Replacing Define R4 case fans with an ASRock Z77 Extreme6

[Nexmagic]

Hello,

sorry for the long title but I wanted it to be descriptive ^^. Here is the story: A few months ago I got a tinnitus that sounds like a malfunctioning PSU. That, combined with some issues with what I assume to be hard drive isolation for specific slots on the R4 which lead to occasional rattling and other life stuff left me really stressed out and I couldnt be bothered with fixing my pc for a while so I've been stuck on an iPad for the last 6 months. Slowly im getting to a point where I cant stand a tablet anymore and I may find the space to rework my PC. Im not necessarily shooting for complete silence here, but I'd like to improve the sound signature and some issues.

Here is my current build: http://geizhals.eu/?cat=WL-571179

My current plan of measures:

1) remove HDDs, reuse small SSD in my HTPC, get a 1tb SSD for games and a nas on the other side of the room for bulk data.

2) replace PSU with an oversized semi-fanless one, looking at a corsair RMi 750 or 850. The current one should be sufficient but I tend to "idle" with a loaded system having games open in the background and I dont want to stress it as much. The higher purchase price is ok in exchange for lowering my stress levels.

3) remove dvd drive, get an external one.

4) rework fans. And here is where my troubles begin. My current case fan config is 1 top/front/bottom/back.
For this rework I'm pretty sure I would prefer moving to 2 front/1 back.

Now the questions are:
What fans are best to get here for quietness and good noise signature, and

2nd: How do I then plug those into my Motherboard? Looking at the manual the amount/availability of PWM fan connectors is sorta confusing.
In addition, the comments on the internet about some connectors being able to regulate speed and some not is super confusing.

So if someone has experience with this motherboard it would be very helpful because I am at the end of my wit. Until now, I just had the fans plugged into whatever port I could reach. I set a fan profile in the BIOS but I'm not sure if it actually did anything - back when I built it, I was happy with it just working, so I never bothered configuring everything correctly.

So TLDR: What fans should I use and how do I correctly use them with this MoBo?

Also, I am aware that the changes probably wont help that much since the gpu will be the loudest part of the system. I considered getting a gtx 960 to tide me over til pascal but im not sure how well it stacks up. My setup is 3 monitors, with one used for gaming and the rest for streams etc., Gaming Monitor is 1440p, 60hz. Games played are Various MMOs like wow/eve, diablo3, maybe witcher 3 / justcause 3 in the future. Settings usually high/ultra so far. Played on a bad laptop for a long time so I tend to consider anything above 40 fps fluid. The 670 I have has worked for this res very well so far, so I dont really wanna change it out. Might start with the old GPU and if its sound annoys me too much I'll get a 960.

Also, what about the CPU cooler? It should be fine but maybe there's significantly better stuff now. Don't really overclock.

Budget wise I'm ready to spend for quality so im looking at noctua fans unless theres better ones somewhere else (although I really do like noctua build quality).

[quest_for_silence]

First of all, welcome aboard!

2) replace PSU with an oversized semi-fanless one, looking at a corsair RMi 750 or 850. The current one should be sufficient but I tend to "idle" with a loaded system having games open in the background and I dont want to stress it as much. The higher purchase price is ok in exchange for lowering my stress levels.

Well, the E9 is a low performance unit nowadays, nonetheless this swap is absolutely unnecessary and won't add quietness, given the E9 fan profile. And broadly speaking oversizing won't add quietness too, with your specs either an RMx550 or an RMi850 would perform exactly the same, under any scenario.

So TLDR: What fans should I use and how do I correctly use them with this MoBo?

First of all, read that fine guide and try (if it works for you and your board): http://www.silentpcreview.com/SpeedFan
When you get there, I guess we may talk about fans or alternatives.

Also, what about the CPU cooler? It should be fine but maybe there's significantly better stuff now.

No, there isn't any really better, but before confirming that you should at first set the relevant fans correctly.

Budget wise I'm ready to spend for quality so im looking at noctua fans unless theres better ones somewhere else (although I really do like noctua build quality).

There's always better quality than Noctua somewhere: just for instance, I'm just playing with some Fractal fans and they feel better than my Noctua iPPC fans (Noctua's current TOP lineup).

[Nexmagic]

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I'm fine with the PSU swap not changing anything about the noise levels, I just think I'd feel better.

Thank you for the SpeedFan guide link, that's a fantasic tutorial and I'll try to apply it once im on my PC.
Howeve, for this post I guess I was interested in something specific to the Extreme6 board, since it seems only some of the Fan connectors allow adjusting of speed, and then some are 4-pin, some 3-pin. Its a really confusing situation. Im not sure if maybe I need a Y-splitter or something to connect all the fans. I'm not even aure if it correctly adjusts the cpu fan speeds since the thing has 2 fans.

Maybe I posted this prematurely since im still in the process of working some stuff out in my house so I cant actually open pc PC and tinker with it. My plan was to get a shopping list ready so I can have all the parts ready when I get the chance to open and tinker.

