H100i Platinum fans speed

[jilgri]

I received a Corsair H100i Platinum cooler. It has attached two Lenovo Legion fans connected directly to the H100i Platinum unit.

 

About 30 seconds after the computer is powered on, the fans start spinning faster and faster and soon they make huge noise. This happens always, for example:

- when the computer fails to boot due to a boot POST error

- when entering the BIOS

- when the system booted even though the CPU cores temperature average 35 degrees Celsius.

 

The cooler is connected to a SATA cable for power and to the CPU_FAN connector on the motherboard with a single pin/wire for reporting the "speed". This means the H100i Platinum unit is the one controlling the speed of the fans. Is it normal for the fans to spin like this? How can I prevent them from spinning so fast and making a huge noise?

[c-attack]

Fan control for the H100i Platinum is through the CUE software.  Are there really two Lenovo fans instead the of the ML-RGB that normally come with a Platinum cooler?  

 

The fans are intended to be connected to a 2 fan splitter coming off the Platinum pump.  Builders and other manufacturers have a habit of connecting these to the MB fan headers instead.  The pump power comes from the SATA and the dummy 1 wire connector is there to satisfy the MB CPU Fan safety feature.  The fans can be moved either way, but unless there is a reason not to run CUE on the pump splitter cable and through CUE is the best way.  

 

I suspect there is a strange fan curve written the Platinum's memory.  Once you get CUE installed, it will automatically write over the prior with something more appropriate.  You also can edit it by creating a custom curve (Cooling and yellow +).  

[jilgri]

12 hours ago, c-attack said:

Are there really two Lenovo fans instead the of the ML-RGB that normally come with a Platinum cooler?  

The only reason I can think of is they wanted to keep using the fans from the previous Lenovo water cooler in the Lenovo PC. Not important.

 

12 hours ago, c-attack said:

The fans are intended to be connected to a 2 fan splitter coming off the Platinum pump.  Builders and other manufacturers have a habit of connecting these to the MB fan headers instead.  The pump power comes from the SATA and the dummy 1 wire connector is there to satisfy the MB CPU Fan safety feature.  The fans can be moved either way, but unless there is a reason not to run CUE on the pump splitter cable and through CUE is the best way.  

Does the cooler's 1-wire cable connected to CPU_FAN on the motherboard report spinning data even when the two fans are connected directly to the MB?

12 hours ago, c-attack said:

I suspect there is a strange fan curve written the Platinum's memory.  Once you get CUE installed, it will automatically write over the prior with something more appropriate.  You also can edit it by creating a custom curve (Cooling and yellow +).  

I installed iCUE and the fans reduced speed as soon as it started. Too bad there is no Linux alternative, but at least rebooting in Linux kept the silent behavior. Amazing!

 

Thanks!

[c-attack]

9 hours ago, jilgri said:

Does the cooler's 1-wire cable connected to CPU_FAN on the motherboard report spinning data even when the two fans are connected directly to the MB?

It should report a raw pump metric, although it's usually 1/2 the actual value.  You can see the true speeds in CUE and the BIOS reported version is 0.5x on most motherboards.  The value is static and should not change (much).  

 

9 hours ago, jilgri said:

installed iCUE and the fans reduced speed as soon as it started. Too bad there is no Linux alternative, but at least rebooting in Linux kept the silent behavior.

That's OK, you won't need CUE active.  As long as you use H100i Platinum Temp as the control variable, the internal controller can access that data without CUE.  As soon as you set in CUE, it auto saves to the controller.  The only trick is baseline coolant temp will change throughout the year as room temperature changes.  You likely need a different curve for Summer vs Winter, but it only requires a periodic boot to Windows to adjust, auto-save, and back to Linux with the changes intact.  

Edited May 23, 2023 by c-attack

[jilgri]

 

On 5/23/2023 at 10:44 PM, c-attack said:

You likely need a different curve for Summer vs Winter, but it only requires a periodic boot to Windows to adjust, auto-save, and back to Linux with the changes intact.  

That sucks. 🙂

Why is the cooler connected with a single wire to the mainboard anyway―why not work like any normal cooler which allows the fan speed to be controlled through the mainboard? Linux should be able to control those just fine assuming the motherboard is supported, but at least there won't be a need for yet another device to support. 

[LeDoyen]

That one wire is here just to feed a speed signal to the mobo so it doesn't beep like crazy because no fan is connected to the CPU FAN header. It's easier to plug that than to ask potentially non-tech savvy people to go in bios to disable the CPU fan alarm.

Normal coolers can't be controlled through iCUE precisely because they are connected to the mainboard. Less control options.. and people would have to connect the pump, all the fans to other headers, the water temp probe to the motherboard IF it has one, then create a pump, and fan curve... not exactly plug & play for the average user (which is 99.99% of their market).

But they released new coolers with no embedded controller like the H100x that would work fine for people not wanting to use windows. But they lose one of the big advantages of AIOs which is a fan curve driven by water temperature. It makes the liquid cooler as noisy as air coolers, unless your mobo has some hysteresis function.

But yea.. if you need a rig for Linux, it's best not to buy hardware and peripherals that require windows 😛

[c-attack]

If you want your motherboard to control your radiator fans, move them from the Platinum controller over to the motherboard.  You'll need to use CPU temperature as a control variable and that is going to be a lot of unnecessary speed shifting, but it is an option.  

[jilgri]

Makes sense, thanks! I should have checked before buying.