Gigabyte smart fan?

[PrPete]

I'm about to buy this motherboard:

Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 Socket 775

and have been reading about the "smart fan" technology. Apparently the default setting in the BIOS is for the cpu fan speed to be controlled via the temperature. This means the fan is not always on. This is espcially evident when you turn your new build on for the first time as the fan may not spin leading to the assumption that it is not working.

Does anyone have any experience with gigabyte boards that have this smart fan feature. Do you use it? Did you turn it off as soon as you could? Did your cpu cope with the initial turn on procedure? What sort of temperatures did it reach with/without the smart fan technology?

Your views would be appriciated.

[Erik]

I'm about to buy this motherboard:

Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3 Socket 775

[COLOR=#000000]

I've just bought the exact same motherboard, only mine isn't working so I have to return it and get a replacement
Since I mail ordered it this is probably going to take a week or two.

Do you use it?

I think I'm going to use it, why not?

Did your cpu cope with the initial turn on procedure?

Why wouldn't it?
It takes about two seconds until the fan starts turning, but the heat sink keeps the CPU from overheating in the meantime.

What sort of temperatures did it reach with/without the smart fan technology?

From what I understand the fan will turn at maximum speed when the temperatures get too high, so I don't think "smart fan" makes any difference under load.
The idle temperatures will be a bit higher, but that doesn't really matter.

--

I just hope my ASUS 8800 GTS 320MB has something like "smart fan" too.
That thing is so loud! especially compared to everything else in the case.

Are you going to use a separate video card too, or are you just going to stick with the on-board graphics?

[PrPete]

Ah good. A test case .

What components are you going to be using with the board?

The reason I ask about the smart fan feature is that some people seem to having trouble with it. That is the CPU fan isn't spinning when it should and therefore the cpu is overheating. I'll try and find the links and post back when I have them.

[Erik]

Ah good. A test case .

Yeah...although my experience so far isn't good.

What components are you going to be using with the board?

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300.
ASUS GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB.
2GB DDR2-800.
Two Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB hard-disks (in RAID 0 and 1).
Plus some components from my old PC.

The reason I ask about the smart fan feature is that some people seem to having trouble with it. That is the CPU fan isn't spinning when it should and therefore the cpu is overheating. I'll try and find the links and post back when I have them.

Well, if it's not working as it supposed to do I'm probably going to switch it off.

But I'm not too worried about my CPU overheating.
Modern Intel processors have great heat protection: if things start to get too hot the CPU will automatically slow itself down to a very low power state.

Even if the heat-sink falls off completely you can still continue to use your Intel computer, although your CPU will run so slow that you can't do much more than save your work and shut down windows.

[sdjenkyn]

I have a gig board w/ smart fan. It works fine as it makes your fan quieter also , has some sort of cool and quiet software also. I went with a zalman copper pipe over the standard heatsink/ fan set-up. So in bios you will probably have to set your fan detect setting to off as it can be twitchy and give odd readings. Anyway it works but you may have to tweak your bios a little.

[Erik]

Ok, I've been testing it for a week now.

So far I have had no problems with smart fan, and since it reduces noise levels (although just marginally, since the intel stock cooling isn't making much noise anyways) I prefer to keep it on.

I am also happy to report that my ASUS GeForce 8800GTS 320 reduces fan speed too.
It's getting awfully hot though (the graphics car I mean, my CPU is much cooler), but at least it's not sounding like a vacuum cleaner when I'm not gaming.