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This document provides information on cooling and fan control options in BIOS Setup for Next Unit of Computing boards and kits.
The Next Unit of Computing motherboards have a thermal diode on the processor side, or top side, of the board that is monitored to control the fan speed. System fan control settings in BIOS setup, can be changed to meet the needs of your system usage model.
To view system fan control settings:
- During boot, enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2.
- Select Advanced Setup > Cooling.
- Press F10 to exit.
Definitions:
Minimum Temperature (°C) – Fan speed increases if the processor temperature exceeds this value. The value is calculated by Tcontrol minus a fixed value.
Minimum Duty cycle (%) – Fan speed never goes below this value.
Duty cycle increment (%/°C) – Fan speed increases by this percentage for each degree over the minimum temperature.
Default values for the preset configurations (with BIOS version 0040 and later):
| Option |
Cool |
Balanced |
Quiet |
| Minimum Temperature (°C) |
Tcontrol - value |
Tcontrol - value |
Tcontrol - value |
| Minimum Duty Cycle (%) |
40 |
40 |
40 |
| Duty Cycle Increment (%/°C) |
4 |
6 |
10 | |
The current default settings are for a normal desktop working environment. These settings were chosen to minimize fan noise while keeping the system properly cooled in a normal working environment. The default settings may be modified in future BIOS revisions as Intel continues to fine tune them to get the best tradeoff between cooling and fan acoustics. You might need to change the fan control settings if your usage model includes any of the following:
- Sustained file transfers for a long period of time
- Stress testing
- Benchmarking
- Sustained processor usage of 75 percent or higher, for a long period of time
Cooling options for System Fan Control:
| Predefined option |
Description |
| Fixed |
Allows the fan speed to be set at a fixed speed and never change. Options are from 20 to 100 percent in 10 percent increments. |
| Custom |
Allows the fan speed to be customized based on processor temperature, minimum duty cycle, and duty cycle increment. Each value can be user-configured. |
| Cool |
A preset configuration that is set to keep the overall system cooler, but slightly louder by utilizing a temperature range 16 degrees wide. |
| Balanced |
A preset configuration that is set to keep the overall system balanced between cool and quiet by utilizing a temperature range 10 degrees wide. |
| Quiet |
A preset configuration that is set to keep the overall system quieter, but slightly warmer by utilizing a temperature range 6 degrees wide. | |
This applies to:
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