Hello. At the beginning I will inform, that I was able to test Z400 version with 4 memory slots will work fine with X5690 processor, with 3.6 BIOS. There were plenty of considerations and doubts, which I want to clarify. BIOS recognizes CPU correctly.
Moreover, it will nicely use turbo feature on processor, so nominal frequency will even jump to 3.7GHz
I moved motherboard to some better PC case and I faced couple of problems-questions I want to post.
I was chceking how PWM for fans is working on this motherboard, as I couldnt find any description. When I compare service manual against what I see in BIOS, I'm confused.
1. Why in BIOS I see CPU0 and CPU1 temperatures, as this is single socket motherboard?
2. There is mismatch between FAN connectors in manual against what I see in BIOS. Please check screen:
Bios suggests there are more FAN connectors, while physically on motherboard I have only 4: CPU, front fan, rear fan and 'memory' (which is not mentioned in service manual), but this is in BIOS.
I don't undestand why there is 'chipset' fan, CPU1 fan. Also why frontal FAN is decribed in BIOS as 'PCI'? These are cosmetic questions (because I don't need these fans), but they bother me.
Also I was checking how PWM works ( I want this station to be quiet in idle), and here are some of my observations:
- when rear fan is disconnected, at POST BIOS complains about it and F1 has to be pressed to continue booting. Is this possible to deactivate this check, so BIOS is not complaining?
- when rear fan is disconnected, PWM for rear, front and 'memory' (4th FAN connector) goes to MAXIMUM. CPU fan stays as it was. Question is in general, if these principles are somewhere described, what happens to particular PWM in case some other fan is disconneced?
- I did some measurements with oscilloscope, how PWM signal looks like. In BIOS you can setup 7 levels of PWM for workstation in IDLE. So in principle, you may speed up all fans even in idle. Here are some results:
this is how PWM can be set from 'level1' to 'level7'. I will call that PWM1, PWM2...PWM7
PWM1, PWM2, PWM3, PWM4 respectively:
So at 'level4' can see, that PWM is almost 100%, not sure why there are still 3 levels up, which look like this:
PWM5, PWM6, PWM7. Surprisingly, when swithing between these levels I could hear fans were going still to higher speed at each level switch.
Question is, what affects PWM. Does Z400 look at memory temperature? Does it look at chipset temperatue?
Also I wonder qhat should be chipset temperature in IDLE, as this Z400 I'm testing is quite old itself and I see 55-60 degrees. Is this normal?
Regards and awating answer from some other fans...I meant: enthusiasts !