MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro (4.1/5.1) aftermarket fans WITH automatic SMC control

[KeesMacPro]

How do you pry out the busses out of this connector? I'm trying and trying, but they won't come out. Any tips?

Personally, I never bothered fiddling with the pins.
I just solder the original plug and cables to the noctua cables and isolate them with heatshrink tube.

 

[arw]

How do you pry out the busses out of this connector? I'm trying and trying, but they won't come out. Any tips?

I use a fitting screwdriver, slightly tilted to the left and then applying pressure while pulling the cable.
In case you pressed too hard and bent the detent, you can correct it with a boxcutter so it will lock again properly.

 

[Minimum91]

Personally, I never bothered fiddling with the pins.
I just solder the original plug and cables to the noctua cables and isolate them with heatshrink tube.

I solder the original plug cables too, but not to the fan cables themselves, but the extension cables that come with the fans, so that I may easily disconnect / reconnect or whatever I decide to do in the future.

 

[novaestudios]

I use a fitting screwdriver, slightly tilted to the left and then applying pressure while pulling the cable.
In case you pressed too hard and bent the detent, you can correct it with a boxcutter so it will lock again properly.

Thanks, this worked like a charm! My Mac just got a LOT quieter!!

 

[novaestudios]

Came back to report on NF-A8 FLX for Booster fan on the single CPU model. Finally received it yesterday and installed it right away. It doesn't work well - it has the pulsing problem, where on default SMC settings it pulses all the time whilst on low temps and you can audibly hear it. It does not stop rotating, but it's slows down and then boostes back up. Moreover, it is actually quite a bit hummier on low speeds vs the NF-R8 which I found surprising. It does move air better though, when using custom configurations via software. Eventually after several hours of testing, I removed it without hesitation as I could definitely hear audible difference even when walking past my room in the apartment.

Bonus treat : Wanting the machine as silent as possible I went on to change the stock shroud of the RX580 Pulse in this machine to two NF-A9x14 Noctuas. It worked out really well and is now twice as silent as with stock fans. Unfortunately I don't have any measurement equipment to provide real data.

I'm trying now with RX580 card. Where did you take the power for the fans from? I can't find any specs from the 5-pin pinout of the RX580.

 

[novaestudios]

nice results! Normally it was much warmer overall. And it's sooo silent now, love it!

 

[KeesMacPro]

nice results! Normally it was much warmer overall. And it's sooo silent now, love it!

Congrats Nova!👍

 

[Minimum91]

I'm trying now with RX580 card. Where did you take the power for the fans from? I can't find any specs from the 5-pin pinout of the RX580.

There are many RX580 variations and mine's got a 4-pin connector with Blue / Yellow / Red / Black cables. It's called a VGA fan connector (I think). It's basically PWM with a smaller connector, so I went with soldering a Noctua PWM splitter to the original connector (that's where the fans get their power from).


Does your card have multiple connectors on it's board or a single one? If it's got a single one and you card has LEDs, I'd say the fans and the LED are powered from that single connector with a cable like this. TBH I am doing guesswork as I haven't seen the differences between the RX580 variations myself.

 

[Stex]

Just ran some tests to see what happens when the fanguards are removed.
I recorded the fan noise with an AKG condenser mic placed in front of the MP at a distance of 25cm.
Tests were done with Intake and Exhaust both equally set to different fixed rpm on a MP 4,1>5,1 DUAL X5690 running Mojave.

I attached some screenshots but if TLDR:
Noise is indeed a bit lower ~ 1,5 dB , which doesnt seem much, but something very interesting appears as stated by @arw :
My Intake runs in this season (Winter) at ~ 950 rpm at idle, but after removing the fanguard it's now running at ~ 750 - 800 rpm (the fan is controlled by T NB diode) apparently because of improved airflow.
So in real life fan noise is reduced much more than 1,5dB.


My conclusion: excellent idea !

Edit: post edited.

great analysis work @KeesMacPro! and an excellent addition to this thread! plus thanks @arw for the useful discovery for keeping our cMPs younger!

 

[romaric17]

@romaric17 :
Exactly!
Now by knowing V and I, you can calculate R=V /I.
The resistor X you'll need is the voltage drop (12-4,4=7,6) / I.
Example: you measure 20mA(=0,020A)>R=7,6/0,020 =380 ohms.
With a power rating of 2w for resistor X , you're on the save side.
If you can't measure it, you could also do it by testing different resistors, between 200 and 500 Ohms, they cost like €0,15...

