Connecting CPU fan to mobo vs commander

My motherboard fan control does not have the capability to reduce fan rpm to 0 through it's controls, if i would have my cpu fan connected to the Corsair commander pro would it be possible to have cpu fans go to 0 at low temps as my gpu fans can already do?

Yes, you would be able to do that.

Thanks for the quick response. Do the fan curves still work when ICUE is not running if they are set and the software is closed?

It depends on the control source for your curve. The only native thing to the Commander Pro are the temp sensor wires (1-4). Other sources like GPU temp or motherboard temp have to be delivered from another source and you need the software for that. If you set the fans to run from GPU temp, they will run maximum without the software to provide that data. However, it is not bad as it sounds. Those t-sensors can easily mimic coolant temperature on the backside of a radiator or give a good control range when above the GPU at the rear shield or wherever else for general info.

So when the software is closed the CPU fans will run at max speed since the commander cannot see CPU temps on its own without ICUE? and there's no reasonable way to put a sensor on the CPU. This is for air cooling not for water otherwise there would be no issue since corsair does have their own water cooling kit.

Yes, when the software is fully terminated in the task manager. Are you trying to do this with a CPU box cooler/radiator? I get what you are trying to do, but I do not recommend trying to use a zero fan mode for an air cooler. I don’t even like it for water coolers. You are letting heat build up unchecked, then trying to slam on the brakes. Cooling is not that responsive. You are so much more effective letting the fans continue to run at the lowest possible speed vs no movement. It could be a 10C difference with no load. There is a reason the motherboard won’t let you do this.

 

I am not personally familiar with your CPU, but the days of it sitting quietly at idle are gone. They are tuned to be responsive and deliver snappy performance every time you open a program or a folder. If the cpu temp spikes for that (probably will) then the fan has to initiate its startup voltage as well. In effect, your fans are stuck in stop and go traffic. This is far more annoying than slow and quiet running and offers no performance advantage either.

So could that be why sometimes my graphics card fans will sound like there starting and stopping repeatedly… which can be very annoying since they make a ticking sound at low rpms, but even if not setting a zero fan curve the benefit of using the commander would be only needing one software to manage fan curves which could slightly improve performance by not having the Mobo software running? And I just like Corsair stuff.

The big benefit of the Commander Pro is desktop control of fans versus digging into the BIOS. So rather than fuss with setting some really complex conditional curve, you can just tell them to all to be quiet at set a fixed 400 rpm speed across the board or whatever you want. Trying to tweak fan curves from the BIOS is never much fun.

 

I love my cooling and have a clear bias. I frequently argue against using zero fan mode for most applications (GPU/CPU or otherwise) because:

 

1) the cooling penalty is pretty big at zero rpm. Even with a large water system you might bump up 8-10C versus a nominal speed. I used to run a pair of SLI 970s with "zero mode". Fans zero=52-55C at the desktop. That is just 4C below gaming loads. With fans at the lowest possible setting? 34-36C. While it may not matter much in terms of the lifespan of the product, if you are starting you load and already at 56C, the only place to go is up. Once you soak a solid object in heat, you can't simply suck it out. Always more efficient to prevent the heat build up in the first place.

 

2) Stop/start fans are terrible. Can't stand it. Most fans also require a specific voltage to fire up. Some PWM fans can get around this since they are always on 12v, but not all controllers will do this and are designed to make sure the fans starts no matter what.

 

3) No fan delay or hysteresis in iCUE and it is debatable if the Asus "fan delays" in the BIOS work either. Very hit or miss on different motherboards. All in all, more fan ramping up and down.

 

 

For a true air tower, I think your best bet is to use CPU/OPT for the fans. Set the BIOS to +-8 seconds (if your board has fan delays). Keep the curve low and slow at lower temps and save the blast for 60C+ or wherever you feel uncomfortable. Case fans are great on the Commander Pro and can be set to whatever is needed and controlled easily.

Actually my BIOS has pretty bad controls, only several presets and i don't believe any custom fan curves. Only through the desktop software suite. Not to mention the board only having 2 fan headers total. Somewhat debatable if it's worth having a separate software to just control the CPU fan curve vs having them all done from the ICUE. Edited July 31, 2019 by ThesunGirl

Yeah, hard to say for sure without having your board. It would be theoretically possible to use a temp probe to measure exhaust air temp from the back of the air cooler and create a fan curve that reacts to it. You would have to find a mathematical correlation between exhaust temp and the CPU temp (there will be one), but it will be cooler specific.

 

Of course the alternative is using CPU temp as the control through active iCUE software, so that brings it back around to if you really must run without it (other OS, etc). Using the software would be the easiest method.