Maybe lets just assume I dont like the current ones? What would be nice replacement fans and would I need other stuff to correctly plug it into this MoBo and be able to regulate the speed? I guess ideally via bios so I can set and forget but having a curve in SpeedFan would have its advantages as well since it allows more customizability.

[quest_for_silence]

I'm fine with the PSU swap not changing anything about the noise levels, I just think I'd feel better.

It's your call.

Howeve, for this post I guess I was interested in something specific to the Extreme6 board, since it seems only some of the Fan connectors allow adjusting of speed, and then some are 4-pin, some 3-pin. Its a really confusing situation. Im not sure if maybe I need a Y-splitter or something to connect all the fans. I'm not even aure if it correctly adjusts the cpu fan speeds since the thing has 2 fans.

Your board manual is your friend: as you may read onto it, you have two real PWM headers, the ones marked CPU_FAN1 and CHA_FAN1.

Those two need to be hooked each to a 4 pin PWM fan or to a PWM splitter (with separate power connector) if you have more than two PWM fans.

Then you have three 3 pin voltage controlled (VC) headers, the ones marked CPU_FAN2, CHA_FAN2 and CHA_FAN3. Those three need to be hooked each to a 3 pin fan: you might also use a splitter (if you have more than three 3 pin fans), but in case you do need to not overload the header itself (drawing too much current), and a rule of thumb (very conservative) is to not draw more than 0.50A from each of those three 3 pin headers (you will find the current draw on every fan label).

The fourth 3 pin header, marked PWR_FAN can be used to monitor the PSU fan speed, whether your PSU has an external sensing cable (some Enermax ones, for instance).

Summarizing, you can connect a minimum of five fans, two 4 pin PWM ones and three 3 pin voltage controller ones.
As you may also read onto the mobo manual, all those fans have their settings: apparently, CPU_FAN1 (PWM) and CPU_FAN2 (VC), even if they use different fan types, cannot be controlled independently but they do share the same settings (AUTO or FULL ON); CHA_FAN1 (PWM) has three possible setting (AUTO, FULL ON, MANUAL); CHA_FAN2 (VC) and CHA_FAN3 (VC) have their own independent settings (AUTO, FULL ON, MANUAL); eventually PWR_FAN (VC) is not controllable (as already said).

Which one to use strictly depends of the specific fans: just for instance, given that the CPU_FAN1 and CPU_FAN2 headers share the same setting, ideally you may want two similar fans hooked up to them, though one PWM and one voltage controlled, in order to have a more predictable system, noise-wise.

Apparently only CHA_FAN1, CHA_FAN2 and CHA_FAN3 give you some form of substantial control over fan speeds (by the various LEVEL settings in their MANUAL mode), while the other two may only be used on AUTO (and we don't know how that AUTO setting behaves, and if the AUTO setting of CHA_FAN1 is different from the similarly named AUTO setting of either CHA_FAN1 or CPU_FAN2, as somehow expected).

As a matter of fact, broadly speaking VC mobo headers have usually an higher minimum speed than PWM ones (so with two different kind of headers, both set on AUTO, you may end up driving two fans at too much different speeds, and that might be undesiderable, noise-wise).
One common way to proceed is to hook the same fan, time by time, to each mobo header, in order to record the actual rotational speed corresponding to the AUTO setting, but that's not mandatory.

In my opinion that ASRock UEFI fan control do not look like that flexible, so there's a chance the UEFI interface cannot be that useful (I hope to be wrong about that).

Maybe lets just assume I dont like the current ones? What would be nice replacement fans and would I need other stuff to correctly plug it into this MoBo and be able to regulate the speed? I guess ideally via bios so I can set and forget but having a curve in SpeedFan would have its advantages as well since it allows more customizability.

Before assuming you don't like them (and in case, more probably that not you don't like your mobo fan control, not the fans), you have to properly set them up, this is my opinion atm, in order to better know your fans, and to fully understand how that ASRock fan control works. Just then you will be able to say whether you need a different mobo, an external fan controller, or just some different fans.

Hope this helps.

[Nexmagic]

Thank you very much for your advice. I think I'll get the other parts I definitely need/want, and tinker around with it a while once I have the space to work on it again. Afterwards if I'm still unhappy I'll come back and ask again.

[quest_for_silence]

Thank you very much for your advice. I think I'll get the other parts I definitely need/want, and tinker around with it a while once I have the space to work on it again. Afterwards if I'm still unhappy I'll come back and ask again.

Well, if you feel more comfortable with a more strict guide to pick cooling parts, perhaps you might follow the template used by Puget/Fractal for their Orfield test with the R5.

At any rate, the way you actually operate those parts will always make some difference (to say, for instance, your NH-D14 cooler should have two stock 3 pin fans, which you may either operate with the provided Y splitter from CPU_FAN2, or use one of them with the suitable LNA/ULNA adapter at constant speed off the PWR_FAN header whith the other one driven off the CPU_FAN2, or eventually replace both with a pair of identical fan as SPCR made in the relevant test, depending of actual conditions/feelings). I mean, even sort of a copycat of a proven design may require some tinkering.