Noobish Question

[tanxsora]

First I wanna say that im new to the toms hardware forum but I have read many articles in the past 8 months since building my first system and have loved them all.

So that being said, since I have gotten more comfortable with my system I decided to get speedfan so I could lower fan speeds and make my system a little quieter, and where it shows the voltages on the psu rails the 12 volt rail only reads out 4 volts, and sometimes saying 4.8V.

So my question is, is this normal? Is there something wrong that it would be saying this? the 5 volt rail is showing 5.05V and the 3.3 is reading out 0. I don't have a video card and the only thing extra I have is an asus dvd burner. So are those readings normal? Thanks in advance!

 

[hairystuff]

I've found that speedfan represents voltages wrongly on the 12v rail for some reason on certain motherboards, try HWMonitor instead, I've found it to be more accurate than speedfan when it comes to voltage representation, I don't think it allows for fanspeed adustments though but it doesn't require installation.

 

[davcon]

I would tend to agree with the above poster.
After all it's freeware that can be buggy cuz of all the different configurations out there.
Just try something else until Speedfan releases a new version.

 

[jitpublisher]

First I wanna say that im new to the toms hardware forum but I have read many articles in the past 8 months since building my first system and have loved them all.

So that being said, since I have gotten more comfortable with my system I decided to get speedfan so I could lower fan speeds and make my system a little quieter, and where it shows the voltages on the psu rails the 12 volt rail only reads out 4 volts, and sometimes saying 4.8V.

So my question is, is this normal? Is there something wrong that it would be saying this? the 5 volt rail is showing 5.05V and the 3.3 is reading out 0. I don't have a video card and the only thing extra I have is an asus dvd burner. So are those readings normal? Thanks in advance!

Have you checked to see if you CPU fan speed can modified in the BIOS?

 

[tanxsora]

I used hwmonitor (already had it just never used because it couldnt control fan speed) and sure enough it reported everything was fine. And @jitpublisher, I believe my BIOS has the option but I usually only turn the speed down when im watching a movie else I have them full blast so it would be inconvenient to restart every time I wished to watch something.

 

[jitpublisher]

The BIOS will adjust the fan speed up and down as needed, to keep the CPU at or below a certain temp, there is nothing you need to do other than tunr on that feature.
At idle, the fan will slow down to a minimal speed, and speed up as your CPU usage and heat goes up. The BIOS will usually do this quite well on its own, unless you are a big overclocker, then the other programs like Speedfan will allow you to better taylor your needs, and they too can be set to do it all automatically. It would crazy to try and manually set your fan speed all the time.

 

[justin_2]

dude, i think the best way is to install a manual fan control in the front of your case, They look cool and in the long run you can ajust speed to suit your current needs. Gaming? simply turn the fans up, less hardware usage? turn them down or off, easy and simple!
try something like this: http://www.crazypc.com/products/fc-2-82981BK.html

 

[tanxsora]

@ jitpublisher, I wasnt aware it did it automatically, i will have to set that up, thanks for the info!

@justin_2, i was considering getting one, but everything I have found is overly complicated for my tastes, I prefer very basic simple displays.

 

[tanxsora]

Best answer selected by tanxsora.