The Aquaero 5 came in PRO, XT, and LT (bare board) versions. 6 is only PRO and XT (what I have).
I'm personally surprised to hear myself say this. For me, if I could still find the 5-version as bare-board, the relative price could lead me to the bare-board -- without even looking at PRO or XT versions. I used to plan on plenty of 5.25" bay panels available. While I need at least two when I'm building a system, I'll go without adding something I'd get through reliable USB-link and software. I'd look at it differently if I continued allowing myself to use full-tower cases, which I still did until 2008. A 2007 Q6600 system was some 4" higher than full-tower spec -- a Proliant Server case modded to future needs. I made the mistake of handing it off to a family member, and getting it back now is unlikely. But it was just too big.
On the other hand, I've always chosen to mod a new parts purchase right away as needed, if I could reassemble it to clear an RMA process. Unless, of course, there's some decal seal that has to be broken. But why would they do that, if they had offered the LT in the earlier model? Don't think they would.
Hence the reason why I'm not installing any software to control the fan speed. I don't need all that extra jazz
I think there is a misconception about this, if only for a subset of motherboard manufacturers. And if the remainder haven't climbed on the bandwagon to provide controllable and reliable 3-pin-plus-PWM ports, they're going to lose out to market segments that include me.
This is also why I try and stick with ASUS boards, although EVGA seemed pretty good. I'd also suspect that the ASRock boards are good with these features.
ASUS provides the ASUS Suite software, which is really a main menu exposable from a monitoring window. You only need to open the software when you need to. I often run Afterburner in the background, and I don't want the Suite monitor to complicate or conflict. But sometimes, the ASUS monitor provides info that overlaps and augments the other software, like AIDA64, HWMonitor and so forth.
You can "turn off" the plug-ins associated with the Suite. So I prefer tuning my overclock in the BIOS, and I de-activate the Turbo-EVO feature in the Suite.
Among those components of Suite, there is a Fan Xpert program or parallel with a newer name. Basically, setting two or three different fan profiles for specified motherboard ports is only a graphical UI tool to change BIOS parameters affecting thermal fan control. But once you've set the fan curves to your liking, you neither need to run ASUS Suite nor Fan Xpert.
The fan software component also has a testing feature -- good in assessing relative noise of a fan or fan-group. On my system and version of Suite, I can only test the fan(s) connected to the CPU_FAN PWM port (including anything connected to CPU_FAN_OPT.)
Otherwise, once you've set up the fan configuration, there's no "software clutter."
I look for decent fan features even when I have to buy a board replacement. Sometimes you can't get everything you want, but at least strive to find what you need.
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