Whirlpool

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use SpeedFan to reduce the speed of some Nexus 120mm Real Silent fans plugged into a Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI motherboard, but so far I have not had any success.

So I just wanted to ask, has anyone here had any success using SpeedFan to reduce the speed of their fans using a Gigabyte nForce4 motherboard (or more specifically a Gigabyte nForce4 SLI motherboard)?

At the moment I'm just trying to work out if what I'm trying to do here is even possible.

Any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Is speedfan you're trying to use the giga utility that came with the mobo? The giga bios will have settings for speedfan operation so have a look there first. If the bios is enabed then you should see the speedfan settings enabled on giga ultratune software utility. I used to have is going but disabled it later on as I didn't think it was particularly effective. Another thought - what are the fans connected to on the mobo?

i have the same motherboard, and i cant do anything with speedfan either.
I dont know if it is possible, but it doesnt seem to be, as the motherboard is not on the list of "motherboards that can change fan speed" on the Speedfan site.

Same problem with my ABIT AN8 board.
I submitted the board specs over 6 months ago to the almico site but no joy.

basilb writes...

Is speedfan you're trying to use the giga utility that came with the mobo?

Nah its a different program.

www.almico.com/speedfan.php

I'd say you're thinking of the Smart-Fan section of the Gigabyte EasyTune program.

www.gigabyte.com.tw/Moth...41125_PX_ET5.htm

basilb writes...

The giga bios will have settings for speedfan operation so have a look there first. If the bios is enabed then you should see the speedfan settings enabled on giga ultratune software utility.

I have tried enabling and disabling the CPU Smart FAN Control setting in the PC Health Status section of the BIOS, but it does not appear to make any difference when using either SpeedFan or EasyTune.

basilb writes...

what are the fans connected to on the mobo?

I have 2 Nexus 120mm Real Silent fans, fan 1 is connected to the CPU_FAN connector, fan 2 is connected to the SYS_FAN connector.

Chucky writes...

the motherboard is not on the list of "motherboards that can change fan speed" on the Speedfan site

Yeah unfortunately the GA-K8N Pro-SLI isn't listed, although I noticed that the GA-K8NF-9 (nForce 4 4X) is listed. Which gave me hope that perhaps the GA-K8N Pro-SLI might be able to change fan speeds as well.

The logic being that if a cheaper board in the same family can do it, then the more expensive board should be able to as well.

www.almico.com/forummoth...ards.php?man=264
I think this means that your motherboard can use SpeedFan to change RPM such as CPU, chipset etc. Unless your fans have RPM monitoring then it is not possible to manually alter the RPM of those fans, correct me if I'm wrong.

Have you considered buying a fan controller?
www.pccasegear.com/category18_1.htm

gigabyte has a poor rep with speedfan; it's not so much the nbridge/sbridge (VIA/nForce/etc) but the monitoring chipset (usu a Winbond or Via chip) that controls the fans. Even so, some makers do not turn on that particular function, though the function is part of the chipset.
Asus is prolly the best in this regard
As a last resort, go to Info, select your SMBus, and change Fan control settings to software, tick the Remember box and try again. Good luck

A quick SpeedFan question. Does anyone know what the "PWM x mode" and "PWMOUT clock" properties in the Configure / Advanced tab are used for?

The help manual gives an example but forgets to explain what they actually do.

guff writes...

Have you considered buying a fan controller?

I'll probably end up doing exactly that, I just thought I'd try and get it working with SpeedFan first. No point in spending the cash if I don't have to.

Success! :)

I managed to get it working by making the following changes to the configuration.

Configure / Advanced / Chip "IT8712F at $290 on ISA":

FAN 1 divisor: 128
PWM 1 mode: Software controlled
PWMOUT clock: 0.75M

Its also worth noting that (on this board at least) only the CPU_FAN connector can change the fan speed, and that the fan speed only changes between 0% and ~12% (i.e. between ~12% and 100% the fan runs at full speed).

sipitai writes...

A quick SpeedFan question. Does anyone know what the "PWM x mode" and "PWMOUT clock" properties in the Configure / Advanced tab are used for?

I'd still be interested to hear from anyone who knows anything about either of these.