Powerful Master Fan Control software

SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Firstly, disclaimer, this software is from GitHub which isn't monitored as such, so anyone can post anything and it's only down to 3rd party devs looking over the code to verify if it's safe or contains any nastys. This has been overviewed by Jayz and his team for this video and they've found it to be safe. But obviously use at your own risk.

This is a master fan control software which is far more intelligent than most and can universally control any fans connected to PWM or voltage control headers on the motherboard.

This becomes more valuable for those with GPU fan scaling issues or any small form factor builds, any of you with Zotac GPU's experiencing the fan ramping up and down bug, this is a good solution.

It's a very powerful and well laid out piece of software that can do a lot more than other suites can manage, there's a Jayz video to walk you through setup and give examples of it's power.

github.com

GitHub - Rem0o/FanControl.Releases: This is the release repository for Fan Control, a highly customizable fan controlling software for Windows.

This is the release repository for Fan Control, a highly customizable fan controlling software for Windows. - Rem0o/FanControl.Releases
github.com github.com

 
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B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Following on from @SpyderTracks locked post here, I thought I'd add some of my initial thoughts on the potential of this opensource software.
Some context:

The immediate advantages I see are:
1) A leaner application than some of the bloatware that controls fans (iCUE, AISuite, Armoury Crate, etc)
2) Ability to link case fans to multiple temp sources, simultaneously

It's the latter that has me the most interested. My current spec has the following setup:
  • Rear exhaust fan, PWM connected directly to chassis 1 fan header on MB, speed is controlled via BIOS, based on CPU temp
  • Three front intake Corsair ML120 fans, connected to Commander Core, speed is controlled via iCUE, based on AIO coolant temp
  • Three top exhaust Corsair ML120 fans, connected to Commander Core, speed is controlled via iCUE, based on AIO coolant temp
  • H150i Capellix AIO
  • 5900x CPU, 3070TI GPU
As you can tell, all the case fans are linked (directly or indirectly) to the CPU temperature. As the CPU temp rises (and in turn the coolant) the case fans will ramp up.

But what about the hot exhaust air from my GPU? If I'm gaming and almost all the load is on the GPU, then the CPU temperature won't rise significantly so the case fans don't ramp up. Until that is, the hot air from GPU causes the AIO coolant temp to rise due to the ambient case temperature as the GPU heat rises to the top of the case. Only then will the case fans increase to draw cool air in and exhaust warm air out the back and top.

I suspect this is a much more common scenario (full load GPU driving case temps rather then CPU) for gamers these days given the increasing power of GPUs.

But by changing the case fans to base their speed on a combination of CPU and GPU temp, this lag in ramping fan speed could be avoided, and potentially result in more balanced fan speed and noise. And this is what the Mix curves in FanControl allows, as Jay demonstrates in the video. The mix curve allows fans to operate off the higher of either the CPU or GPU temp. So if you're running a GPU intensive game, the case fans will change speed based on GPU temp, but if you then switched to a CPU heavy load like rendering, the fans' speed will be based on CPU temp.

So I'd definitely be trying this software out, but I would need to change my cabling first. 6 of my 7 case fans are wired to the Commander Core, so I'll need to buy some splitter cables and see if I can connect the top and front fans to the chassis 2 and 3 headers on my motherboard (is there enough stretch in cables from the top is one concern). This would leave the AIO pump connected to the CPU Fan header (to prevent bios error message on boot), and the Commander would just be responsible for controlling the RGB effects of the case fans. Although I'm also keen to try OpenRGB to see if I can reduce dependency on iCUE to almost nothing....

So all I need now is some new splitters from Amazon, and some free time to rewire fans, setup software, test, etc. I think I know which of the two will arrive first..... :(

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts about the use of this software, and how they might use it.
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
A brief update after install and running it for first time. The software was able to detect by rear exhaust fan and sensor (Chassis 1 fan header) and my GPU fans correctly, but only detects the AIO pump which is connected to the CPU Fan header. As expected, the 6 case fans connected to commander core are not detected. So if I want to control them using this software, I'll have to disconnect from the Commander and connected to the other fan headers on the motherboard.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Of course, the major application where I think this may well be a huge leap forward for general performance and noise levels is of course laptops!

Especially on the TongFang models the inbuilt fan profiles can be rather hit and miss, and having to use the physical boost button to change profiles is rather 1980's.

This could automate a much more appropriate gentle curvature to keep noise levels reasonable.

