temp unless you have an Asus GPU, so that is out for the rear fan. I liked t o used VRM temp, but that has become a casualty on non-HEDT boards as well. The Gene is a little bit of mystery to me since we did not get a US launch for it.

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You may not have a lot of extra headers on the Gene.

 

Yes, that is what led me to this question. The Maximus XI Gene has the following headers:

CPU_OPT

CPU_FAN

AIO_PUMP

FS_FAN1

FS_FAN2

CHA_FAN

W_PUMP+

 

According to the motherboard manual, CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT and CHA_FAN are "Q-Fan Controlled" while FS_FAN1, FS_FAN2, AIO_PUMP and W_PUMP+ are locked at full speed. My understanding is that the full speed headers are there to support extreme overclockers who just want their fans to run at full speed.

 

Seems to me that if I want to have my case fans speed controlled my only options are to either plug one into CHA_FAN and a couple of them into CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT or get some sort of extra fan controller.

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The “FS” designation is a new one for me. I’ll need to look into it. The others AIO/W-pump etc were designed for just that - a pump that needs a constant 12v. Well, work with what you have first. I would take the “disabled” function off AIO/W-pump and then set the internal fan delay at 8 or 12 seconds (up and down). That may be enough to keep things reasonable. The non-cpu fan headers will allow for longer delays. Try looking in the Advanced BIOS -> Monitoring tab, way at the bottom, Q-Fan control. Cpu fan has hidden parameters that will cause a reaction in certain conditions so that one is still better served by hosting the cooler lead. There is no advantage to placing the cooler connector on AIO or W-pump. I am saying this for about the 29th time, I really wish Asus would knock off this “specialized header” nonsense. These used to all be CHAssis fan headers with full control options. We actually have less control and flexibility with the current scheme. Edited by c-attack
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Hi all

 

In my Corsair Air 540 I've got 2 front 140mm fans, the H115i Pro as top exhaust and a 140mm rear exhaust. The way I think of it is that the top front intake and rear exhaust are there to assist the H115i pro in cooling the CPU plus also cooling the VRM and RAM. And the bottom intake is primarily there to cool the GPU.

 

I don't know this case, but if it can accommodate two 140mm fans at the front, then perhaps relocating the H115i Pro to the front as a cool air intake, would deliver much better cooling to your CPU than using hot air from within the case. There are some interesting YouTube videos on this subject which provide compelling reasons to do this, if you can.

 

Ref. [ame]

[/ame] Edited by Yemble
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The “FS” designation is a new one for me. I’ll need to look into it. The others AIO/W-pump etc were designed for just that - a pump that needs a constant 12v. Well, work with what you have first. I would take the “disabled” function off AIO/W-pump and then set the internal fan delay at 8 or 12 seconds (up and down). That may be enough to keep things reasonable. The non-cpu fan headers will allow for longer delays. Try looking in the Advanced BIOS -> Monitoring tab, way at the bottom, Q-Fan control. Cpu fan has hidden parameters that will cause a reaction in certain conditions so that one is still better served by hosting the cooler lead. There is no advantage to placing the cooler connector on AIO or W-pump. I am saying this for about the 29th time, I really wish Asus would knock off this “specialized header” nonsense. These used to all be CHAssis fan headers with full control options. We actually have less control and flexibility with the current scheme.

 

OK, so I figured it out after actually putting my system together last night and delving into the BIOS.

 

In the BIOS I can change both AIO_PUMP and W_PUMP+ to operate in pump mode, DC mode or PWM mode and the PWM mode specifically says it's a PWM mode for chassis fans in the description.

 

Then it gives me the option in the BIOS to choose what temperature sensor (CPU, motherboard, PCH etc) to control that fan off of.

 

So, my problem is solved because I can plug the H115i into CPU_FAN, the two fans on the radiator directly into the H115i, rear fan to CHA_FAN and the two front fans to AIO_PUMP and W_PUMP+, each set in PWM mode.

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So you are able to choose a control variable besides CPU temp for AIO and W_Pump after turning off the full speed function? If so, that is news and about time. My $400 Z370 series X does not have the full functionality.
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So you are able to choose a control variable besides CPU temp for AIO and W_Pump after turning off the full speed function? If so, that is news and about time. My $400 Z370 series X does not have the full functionality.

 

Sure am. When you change it to PWM mode there's list of about 7-10 different options including a "multiple sources" option or an option to set it to a temperature sensor plugged into the motherboard (which comes with the motherboard and can be placed anywhere). Pretty cool actually.

 

Noting this is with the latest BIOS which was released mid-April. I have no idea how long these options have been there.

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Well, about time. I’ll need to ask a few more people to see if that was a BIOS change or there from the start. Not sure why it took 3 generations of boards to go back to what we had before, but that is good to know.
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*sigh* now everything is set up and looking nice, I'm super tempted to replace my plain jane case fans with some LL140s :p.

 

Does anyone know whether the LL140s look good through the Air 540's front bezel??

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I liked it, but I am partial to the "ring look". However, one thing to consider is the 3x120 vs 2x140 choice on the front rail. Those mounting flanges will block part of the LED ring unless you scrap the dust filter and mount them on the front side of the rail, right against the mesh front cover. On the other hand, 3x120 fits as expected and has a greater airflow potential than 2x140. I don't know if you need airflow, but when it comes to m.2 cooling and general case temps, the 3x120 (of any fan type) was always superior to the 2x140 on the 540 and 740 cases.
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I liked it, but I am partial to the "ring look". However, one thing to consider is the 3x120 vs 2x140 choice on the front rail. Those mounting flanges will block part of the LED ring unless you scrap the dust filter and mount them on the front side of the rail, right against the mesh front cover. On the other hand, 3x120 fits as expected and has a greater airflow potential than 2x140. I don't know if you need airflow, but when it comes to m.2 cooling and general case temps, the 3x120 (of any fan type) was always superior to the 2x140 on the 540 and 740 cases.

 

Do both 2*140mm and 3*120mm fit on the front side of the rail (behind the bezel but in front of where the dust filter normally goes?

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