CPU cooling, fan speed control and safe running temperature?

[Dstyle]

hey guys

Baisically i'm trying to get my PC a bit more 'silent' and at the moment the majority of the noise i coming from the CPU fan.

Currently my CPU temp, according to the bios (only way i know to check it, i'm pretty much a clueless fool when it comes to this kind of stuff) is at a steady 33 degrees/celcius. First question is what temperature can i safely let it go up to without doing any damage? (it's winter as well at the moment and my room isn't that warm, so i guess that has to be taken in to account). My cpu isn't overclocked, it's an intel quad core Q6600, running on an ASUS P5Q series mobo.

Second question is how would i go about altering the cpu cooler fan speed? At the moment it is plugged in to the fan header on the mobo and the bios states it is running at around 2000rpm. The heatsink/fan is a cooler master 212 plus.

Is there any way i can adjust the speed via the bios (I couldn't seem to find a way). Or do i need to buy a specific fan speed controller for it? if so what would you recommend? all i am looking for is a simple way to get the speed down, preferably without blowing up my cpu in the process.

Thanks in advance

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Most enthusiast boards include fan speed control but you will have to check your MoBo manual to see just what you have to work with. The CPU Fan should be connected to the CPU Fan Header....not the Chassis Fan Header or any other header. When in your BIOS, the only temp you gonna see is idle speed cause your PC isn't doing squat while you're in the BIOS.

Download CoreTemp or Real Temp to see temps or to actually torture test the system while reading the temps (and voltages) download OCCT.

http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

Also might want to try SpeedFan

 

[Dstyle]

Most enthusiast boards include fan speed control but you will have to check your MoBo manual to see just what you
have to work with. The CPU Fan should be connected to the CPU Fan Header....not the Chassis Fan Header or any other header. When in your BIOS, the only temp you gonna see is idle speed cause your PC isn't doing squat while you're in the BIOS.

Download CoreTemp or Real Temp to see temps or to actually torture test the system while reading the temps (and voltages) download OCCT.

http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

Also might want to try SpeedFan

hey, thanks for the response

i ddefinatly can't seem to find any way of adjusting the fan speed in the bios. My mobo driver disk installed some software that allows me to adjust performance etc but the 'fan' section is locked and claims something along the lines of "use bios setting" and there does not appear to be a way to get access to it, I guess i'll try look through the manual / search online for an answer.

I downloaded coretemp and got these readings
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4710/coretempscrc.png

are those temps high or low?
I guess the 'load' would be how active the cpu is, my computer wasn't doing much, i had a harddrive to harddrive transfer going on but that was about it, i imagine the most excessive thing i'd ever use the CPU for would be to play a few games. (halo, and WoW) i don't see anything pushing it all that much.

thanks again for any help.

 

[Dstyle]

just another update

i took another screenshot when i'd loaded up a game and put it in a scenario that i imagine would push the processor a bit. Also still had a harddrive transfer occuring to.

I'll maybe try that specific test base software that was recomended tomorrow. Like i said i'm just trying to work out what temperature's are acceptable / won't fry my pc and if i can therefore lower my cpu cooler fan speed (which i still need to work out how to do).

screenshot:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5449/coretempscr2.png

 

[das_stig]

In the BIOS, under Power --> Hardware Monitor you should have options to control the speed of cpu and chassis fans using the Q-Fan control.

 

[Dstyle]

ah right, that does look familiar.

will enabling that q fan control give me access to the fan settings in the mobo software (think it's call sk-engine) or does it still require the use of the bios. Either way i'll give it a go and see what happens.