June 28, 201313 yr I noticed in the manual it says: Note: Please use all 3-pin fans or all 4-pin fans on a motherboard. Please do not use 3-pin fans and 4-pin fans on the same board. Why is that? All my fans are 3 pin fans except for the stock CPU cooler and one case fan. Therefor, I have 3 fans with 3 pins and 2 fan with 4 pins connected to the X9SCM-iif. Everything appears to be working. I could always move my 3 pin fans to a molex connector since they don't NEED to be connected to the MOBO, but I like connecting them to the MOBO to keep the wiring simple.
June 28, 201313 yr My guess (not having this mobo) is that they're talking about all the fan headers except the one for the CPU, which should have its own designated header. On many motherboards these accommodate 3 and 4 pin connectors, as heatsink fan connectors vary. Sent from a phone, sorry for any typos
June 28, 201313 yr Author My guess (not having this mobo) is that they're talking about all the fan headers except the one for the CPU, which should have its own designated header. On many motherboards these accommodate 3 and 4 pin connectors, as heatsink fan connectors vary. Sent from a phone, sorry for any typos Thanks for the reply. On this specific MOBO, there isn't a specific fan header for the CPU. It has Fan's 1-4 and Fan A. Not sure why it's "Fan A" instead of "Fan 5", but none are specific to the CPU. I have the CPU plugged into Fan 1.
June 28, 201313 yr I was wondering the same thing. And here is my non-empiric story: PWM don't seem to work as good when you mix 3 and 4 pins. I have slowly replaced all my 3 pins, and before I did that, when I was using 2 4-pins, the fans would be pretty static in RPM. But since replacing the last 3-pin I see a huge improvement in the control. Fans are spinning much lower more regulary now.
June 28, 201313 yr Author I was wondering the same thing. And here is my non-empiric story: PWM don't seem to work as good when you mix 3 and 4 pins. I have slowly replaced all my 3 pins, and before I did that, when I was using 2 4-pins, the fans would be pretty static in RPM. But since replacing the last 3-pin I see a huge improvement in the control. Fans are spinning much lower more regulary now. I've been playing around with some fan configurations and I'm seeing similar results When 3 pin fans are connected, fan speeds for the PWM fans seem to do odd things from time to time. When I disconnect my three 3 pin fans and only have PWM fans connected to the MOBO, it seems to run smoother and the fans stay at a constant (slow) speed. I may end up needing to connect my none PWM fans directly to a Molex connection and leave 3 of the fan headers on the MOBO open.
June 28, 201313 yr Author I was wondering the same thing. And here is my non-empiric story: PWM don't seem to work as good when you mix 3 and 4 pins. I have slowly replaced all my 3 pins, and before I did that, when I was using 2 4-pins, the fans would be pretty static in RPM. But since replacing the last 3-pin I see a huge improvement in the control. Fans are spinning much lower more regulary now. By the way, are you having any issues with your PWM fans spinning too slowly? I'm running a memtest check right now, and my CPU fan looks fine at 975RPM. However, my Noctua 120mm PWM fan is spinning at 300 RPM and IPMI is showing "Lower Critical" warnings for that specific fan.
June 28, 201313 yr Yes. I am seeing these alerts. I am pretty sure that Esxi is alerting due to the speeds below 700 rpm. 650 is a warning and under 500 is an alert. All my fans are regulary going down to 300 now. Temps are good, so I guess that is why.
June 28, 201313 yr Author I don't like how this board is handeling fan speeds. With just the stock intel cooler connected to the board, it spins around 1200 RPM while running memtest. However, if I connect a Noctua 120mm PWM fan, the Noctua fan spins at 300 RPM and the CPU at 975. I feel more comfortable letting the MOBO control just the CPU speed, and me controlling the fan speeds myself. Most of the fans are 1200 RPM, but I have adapters for 900 or 700 RPM as well. Once I get the build completely finished I'll do some testing to see differences in noise and temperature with different fan speeds. I wish there was more control over the fan speeds using PWM on the MOBO... and I also wish I could mix and match PWM and 3 pin fans on the Mobo. Oh well... it's not a big deal at the end of the day.
June 28, 201313 yr But without all 4 wire fans you only get tach info, thus fan failure alerts. Also anything but 4 wire is just making noise and using power. You really should use all 4 wire fans. Yes, it is odd they restrict you to all 4 wire fans. Underneath you'll find that there are really only two PWM controls, one for fanA, and the other for fan1-4. Which works perfectly for 4224, fanA is CPU and fan1-4 fanwall. Also if your connecting several large fans, and using the PCIe slots, you'll run out of power. Per SuperMicro the (5) fan headers share a power budget with the slots.. Thus I highly recommend not powering the fans from the fan headers, only connect the tach and PWM to the motherboard. Run power direct from the power supply.
June 28, 201313 yr Author But without all 4 wire fans you only get tach info, thus fan failure alerts. Also anything but 4 wire is just making noise and using power. You really should use all 4 wire fans. Yes, it is odd they restrict you to all 4 wire fans. Underneath you'll find that there are really only two PWM controls, one for fanA, and the other for fan1-4. Which works perfectly for 4224, fanA is CPU and fan1-4 fanwall. Also if your connecting several large fans, and using the PCIe slots, you'll run out of power. Per SuperMicro the (5) fan headers share a power budget with the slots.. Thus I highly recommend not powering the fans from the fan headers, only connect the tach and PWM to the motherboard. Run power direct from the power supply. Well that makes it easy for me then. I'm going to be using 2, and eventually 3 of the PCI-E slots, so the only fan I'll plug into the MOBO will be the CPU.
