Hello everyone,
After lots of researching in this forum, in the "Maintenance and Service Guide" and in the Internet, I thought it was time to ask here.
Some threads treated this subject (such as https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2087485-hp-z420-fan-control-isn-t-working?page=1 ), but I didn' t find them very helpful.
I 've got a refurbished Z420 v1 (Boot Block Date 12/28/2011) and I noticed that, stress-testing with CPU-Z, CPU fan won' t speed up until 80°C are hit, as to HWMonitor readings. This is with BIOS>Power>Thermal>Fan Idle Mode set to "0".
I read on other threads this is pretty normal and Xeons (E5-2680 in particular) can withstand easily that temperature; also my cooling system works very good as, when I stop the stress-testing, temperatures drop to 65°C within 1-2 seconds and in about 10 seconds it gets almost to 40°C.
Still, I would like to keep it under 60°C under load for reliability, since I' m going to run CFD simulations and CPU is going to be at 100% for hours.
I know I could set Fan Idle Mode to "6" (temperatures won' t go over 65°C), but this implies:
a) Noise increases dramatically;
b) I have to restart the PC before and after every simulation (which is pretty annoying);
c) All fans are sped up, while I'd just want the CPU fan to work some more.
So,
1) I thought about replacing the OEM heatsink with a liquid AIO system, possibly with PWM fan control, and I was thinking of Corsair ones (H80i, H100 GTX/v2 or H110i) which come with factory software for fan speed controlling. There could be some issues in fitting the radiator, but since I don' t care about aesthetics I 'll figure out some way.
OR
2) I thought about an external fan controller, but not much is being said on this.
Finally the real question:
Is it possible to do either one or the other solution on the stock Z420 motherboard?
What would be required by either solution 1) or 2)?
Thank you if you read this to the end.
Regards,
giobra
