Random Hardware topics

[neogunhero]

Wonders if CPU temp was Cores or Package. I expect its cores since they normally the cooler of the two. 47 on package in games would be impressive. I am lucky if I hit that at idle unless its 8c outside (like right now).

47 on cores in game is pretty good either way. Could be most of the load of the game is on GPU though. . If CPU just sitting there doing nothing it is easy to stay cool.

I'll have to look again and post some screens of HWInfo. That game specifically already ran fairly cool on both compared to other games, so I'll also need to test more games, get a more realistic view of the temps. It's a graphically impressive game but by no means the most demanding. I tend to get higher temps in Pirate Yakuza, and I haven't played that in about a week, so I'll have to try that again.

I'm just happy I'm pretty much done with my PC for a while. It's been a nearly two week journey doing everything I did. It's a well needed upgrade, and certainly a welcome one. The temps here haven't gone above 70F, so it's still quite cool outside. Once the summer comes here in the northern hemisphere, it usually gets up to 90-100F, so that will be the real test of my cooling upgrades.

 

[Colif]

random thumping noise is back... ai shows it could be cooler not mounted right, I will have to check it. Not many other things in cooler that would cause it.

Guess its been a month between problems... sigh. I had hoped Mouse was my March problem. This should be easily solved.

we had two cool days but its back up to 86F by end of the week, but summer is meant to end next month so there is that to look forward too. I expect pretty cool temps out of this PC in winter.

 

[neogunhero]

random thumping noise is back... ai shows it could be cooler not mounted right, I will have to check it. Not many other things in cooler that would cause it.

Screws loose or not mounted to mobo properly? Thumping would indicate something is moving, rocking back and forth. Very strange.

 

[Colif]

Potential causes - As per AI

Spoiler

1. Loose Screws or Mounting Issues:

1. Check the cooler's mounting: Ensure the cooler is securely mounted to the motherboard, and that all screws are tightened properly.
2. Verify the mounting plate: Make sure the mounting plate on the motherboard is also securely attached.
3. Reseat the cooler: If you suspect a loose connection, carefully remove the cooler, clean the thermal paste, and reattach it with new thermal paste.

2. Fan Issues:

1. Check the fan blades:
2. Inspect the fan blades for any damage or obstructions.
3. Verify fan connectivity:
4. Ensure the fan is properly connected to the motherboard and that the fan speed is set correctly.
5. Test with a different fan:
6. If possible, try swapping the fan with a known working fan to see if the noise persists.
7. Try lowering the fan speed:
8. If the noise is only happening at high speeds, try lowering the fan speed in your BIOS/UEFI settings.

3. Other Potential Causes:

1. Loose components:
2. Check for any other loose components in your PC case that could be vibrating and causing the noise.
3. Resonance:
4. Sometimes, the noise can be caused by resonance within the case, try to move the cooler to a different location or add some dampening material to the case.

1 seems plausible, fans sound normal to me so I don't think it is 2. Its not a resonant sound, as I have had that before. I know what it sounds like

its not very loud, can only hear it when house is dead quiet so I don't know how lose the screw is. I can't tell if noise is always there as fans may drown it out. Does seem to come from behind the cooler... so 1 looks realistic.

I do have to be near PC to hear it, so its not loud or anything. I am just making sure its not a problem I can fix.

I will look on the weekend. Its about earliest I will have time.

 

[neogunhero]

So that slim top exhaust fan I got has PST, PWM Sharing Technology. It has two connectors, one 4-pin and one 3-pin. I have never seen this before, so I only plugged the 4-pin into the Noctua PWM splitter. However, after using the PC for a while the fan stop spinning. I can see the blades sitting idle. My fan curve is set through the BIOS and it’s on the normal function, which will spin even at low temps. Copilot says I should try plugging both into the splitter. I haven’t done that yet, do you guys think that will work? Maybe I just need to try a new header too.

Somehow I unplugged my SATA SSD too, so I guess I’ll be fiddling around inside my pc again tonight.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

PST just seems to mean that you can plug another fan into it so you only use one port. I wouldnt think it would make a difference but I havent ingested the entire internet like Co-pilot so worth a shot.

Sounds to me like the low range on your fan doesnt work below whatever you have set as the low range on the mobo. Does it spin up when the other fans arent idle? Might be you would have to set the low range a bit higher on the fan curve to make it work all the time.

Could also check in BIOS that fan port is set to PWM and not Voltage control, dont know if that would help or not.

 

[neogunhero]

PST just seems to mean that you can plug another fan into it so you only use one port. I wouldnt think it would make a difference but I havent ingested the entire internet like Co-pilot so worth a shot.

Sounds to me like the low range on your fan doesnt work below whatever you have set as the low range on the mobo. Does it spin up when the other fans arent idle? Might be you would have to set the low range a bit higher on the fan curve to make it work all the time.

Could also check in BIOS that fan port is set to PWM and not Voltage control, dont know if that would help or not.

It at least spins on start up, not sure for how long, but it stays spinning for a while. It’s usually after I get off the game and check the temp charts that I notice it’s stopped. You’re right about PST, that’s what it says on the product page, you can daisy chain fans together if you had a few in a row like on a radiator. Copilot suggested perhaps it wasn’t getting the full power since one is not connected, but I’m not sure if that’s correct. I’ll give it a shot and mess around with the BIOS settings too.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

So your not sure if its running while youre gaming? Could try running a short CPU benchmark to see if it spins up when the others do. CPUZ has a quick and easy one thats not too demanding but works the CPU a bit. I use it sometimes for that kind of thing.

CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

CPU-Z for Windows® x86/x64 is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system : Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels. Mainboard and chipset. Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD). Real time...

www.cpuid.com

 

[neogunhero]

Fiddled around in the BIOS and noticed all the headers were set to "Auto" instead of PWM, so I promptly changed them all, even ones I'm not using. My best guess is that some of the headers don't default to PWM when set to Auto, for example the Pump headers may default to Voltage mode which puts the fan at 100% constantly, but I could be wrong about defaulting to different settings. That also doesn't explain why the fan just stops. Also found out I actually have about 7-8 different headers, I told Colif I only had 3 which was incorrect.

I ran the CPUZ test for a few minutes and played some Insurgency Sandstorm for about 30, and I don't think the fan stopped spinning. It's easier to see when it's night and the room is dark as the light from the mobo shines up through the fan, but I think it stayed spinning the whole time. I also set the manual fan curve up a little more, so at 0-35c all fans spin at minimum 40% as opposed to the 15% it was set to on Normal mode.

I'll have to give it longer of a test tomorrow, just to make sure the fans really are spinning. The 30 minutes of Sandstorm I played gave me pretty much the exact same thermals as yesterday when I played for an hour: GPU hovered around 60c, CPU hovered around 50c, so I wonder if the fan just stopped after I closed the game last night? I have no idea, it's kind of strange.

Different topic, but one thing I wish I would have done was take better benchmarks and recorded more data before I did all of this to my PC. Just for curiosity's sake really, because so far every game I've played recently has been running really cool in my PC, so I have no complaints about that. I just wonder how much of a real improvement I've made. I've realized the Furmark benchmark three times back-to-back is not a great way to really see how much cooler your GPU is running. I should have played a game for a while or even did in-game benchmarks on actually demanding games and see how it compares. Oh well, again it runs very cool so I'm very happy either way.

 

[Colif]

Also found out I actually have about 7-8 different headers, I told Colif I only had 3 which was incorrect.

that would have been obvious if you had looked in your manual

https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_z370-aorus-gaming-5_1002_e_190520.pdf?v=e698dd0a80367a7a8cd1c1394b454e56

I am missing all the ones that you have along bottom of the board. I guess if you never looked down there, it be easy enough to miss them.
My next board only has them along the edges I think? for some reason all the fan headers are at the base on it. Apart from the CPU ones.
Current one matches up with your system fan 1 & 2 locations, I don't have any others. I have the CPU & Pump ones.

That also doesn't explain why the fan just stops

what fan just stops?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I ran the CPUZ test for a few minutes and played some Insurgency Sandstorm for about 30, and I don't think the fan stopped spinning. It's easier to see when it's night and the room is dark as the light from the mobo shines up through the fan, but I think it stayed spinning the whole time. I also set the manual fan curve up a little more, so at 0-35c all fans spin at minimum 40% as opposed to the 15% it was set to on Normal mode.

I'll have to give it longer of a test tomorrow, just to make sure the fans really are spinning. The 30 minutes of Sandstorm I played gave me pretty much the exact same thermals as yesterday when I played for an hour: GPU hovered around 60c, CPU hovered around 50c, so I wonder if the fan just stopped after I closed the game last night? I have no idea, it's kind of strange.

I dont think its that strange, Ive had two fans of the exact same model have different low ends for RPM where one would kind of stop spinning, sort of hitching and the other would slowly spin consistantly. Both ran fine at faster speeds, and I read in a few places that its just normal variance.

They might have been voltage controlled though, I had a fan controller that needed DC fans so I had a lot of non pwm ones.

Different topic, but one thing I wish I would have done was take better benchmarks and recorded more data before I did all of this to my PC. Just for curiosity's sake really, because so far every game I've played recently has been running really cool in my PC, so I have no complaints about that. I just wonder how much of a real improvement I've made. I've realized the Furmark benchmark three times back-to-back is not a great way to really see how much cooler your GPU is running. I should have played a game for a while or even did in-game benchmarks on actually demanding games and see how it compares. Oh well, again it runs very cool so I'm very happy either way.

Dont know if you knew about them but 3D Mark has a free Steam version and I think UniEngine (Superposition, Valley, Heaven) is free. I usually run them both when I change something with the PC to make sure its all going as it should be.

 

[Colif]

Some fans do have a zero rpm mode but it is normally controlled by the fan curves in bios or software.
I can set mine as off in the gigabyte System Info Viewer app, then set a point in temp where it will cut them off.

See option in bottom left corner under the graph. Once its clicked you can select the minimum temp by sliding the last dot along the curve. Those are Noctua fans and as you can tell from chart on the right, they run at 0 speed at 0pwm. So check the curves out.

SIV calibrates the fans when you run it first so it knows what speeds your fans can run.

I could in theory set a 0 rpm for case fans but I think I leave them spinning to cool GPU/Nvme and feed CPU cooler. I see in winter how i go.

My CPU fan runs at 535rpm minimum so its nice to know it won't go that low at all.

SIV itself puts load on the system so it can be fun getting a fan curve right at lower temps

I too run 3dmark and Heaven/Superposition before/after any major change... though maybe not fans. I did for my CPU & GPU when I replaced them.

I would think that if PC is running cooler in games, it is likely performing better as it can boost higher than before without making a great difference to heat.

SIV is available for your motherboard, you get it using the App centre. If you use App centre, make sure to click the x next to select all in the download area or you get a bunch of extras you don't want. it normally shows in the title area for different types of software

so the white circle next to third party was ticked by default and would have downloaded all the things below I didn't want.