Zalman 7000AlCu LOUD on my A64 System...

SuperBusTerror · Post by **SuperBusTerror** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:20 pm

I've recently built a new computer with an Athlon64 3400+ (rev. CG), MSI K8T Neo FISR2 mobo (with Cool&Quiet support), and Zalman CNPS 7000AlCu heatsink/fan. I plugged the Zalman into the supplied fan speed controller and the fan speed controller into the mobo.

I was under the impression that the fan speed would be automatically controlled. and slow down when the system was idle. Instead, it runs at full bore almost all the time, except when it is pulsing on a period of a few seconds. All in all, it is REALLY LOUD.

Did I miss some important step here? Is there some piece of software or hardware or driver I was supposed to install? How does one set up a system like this so it quiets down when idle? How does one tell WHY the fan increases or decreases speed?

-- SBT

markjia · Post by **markjia** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:41 pm

zalman's fanmate does not do any sort of automatic control (aside from providing a consistent voltage throughout different fan impedances).

Did you try turning the small knob on the fanmate? it controls the voltage. Turn it all the way down and see if that reduces the noise. Under most circumstances, the lowest speed is sufficent.

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:03 pm

Like markjia said -- the FanMate fan controller is manually operated. You have to twist/turn the small knob to adjust the fan speed.

You will find that the heatsink and fan have nice performance, and that the fan noise can be set to almost undetectable -- if you choose to turn it down, that is. You might want to use SpeedFan instead of the controller if you want automatic fan speed settings. Good luck!

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:21 pm

Like the other posters mentioned, it is a manual control. You can check either the review of the CNPS7000 or of the Fanmate on the main site.

Some motherboards allow the control of fan speed through the motherboard fan headers. Some can do it through BIOS, others by application such as Speed Fan. If your motherboard supports that, you can remove the Fanmate, since it will dissipate some power as heat, and add to clutter. Or you can leave it there if you can't be bothered.

SuperBusTerror · Post by **SuperBusTerror** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 1:39 pm

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will certainly experiment with SpeedFan.

However, I still wonder why the fan PULSES occasionally...

-- SBT

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:35 pm

Hello:

You don't mention whether or not you enabled Cool 'N Quiet in the BIOS? Also, there may be fan control settings in the BIOS -- I don't have an MSI, so I don't know. And you need toset the Power Options Management to Minimal... in Windows in order to have it work. And lastly, you might need a BIOS upgrade -- there is another thread on C'NQ with MSI mobo's.

villa_joe · Post by **villa_joe** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:56 pm

I have almost the same thing in my PC. You can turn the knob on the controller almost all the way down and it keeps the CPU more than cool enough. Mine is running 34C as I type according to Motherboard Monitor and the fan on the 7000 is so low I can't hear it.

SuperBusTerror · Post by **SuperBusTerror** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:33 am

I realized I had disabled "CoreCenter", which is MSI's fan speed / dynamic overclocking / voltage control utility. I use my computer for a lot of digial audio recording and think I was concerned that CoreCenter was causing distortion or drops in my recording.

When I ran CoreCenter, the fan speed dropped immediately. Also, I finally discovered that if you click the "CoreCenter" logo, you can switch to "User Mode" and control all the parameters (fan speed, FSB, Vcore, Mem voltage, AGP voltage) manually. Sliding the fan speed control and pressing "Apply" indeed controls the fan speed.

HOWEVER, I notice that my CPU generally hovers around 40-42 degrees Celsius. Is this too high? What SHOULD it be?

Also, I looked at the Zalman and noticed a lot of dust buildup. Ugh! Maybe I'll work on a fancy ducting/filtering/positvie-case-pressure setup...

sorenbro · Post by **sorenbro** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 3:39 am

40-42 degrees is far from too high. I'm not sure about the maximum temperatures for the AMD64 CPUs, but for P4 and AthlonXP you are still safe when your CPU is 70 degrees (the AthlonXP can operate up to 90degrees and the P4 somewhere in the same region), and infact the P4 lowers its speed if you reach too high temperatures, and you cannot cook it.

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:18 am

Low 40C is a really good. You can safely run your CPU at temps much hotter than that.

Afaik the new AMD64 has something similar to the P4 that prevents the chip cooking if it did get too hot. Maybe I'm wrong on that last bit, so hopefully someone will be able to confirm that.

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:52 am

Something that I noticed when working with the Zalman Fan Mate was that it defeated other speed controllers, like Asus Q-Fan and Speedfan. This has something to do with the way it is designed, but I found it annoying, since I knew it could run at less than 5V and still do a great job.

I made a Fan Voltage Controller Strip, which allows me to lower the voltage to any level, and also let other fan controllers, like Q-Fan, and Speedfan, even further reduce the speed. This lets me run my Zalman 7000 (in my 3.5 GHz P4 rig) at 3.25-5.17V, depending on temperature (I could make this even lower, if I wanted to.)

There is a link in my sig.

Zalman 7000AlCu LOUD on my A64 System...

Zalman 7000AlCu LOUD on my A64 System...

Is Cool 'N Quiet enabled?

Aha!