Fan Xpert 2 see the minimum speed of my NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM as 880 rpm

[dioce]

What can I do to lower my NF-A14 as cha_fan below 880 rpm? Is it an error? Because I read in NOCTUA website that the minimum speed of the NF-A14 is 300 rpm, and 880 rpm seems too noisy to me especially I have 3 of them as cha_fan 1-3.

Any1 can help me ?

[Gabedamien]

I saw your post in my thread. I think you are possibly confusing the BIOS Q-fan control (where we are both stuck with 60% minimum chassis fan settings, unacceptable IMHO) with FanXpert 2 (which is a Windows program that overrides the BIOS setting). You should have no problem setting the PWM fans as low as they can go using FanXpert, if you run the wizard that measures all your fan output results. In Windows my fans work perfectly using FanXpert, the only problem for me is OS X where they are stupidly gimped due to the idiotic artificial BIOS setting limits.

[dioce]

Well, actually, the BIOS Q-fan control I just disable it, and I know its minimum chassis fan setting is 60%.
But in Fan Xpert 2, which is a program excuted in Windows, it just detects the minimum speed of my four NF-A14 PWM as 831 rpm. Sorry I said it as 880 rpm in the first post.
Any1 can help me? I just read in Noctua's website that the minimum speed of NF-A14 PWM should be 300 rpm.

[cyanid]

What motherboard do you have?
On some motherboard ASUS strangely use 4 pin fan CHA_FAN while only support for 3 pin use (NO PWM function)
PWM fan only work properly with CPU_FAN.

[bechi]

i have MAXIMUS VI FORMULA and the some fans (nf-a14 PWM) i the ai suite is reporting that the min speed of the fans is 776 RPM, which is not true.Can anayone help me pls ? is this mobo really using PWM to control the fans or i need to get PWM fan controller ?

[Namorismo]

I have 3 of the 120 NOCTUA pwm fans connected. I used the supplied Noctua resistor connector to slow the fans right down, I can still adjust the fan speeds up and down but you obviously lose some of their max speed. Silence is what I preferred over max rpm.

[Abula]

dioce wrote:
What can I do to lower my NF-A14 as cha_fan below 880 rpm? Is it an error? Because I read in NOCTUA website that the minimum speed of the NF-A14 is 300 rpm, and 880 rpm seems too noisy to me especially I have 3 of them as cha_fan 1-3.

Any1 can help me ?

bechi wrote:
i have MAXIMUS VI FORMULA and the some fans (nf-a14 PWM) i the ai suite is reporting that the min speed of the fans is 776 RPM, which is not true.Can anayone help me pls ? is this mobo really using PWM to control the fans or i need to get PWM fan controller ?

The problem you two are having is that you are using PWM fans on a fake PWM header, its really a voltage controlled header, some PWM fan can undervolt fine some dont, in the case of noctuas, if you run them on a TRUE PWM FAN HEADER (like CPU_FAN) you will be able to reach the rated RPMS, even lower, but on undervolting you wont be able to, i leave you a test i did on NF-A14 PWM on both CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN2 headers, so you get a better picture into what im saying,



If you want to drop them below what you are getting the only option is to move it to a real PWM fan header, there are splitters like GELID PWM Fan Splitter CA-PWM-03 or Swiftech 8-Way PWM Cable Splitter - SATA Power (8W-PWM-SPL-ST) that will allow you to use the CPU_FAN header to control multiple fans via PWM and still be safe as it draws power directly from the PSU via SATA Power or Molex, and just grabs the PWM and Rpms from the motherboard.

The other option is to get none pwm fans, Noctua offers other versions like FLX and ULN version that should undervolt better, weather they can reach 300rpms i dont know, i dont own those version. Or another brand, for example Antec True Quiet 140s is one the most quiet 140s in the market, its cheap and undervolts great on Asus CHA_FAN headers under FanXpert2, i leave you a run that i did on my GENE VI.

[bechi]

so why are they 4 pin connectors on the mobo if there are fake ? wtf asus ?

[Abula]

bechi wrote:
so why are they 4 pin connectors on the mobo if there are fake ? wtf asus ?

In asus defense, its the same with all manufactuers, at least the big ones like MSI, AsRock, Gigabyte, they mostly have 1 true PWM fan header, in some cases 2 (in MSI and Asrock), and the rest are 4pin phisically but voltage controlled, not 4pin pwm. Its just the way it is, if you wish to read more, check ASUS Z87-Deluxe fake 4-pin headers & other fan control info.

Its not a big deal either, as long as you understand how it works, you can plan accordingly and this issue is none existant, the problem is explaining better so users could plan what fans on which slot, even what case, and so on. But this is all i blame, lack of communication. Once you figure it out, its really nice FanXpert2.

[bechi]

Thank you for the information Abula, and yes you are right in my case is exactly that i did not know that they are "fake" and i bought PWM fans.I think asus are misleading ppl on purpose with the 4 pin connectors, why do you need to make 4 pin connector ? if 3 pin is all you need and the fourth pin is "dummy" ?, you can just make the mobo with 3 pins and 4 pins for the "real" pwm fan header.Anyway thanks again