I know he's got an awful lot on, but if @barlew and any others with a TongFang chassis are willing to try this out to feed back for others.
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Got some time to install FanControl this evening. It was able to detect my rear case fan and GPU fans without issue, but as expected did not detect the 6 fans connected to the Commander Core. But then I noticed on the FanControl discussion page on Github, that someone had just developed a plugin to allow the detection of fan connected to Commander Pro. I tried the plugin but it failed to work. Turns out it currently only works for Commander Pros, but developer is already working on a fix for Cores, so fingers crossed an update is available soon.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
IRLRobinS said:
Got some time to install FanControl this evening. It was able to detect my rear case fan and GPU fans without issue, but as expected did not detect the 6 fans connected to the Commander Core. But then I noticed on the FanControl discussion page on Github, that someone had just developed a plugin to allow the detection of fan connected to Commander Pro. I tried the plugin but it failed to work. Turns out it currently only works for Commander Pros, but developer is already working on a fix for Cores, so fingers crossed an update is available soon.
Click to expand...
Excellent find, very nice. That's really good news.

This Dev is gonna hit the stratosphere me thinks, I wouldn't be surprised if Asus or someone buys this out.

I've got a Commander Pro in my rig, I'll test it out tomorrow (y)
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
IRLRobinS said:
Got some time to install FanControl this evening. It was able to detect my rear case fan and GPU fans without issue, but as expected did not detect the 6 fans connected to the Commander Core. But then I noticed on the FanControl discussion page on Github, that someone had just developed a plugin to allow the detection of fan connected to Commander Pro. I tried the plugin but it failed to work. Turns out it currently only works for Commander Pros, but developer is already working on a fix for Cores, so fingers crossed an update is available soon.
Click to expand...
SpyderTracks said:
Excellent find, very nice. That's really good news.

This Dev is gonna hit the stratosphere me thinks, I wouldn't be surprised if Asus or someone buys this out.

I've got a Commander Pro in my rig, I'll test it out tomorrow (y)
Click to expand...
First one of you who can make their PC levitate using this software gets to pick the middle name of my unborn son.
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
SpyderTracks said:
If you don't call him Zeus, there's something wrong in the world. Not enough people are called Zeus.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough, one of our friends has a son named Zeus. And their other one is called Zion. I kind of hope they’re planning on moving to a different letter of the alphabet if they have a third.

So I can’t use that or I’ll be accused of plagiarism. I like the idea of a good strong name, though. Maybe I’ll suggest ‘The Hulk’
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
AgentCooper said:
Funnily enough, one of our friends has a son named Zeus. And their other one is called Zion. I kind of hope they’re planning on moving to a different letter of the alphabet if they have a third.

So I can’t use that or I’ll be accused of plagiarism. I like the idea of a good strong name, though. Maybe I’ll suggest ‘The Hulk’
Click to expand...
Respect to your friends :love:

Poseidon? Apollo? You can see where I'm going here?
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
SpyderTracks said:
Respect to your friends :love:

Poseidon? Apollo? You can see where I'm going here?
Click to expand...
GODLIKE!

Poseidon is quite cool but I’m not much of a swimmer. But Apollo… I like that.

37F745A8-2507-4EB5-A6DB-EDEAC045E9BE.jpeg
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Itching to use it, but out of the box it won't support fans connected to fan hubs like Cosair Commanders. There's a plugin developed in the last week or so that aims to add this functionality, but it only works with Commander Pros, not the Cores that come with AIO coolers like my H150 Capellix. I've bought fan splitters as a back up if the core functionality doesn't get released soon.

I was also looking at OpenRGB for controlling the RGB, and therefore remove the need for iCUE, but it's just not working for me, and I can't figure out why. It detects the Commander Core ok, but I can't set any RGB. If anyone has a Commander Core and gets it working with OpenRGB. ping me!
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Time for another short update I guess.

Development of the plugin for FanControl continues, but the developer is facing issues on getting it to work reliably from a read perspective, and is yet to get the ability to write (or set) fan speeds working. Worryingly, when his plugin interacts with the Commander, it knocks the RGB out. Be interesting to see if he overcomes these two issues, given Corsair's reluctance to open up details on its protocols.

In the meantime, I went ahead and used splitters to connect my Corsair ML120 fans to the motherboard headers, allowing them to become available to Fan Control. Quite impressed at some of the functionality the application offers, and once you've learned the basics, configuring it is quite easy. The challenge now is to dial into an optimum fan curve for CPU and GPU and then mix them. More to come on that.

And as for getting rid of iCUE altogether (it's a 1GB install!!!), it's become apparent that a recent Corsair firmware has changed their protocol, so OpenRGB no longer works with the Commander Core. I suspect developers will address this in the near future, but for now iCUE manages the AIO pump and RGB, and Fan Control all other fans. A work in progress....
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Meant to post an update that OpenRGB once again supports Corsair AIOs, so now I don’t have ICUE running at all, just Fan Control for GPU and case fans and OpenRGB for RGB of MB, fans, pump, kb and mouse.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
How is it for all of that? Any limitations? I guess it's a little bit of faff setting up to begin with?
 
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