Strix LCII 240ARGB cooler with Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus

[BJBBJB]

Greetings. I am looking at a new build that I am helping someone with that will have an i7 or i9 Raptor Lake CPU. I realize an AIO would be preferred so was looking at all the options. The case will only support a 240mm or 280mm two fan CPU cooler.

Looking at that particular motherboard for at least DDR5 compatablity, don't see the need for a Z790 MB.

Anyway my question is on the Strix cooler. I cannot really find it showing up in any reviews or "best of" lists so was just curious how this stacks up to some of those that are listed as it relates to noise and cooling. I did find like one review that was a while ago.

Not really looking to overclock, more of just keeping CPU cool under heavy gaming and use.

Am okay going with another option but thought it would be "cool" to keep the build all ASUS, although the price is high. Others that show up are ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 A-RG (no RGB), NZXT Kraken X53, Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capeelix for low noise.... I also would prefer to have the LG1700 come with the unit vs. having to hunt down a special separate order bracket.

Thanks for the help! Been a while since looking at this stuff.
BJBBJB

[Nate152]

ARGB fans have two cables.

For an AIO cpu cooler you have....

1 cable for fan power - Connects to the cpu fan header.
1 cable for ARGB lighting - Connects to an ARGB Gen 2 header.

Here is a 3-pack of ASUS ARGB 120mm fans, it says chassis fans but they can be used on radiators. Each fan uses .24 amps so you could safely power three fans off the cpu fan header. Do not exceed 1 amp on any of the fan headers.

They come with an ARGB hub, but I doubt you'd need it as you'd control the lighting with Armoury Crate.

You will likely end up needing ARGB splitters, and fan power splitters.

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/cooling/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-tf120-argb-fan-triple-fan...

[BJBBJB]

Thanks. I plan to add 1 fan to the top of the case where the radiator is not to the radiator itself.
So that would be three. I believe you are saying I can power this 1, plus the 2 on the radiators with the cpu header power for fans. So these three plug into a splitter and then into cpu gan header?

I will have 3 in front, which will need to go to another fan power on MB. Then 1 in back, a third.

As to the rgb control, you are saying I will not need the ARGB hub amd can control directly with Asus rgb software, got it. So.....then how do I connect these 6 fans to obtain that control?

So funny...now I know what people feel like when I try to help them out on the pc stuff which I know and they don't! I am just clueless on rgb. When I read up on rgb, it is usually 3rd partyand using controllers. If going all asus, need to learn more about asus rgb.
Thanks!
BJB

[BJBBJB]

A light bulb may have gone off......even though I will not need the hub to control the fans, can I use the hub it to connect the fans to the motherboard to get the armoury software control? Or perhaps the splitter is the way to go? Buying single vs, the 3 pack with hub price is not much more...

I will have a total of 7 I think. Just seems silly to go to cooler master fans to shave a few dB off the noise if I give up 100% software control.
BJB

[Nate152]

Your motherboard has three ARGB headers.

You could get one 3-way ARGB splitter for the cooler and single fan for the three fans in front. Connect this to one ARGB header.

Two 2-way ARGB splitters,

Connect two fans to the 2nd ARGB header and the other two fans to the 3rd ARGB header.

For power, you could do basically the same.

One 3-way fan power splitter cable for the three fans in front, connect this to the cpu fan header.

Two 2-way fan power splitter cables.

Connect two case fans to a chassis fan header, connect the other two case fans to another chassis fan header.

[BJBBJB]

@Nate152
Thanks, I just saw this. For some reason email forum notifications are not working for me. We purchased the Asus 3 pack fans linked above and plan to connect with splitters that I now understand better.

Was surprised at the size difference between the Strix cooler and the 3 pack. I knew they were smaller but seeing it hit home. If there was one fan the same size from a different brand might consider, but would want it to have a similar look and ARGB lighting.

Thanks,
BJB

[Nate152]

My fault, you have the 280mm which has two 140mm fans.

The ROG Strix LC II 140mm argb fans have a maximum of 2100 RPM and have translucent fan blades.

This one could work, it has a maximum of 1900 RPM and is compatible with ASUS Aura Sync which you use in Armoury Crate.

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-P14-PWM-PST-RGB/dp/B09LR6KV3S?tag=vc000-20

[BJBBJB]

Thanks. We are currently up and running with what we had. Ended up with the cooler on top as exhausts (the 2 140s), 1 of the Asus120s in back as exhaust, and 4 of the asus 120's in front as intake.

As it turns out the exhaust in back wouldn't fit the bigger fans anyway. And from an intake exhaust standpoint don't need one more on top. The front could fit the bigger ones but they would kind of overlap the open area that you can see if that makes sense.

If we decide to go bigger in front will look at those. But kind if like the look. Nice having the fans from all asus, similar look and color.

Everything fired up and working but haven't played with Armory crate yet. I am surprised the cooler mount face stays lit up even with the pc shutdown? Assume an armory crate setting?
Understood the motherboard lights when shutdown but the AIO litup was a surprise.

BJB

[BJBBJB]

To help others that don't like the RGB on their Strix cooler on, the only solution I found was to go into bios and enable ERP with S4+S5. This worked but of course disables USB etc when powered down but never used anyway.
Armour Crate has a setting that turns off motherboard rgb at shutdown but cooler stays on. No idea why the cooler does not have a similar setting in armoury crate.
BJB

[Nate152]

Great to hear the build was a success and the ASUS 120mm fans worked out in the end.

As I don't have an AIO cpu cooler I'm not 100% sure but in the bios, advanced tab, onboard devices configuration, there may be an Aura or RGB setting for sleep, hibernate. You could try setting this to stealth to see if the cpu cooler water block lighting goes off when the pc shuts down.

[BJBBJB]

Nate152 wrote:
Great to hear the build was a success and the ASUS 120mm fans worked out in the end.

As I don't have an AIO cpu cooler I'm not 100% sure but in the bios, advanced tab, onboard devices configuration, there may be an Aura or RGB setting for sleep, hibernate. You could try setting this to stealth to see if the cpu cooler water block lighting goes off when the pc shuts down.

That ERP setting I posted works for shutdown and there is a "stealth" setting for that. Like everyone else, if sleeping (not hibernate but sleep) the AIO cooler and memory stay on. Don't think bios or Armoury Crate can help wtih that. No big deal though.

Thanks again for your help. The only strange thing I noticed with fans is that FanXpert (within Armoury Crate) which I have used for years no longer allows you to rename the motherboard header names? That is a strange change....used to be able to change to something like "front fans" if I recall correctly.

Also, I grouped the fans in 2 groups of 3 and 1 single fan for power mboard connections. FanXpert did not recognize the one single fan although the fan is spinning. Just kind of strange. It found the AIO and the other 2 headers running 3 each just fine.

Thanks,
BJB