Xigmatek HDT-S1283 question

[Urtho]

I'm fairly certain that the fan on my -S1283 is DOA but I want to confirm before I RMA it. Installed on an E8400/Gigabyte DS3L, the fan will briefly rock ever so slightly maybe 1/10th of a turn in one direction and then back in the other every 10-15 seconds or so like it is trying to start up but can't. It will otherwise make no sound or motion. All other case/PSU fans spin normally, it's only this CPU fan that has issues. Tested the system with the stock Intel cooler and that fan spins fine at ~ 650 RPM. There is no OS installed on this system at this time as it is a new build, will be Vista HP x64 once I solve this issue.

This isn't some type of auto-shutoff for this fan for when it isn't needed at low CPU temps is it? There is such an option in the DS3L's bios FWIW but turning it off changed nothing. I know the Peryn chips run very cool so I let the system run while sitting in the bios temp screen on case fans and the heatsink itself only for about 15 minutes. System temp got up to 40C with the side case door removed and CPU temp hovered right around 30C without the fan ever doing anything beyond what I've said above.

Any ideas?

 

[SkuLLyRT]

Are you sure that PC Health Status -> CPU Smart Fan Control is disabled in your BIOS? I just did a fresh build with the same setup this weekend and had the exact same thing happen with my S1283. It wasn't until I used the included dongle to plug my S1283's fan into the standard 4-pin molex connector that I realized it must have been something in the BIOS throttling it.

Try connecting your fan to the 4-pin molex and see if it spins. If it does, look through your BIOS settings one more time.

If it doesn't spin up, toss an email to Xigmatek's US office. They're very prompt with responses and would surely help you correct that problem.

 

[Urtho]

Originally posted by: SkuLLyRT
Are you sure that PC Health Status -> CPU Smart Fan Control is disabled in your BIOS? I just did a fresh build with the same setup this weekend and had the exact same thing happen with my S1283.

Problem solved, fan is spinning normally at ~ 1400 RPM. :thumbsup:

I feel like an idiot now as I was sure I did test it with the CPU Smart Fan Control setting turned off. Only thing I can think of is that I was doing several bios tweaks and general looking over as I usually do with a new system. I must have tried that one and then not saved the changes for that particular reboot cycle. Sigh, such a rookie mistake that.

One question does occur to me however - at what temp does the fan actually turn on with that feature enabled? I had it at the temps you see above and it still wasn't on. Granted sitting in the bios health screen isn't exactly the same stress level as playing some Crysis, but I would have thought it would be spinning at a lower RPM level at least once those temps started to rise. Since I plan at least some mild overclocking I would hope it would turn on at some point.

Or do you not use that setting at all and just leave the fan running normally and forget about that option? It does seem like a nice feature as any noise reduction from idle fans when they're not needed would be welcome. I can't tell you how irritating the system I'm typing this on sounds just doing simple things like web browsing.

 

[fallsroad]

I have the same heat sink, CPU, and a DS4 board.

I'm over clocked to 3.6GHz, and the fan doesn't come on until the OS is close to fully loaded, sometimes shortly after.

What temp is dependent upon which reference you use.
It begins to spin up somewhere over 32C in the BIOS for me.

I prefer using the Smart Fan Control - keeps the fan spinning inaudibly for most of the time, unless the CPU comes under heavy load. Then it spins up and does its job. The heat sink is very efficient on its own, and normally doesn't require anything close to 1400rpm to keep the CPU cool.