Swapping CPU fans from Commander to CPU fan header on motherboard

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sean16

Bronze Level Poster
Hi there.

I have an ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming motherboard and a Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB CPU cooler, and I want to connect the CPU fans to my motherboard in order to control them via Fan Control as they are currently controlled by the CPU commander. However, I'm a bit stumped on how to do this correctly.

I've tried looking for tutorials on how to properly swap the two but most of what I can find are tutorials for people who are in the process of building their PC and are connecting their fans to either or.

I know I have to connect my CPU fans to the CPU_FAN header on my motherboard but I dunno if it's just a case of simply swapping some cables or if I have to use an additional cable. I have a 3-pin TKG 2510 cable in my Welcome Pack with 2 black 2-pin and 1 white 3-pin connectors attached but I'm not sure if this is the correct cable.

As for the commander, do I just leave it in there or should I remove it? Sorry for the daft questions, just looking for a step-by-step guide on how to do it before I attempt it. I don't want to end up with both connected simultaneously or some strange wiring going on.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
sean16 said:
Hi there.

I have an ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming motherboard and a Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB CPU cooler, and I want to connect the CPU fans to my motherboard in order to control them via Fan Control as they are currently controlled by the CPU commander. However, I'm a bit stumped on how to do this correctly.

I've tried looking for tutorials on how to properly swap the two but most of what I can find are tutorials for people who are in the process of building their PC and are connecting their fans to either or.

I know I have to connect my CPU fans to the CPU_FAN header on my motherboard but I dunno if it's just a case of simply swapping some cables or if I have to use an additional cable. I have a 3-pin TKG 2510 cable in my Welcome Pack with 2 black 2-pin and 1 white 3-pin connectors attached but I'm not sure if this is the correct cable.

As for the commander, do I just leave it in there or should I remove it? Sorry for the daft questions, just looking for a step-by-step guide on how to do it before I attempt it. I don't want to end up with both connected simultaneously or some strange wiring going on.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hi, is this a pcs system? Can you post your full specs from the order page?
 
S

sean16

Bronze Level Poster
SpyderTracks said:
Hi, is this a pcs system? Can you post your full specs from the order page?
Click to expand...
Yup, my specs are:
  • Case: COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Eight Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.5GHz/100MB CACHE/AM4)
  • Motherboard: ASUS® ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
  • Memory: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
  • Graphics Card: 10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
  • Graphics Card Support Bracket: PCS GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT BRACKET
  • 1st M.2 SSD Drive: 500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
  • 2nd M.2 SSD Drive: 2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
  • DVD/Blu-Ray Drive: NOT REQUIRED
  • Power Supply: CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ - MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
  • Power Cable: 1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
  • Processor Cooling: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
  • Thermal Paste: STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
  • Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
  • Network Card: 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
  • Wireless Network Card: WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
  • USB/Thunderbolt Options: MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
  • Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
  • Operating System Language: United Kingdom - English Language
  • Windows Recovery Media: Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
 
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SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
sean16 said:
Hi there.

I have an ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming motherboard and a Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB CPU cooler, and I want to connect the CPU fans to my motherboard in order to control them via Fan Control as they are currently controlled by the CPU commander. However, I'm a bit stumped on how to do this correctly.

I've tried looking for tutorials on how to properly swap the two but most of what I can find are tutorials for people who are in the process of building their PC and are connecting their fans to either or.

I know I have to connect my CPU fans to the CPU_FAN header on my motherboard but I dunno if it's just a case of simply swapping some cables or if I have to use an additional cable. I have a 3-pin TKG 2510 cable in my Welcome Pack with 2 black 2-pin and 1 white 3-pin connectors attached but I'm not sure if this is the correct cable.

As for the commander, do I just leave it in there or should I remove it? Sorry for the daft questions, just looking for a step-by-step guide on how to do it before I attempt it. I don't want to end up with both connected simultaneously or some strange wiring going on.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
The 3pin header that runs from the cooler onto the CPU_Fan or PUMP_Fan header is actually the pump. With regards to fans, the system has no idea that you even have a pump, it's reading it as one fan on an air cooler. It's iCue that's determining it's actually an AIO and adjusting for that. The fans react to the pump and coolant temps, as far as anything outside of iCue is concerned, it's all one fan.

If you wanted to control them independently of the coolant and pump operation (which isn't recommended as then the fans won't be reacting to the coolant temp and so won't be optimised), then you'd have to plug them into the CHA-FAN headers and they'd be treated as case fans.

AGAIN, THIS WOULDN'T BE RECOMMENDED AS IT WILL NOT HAVE THE FANS REACT TO CPU TEMPS.

What is it you're trying to achieve though? Why do you want to separate your Radiator fans from the CPU temps?
 
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B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
SpyderTracks said:
Apologies, I stand completely corrected.
Click to expand...
All good. I did have the same concerns about basing fan rpm on Cpu temp and not coolant when I started down the road of changing set up. But I was reliably informed from one of the resident gurus on the Corsair forum that coolant temp increases linearly with cpu temp, so either was fine to use as a source.

There is also a plug-in for Fan Control that appears to allow to control fans directly connected to the Commander, but I had replaced my Corsair with a different one before it was released so have no experience with it. Let me try and find the link to it.

Edit: Found it: https://github.com/EvanMulawski/FanControl.CorsairLink
 
S

sean16

Bronze Level Poster
IRLRobinS said:
All good. I did have the same concerns about basing fan rpm on Cpu temp and not coolant when I started down the road of changing set up. But I was reliably informed from one of the resident gurus on the Corsair forum that coolant temp increases linearly with cpu temp, so either was fine to use as a source.

There is also a plug-in for Fan Control that appears to allow to control fans directly connected to the Commander, but I had replaced my Corsair with a different one before it was released so have no experience with it. Let me try and find the link to it.

Edit: Found it: https://github.com/EvanMulawski/FanControl.CorsairLink
Click to expand...
Ah cool, thanks! I'll check it out. If it comes to it though, would you recommend swapping the cables around for the long-term?
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
For me personally, I was happy to bypass iCUE for fan control, and just use the motherboard headers, it allowed me to use fan control software that gave me greater control over all aspects of my cooling, not just the fans connected to the Commander. Ultimately I replaced all of the Corsair fans and AIO with other products that I felt gave me better performance and acoustics, this allowed me to uninstall iCUE, which was taking 4-5GB of storage!

As long as you have good fan curves set that respond to temp changes appropriately, there is no danger to not using iCUE.
 
S

sean16

Bronze Level Poster
IRLRobinS said:
For me personally, I was happy to bypass iCUE for fan control, and just use the motherboard headers, it allowed me to use fan control software that gave me greater control over all aspects of my cooling, not just the fans connected to the Commander. Ultimately I replaced all of the Corsair fans and AIO with other products that I felt gave me better performance and acoustics, this allowed me to uninstall iCUE, which was taking 4-5GB of storage!

As long as you have good fan curves set that respond to temp changes appropriately, there is no danger to not using iCUE.
Click to expand...
Ah sweet, thanks.
 
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