Help, Can ASUS Chassis Fan be connected to Chipset Fan Connector?

I have an ASUS A8N SLI Premium with AMD 3800+ and two chassis fans
plus one Zalman 9500 CPU fan. Both chassis fans are connected to the
MB fan connections but ASUS Probe 2 does not show the speed for the
rear fan while Chipset Fan monitoring is not utilized.

Is there any restriction to changing the rear fan connection from the
chassis to the chipset pinout?

One of my reasons for attempting this is an additional attempt to
lower the noise level. I changed the standard AMD cooler to the
Zalman with no noticeable drop in noise while the cooling did improve
ranging betwe 27C and 30C. I suspect the dominant noise is from the
rear chassis fan.

Both chassis fans are variable and I have no way of knowing if the
rear is working at slower speeds.

One more question for anyone familiar with the Zalman. Fan Mate 2. If
you do not use it will the MB adjust the fan speed based upon cooling
requirements?

Thanks in advance for all the great info in this group.

Paco

 

I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

Easy enough to figure out - just unplug each fan connection one at a
time and note the sound level.

Connect it directly to a power supply connector which does not restrict
speed, and note the sound level.

You have to enable the Q-Fan feature and adjust the Temp and Fan speed
settings in the BIOS. But once you do that, yes it will control the
speed of the Zalman 9500. The slow speed is 1600rpm and max is 2700rpm.

 

Thanks Bill for the prompt responses. Once again I'll be opening the
case to do some experimentation.

A couple of notes; while the case fan varies approx 7% (1132 to 1074)
my cpu varies a little over 1% (2410 to 2376). Somewhat less than the
2700 quoted even though I have the Fan Mate turned to max. I wonder
if there might be some variance in the sensor reading or has Q-Fan
determined I do not need that much fan speed. I fankly don't know!

Paco

 

Just so you know, my case fans are running at a medium speed setting
(three speeds). Turning them up to high just makes more noise and
doesn't really help with cooling. Running them at low doesn't move
enough air to keep it at the lowest temps either.

You'll have to experiment to find the best settings.

You can't reach max speed with the Fan-Mate control attached. Even at
the maximum setting it limits power flow slightly bringing it down to a
typical speed of about 2600rpm. If you're not getting up to 2600rpm,
then the Q-Fan control is dropping it as well or you don't have a good
connection.

Note that I run my Zalman 9500 directly off the motherboard CPU fan
connector and it hits ~2700rpm. I don't use Q-Fan because I want to keep
my CPU as cool as possible since it's overclocked 25%. It's always busy
doing something whether I'm actively using the computer or not, so there
is no need for Q-Fan or Cool n Quiet on my system.

And I certainly don't want the fan noise to go up and down - that's more
annoying than being a bit too loud all the time. Plus if I'm used to the
sound it makes, any change is immediately recognized as a problem.