June 28, 201313 yr But without all 4 wire fans you only get tach info, thus fan failure alerts. Also anything but 4 wire is just making noise and using power. You really should use all 4 wire fans. Yes, it is odd they restrict you to all 4 wire fans. Underneath you'll find that there are really only two PWM controls, one for fanA, and the other for fan1-4. Which works perfectly for 4224, fanA is CPU and fan1-4 fanwall. Also if your connecting several large fans, and using the PCIe slots, you'll run out of power. Per SuperMicro the (5) fan headers share a power budget with the slots.. Thus I highly recommend not powering the fans from the fan headers, only connect the tach and PWM to the motherboard. Run power direct from the power supply. Well that makes it easy for me then. I'm going to be using 2, and eventually 3 of the PCI-E slots, so the only fan I'll plug into the MOBO will be the CPU. You really want no fan alerts? And no control?
June 28, 201313 yr Author But without all 4 wire fans you only get tach info, thus fan failure alerts. Also anything but 4 wire is just making noise and using power. You really should use all 4 wire fans. Yes, it is odd they restrict you to all 4 wire fans. Underneath you'll find that there are really only two PWM controls, one for fanA, and the other for fan1-4. Which works perfectly for 4224, fanA is CPU and fan1-4 fanwall. Also if your connecting several large fans, and using the PCIe slots, you'll run out of power. Per SuperMicro the (5) fan headers share a power budget with the slots.. Thus I highly recommend not powering the fans from the fan headers, only connect the tach and PWM to the motherboard. Run power direct from the power supply. Well that makes it easy for me then. I'm going to be using 2, and eventually 3 of the PCI-E slots, so the only fan I'll plug into the MOBO will be the CPU. You really want no fan alerts? And no control? I'm confused... because you mentioned if I was using larger fans and PCI-E slots, not to use the fan headers on the MOBO? I'd love for the fans to be automated IF they worked how I'd like them to work. However, on this board, I have no control over fan speeds and thresholds. I'm not OK with my fans spinning at 300 RPM because that's not enough air moving for me. I still have control over my fan speeds connecting them to my PSU. I can switch between 1200, 900, and 700 RPM on my fans with a simple adapter cable. The only thing I'm missing out on is automating the whole thing. But since the X9SCM doesn't allow me to set the automation thresholds for each fan, it's useless to me.
June 28, 201313 yr ...just a side note. Thresholds for sensor values are part of the BIOS/IPMI Firmware. That is the reason why you also see them in IPMI, regardless of whether you run on ESXi or not. Aarms are generated by the BIOS. ESXi is only using the same CIM structures and relies on them. If you want lower thresholds, ask SM Support for a new BIOS/IPMI-FW (not that I think they would provide one, but you'll never know...)
June 28, 201313 yr I'm confused... because you mentioned if I was using larger fans and PCI-E slots, not to use the fan headers on the MOBO? I'd love for the fans to be automated IF they worked how I'd like them to work. However, on this board, I have no control over fan speeds and thresholds. I'm not OK with my fans spinning at 300 RPM because that's not enough air moving for me. I still have control over my fan speeds connecting them to my PSU. I can switch between 1200, 900, and 700 RPM on my fans with a simple adapter cable. The only thing I'm missing out on is automating the whole thing. But since the X9SCM doesn't allow me to set the automation thresholds for each fan, it's useless to me. I said Thus I highly recommend not powering the fans from the fan headers You can power the fans from your PSU, but connect the tach and pwm to the fan headers on the motherboard. Then you put no power demand on the motherboard but have all the function of both fan control and alerting. I but something like this at Fry's and cut the extra wires http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119248 But you can build your own. Since the part from Fry's is $2-3, I don't.
June 28, 201313 yr ...just a side note. Thresholds for sensor values are part of the BIOS/IPMI Firmware. That is the reason why you also see them in IPMI, regardless of whether you run on ESXi or not. Aarms are generated by the BIOS. ESXi is only using the same CIM structures and relies on them. If you want lower thresholds, ask SM Support for a new BIOS/IPMI-FW (not that I think they would provide one, but you'll never know...) I think you can change those settings with ipmitool.
June 29, 201313 yr ...just a side note. Thresholds for sensor values are part of the BIOS/IPMI Firmware. That is the reason why you also see them in IPMI, regardless of whether you run on ESXi or not. Aarms are generated by the BIOS. ESXi is only using the same CIM structures and relies on them. If you want lower thresholds, ask SM Support for a new BIOS/IPMI-FW (not that I think they would provide one, but you'll never know...) I think you can change those settings with ipmitool. Hmmm...I only use the web-IF. I remember that I once had a BIOS for my X8SIL-F reporting lower NC Threshold of 750rpm for the fans...version before had set it to 600rpm and SM did send me another - after I filed a ticket - that is at 585rpm now.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.