Still have not tried the diodes+resistor set-up.
Could you please point me to appropriate diodes and resistors between 200 and 500 ohms? I will try different resistors and see how it goes.

 

[DevoAtari]

I installed two Noctua NF-A12x25's as intake and exhaust fans (non-ULN), and they were running perfectly for about two years. Super quiet, and helped a lot with the X5690's. Around that same time, I installed OpenCore, and I've been updating that incrementally since.

However, it's been a little less than a month after upgrading my 2010 5,1 to Monterey 12.4, and I've realized now these fans don't spin up at all. Only noticed because the temps were MUCH higher. Even tried replacing Mac Fan Control with the old school SMC Fan Control [edit: and tried TGPro] to see if it would change anything. No matter the settings in the control software, no spin. I'm unsure if the upgrade caused anything, because I tried going back to High Sierra, but same issue. Those are the only two fans I replaced.

Is there something that might be able to fix this? I'm guessing the voltage to PWM adapter is my best bet? Or is there another way?

EDIT: Resetting NVRAM about 10 times fixed Noctuas not spinning. Nothing to see here.

 

[reddrag0n]

just did the mod to my intake and exhaust fans. just plugged them straight in with the 4 pin cable end. they hover at around 1400-1500 rpm stock.

fans i used are Corsair CO-9050080 red LED 3 pin.

 

[connectsacred]

Hello everyone! Thanks for all the resources. I replaced the PCI, PS fan and Intake Fan with Noctua 12X25 and 92mm.

Only issue I'm having on both the 12X25 in Istatistica or TG Pro the fan RPM drops to 0 every few seconds, PCI fan stays consistent. I also see the stock Outake fan dropping to 0 RPM every now and again. Eventually the Intake fan and PSU fan stalls and doesn't spin back up.

I hooked up a PWM fan as an outtake fan for a little while until reading you needed a voltage controller, hoping I didn't mess up my board as a result....

Any thoughts? I'm pretty sure I wired it properly and used the Pinout someone posted with a photo(croiss checked with Noctua pinout).

Thanks in advance!

 

[arw]

Hello everyone! Thanks for all the resources. I replaced the PCI, PS fan and Intake Fan with Noctua 12X25 and 92mm.

Only issue I'm having on both the 12X25 in Istatistica or TG Pro the fan RPM drops to 0 every few seconds, PCI fan stays consistent. I also see the stock Outake fan dropping to 0 RPM every now and again. Eventually the Intake fan and PSU fan stalls and doesn't spin back up.

I hooked up a PWM fan as an outtake fan for a little while until reading you needed a voltage controller, hoping I didn't mess up my board as a result....

Any thoughts? I'm pretty sure I wired it properly and used the Pinout someone posted with a photo(croiss checked with Noctua pinout).

Thanks in advance!

It sounds like you picked fans that are rated for higher speeds and can‘t spin as low as the original ones.
The SMC still tries and eventually the fans stall. What models did you pick? Ones that have been confirmed here as working?
It is strange though that the stock Exhaust fan behaves the same. Check if the connector on the motherboard is dust free and sits correctly and then perform a SMC reset. For some multiple NVRAM resets also helped.

If you wired everything correctly, you could force a higher fan speed via software (like the poster above you did for Intake and Exhaust). But IMHO that defeats the main purpose of this thread.

(Some numbers: PSU/Intake/Exhaust speeds can go down to 500/600 rpm. A Noctua NF-P12 is listed as 900 rpm minimum and won’t work whereas the great-value Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 does. Others recommend the NF-A12x25 ULN. But also don‘t buy too slow like the NF-S12B redux-700 because they probably are incapable of cooling the Mac properly under load.
For PCI the Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600 works great as a value option, others used the NF-A9 FLX.)

And I can only urge everyone to remove their fanguards [post].

 

[reddrag0n]

crazy question, with all this fan swap talk, has anyone found out the pinout on these heatsinks and headers?

i have pics of both the single and dual cpu versions of the 4,1 trays, and maybe someone might be able to help out identifying what pin is what
*pics aren't mine, just here for reference*

single cpu tray header


single cpu heatsink


dual cpu heatsink


dual cpu tray header A & B

 

[arw]

has anyone found out the pinout on these heatsinks and headers?

Yep, Post #177

 

[reddrag0n]

Yep, Post #177

sweet, thank you

 

[Bootso]

Hello everyone!

I've been reading the forum and it seems to me like Apple originally used fans that reduce the +12V input to 5-6-7V and that's why you can control the speed on the Control voltage cable.

What are your thoughts on this?

Has anyone tried connecting any kind of quiet fan but it reduces the +12V input and then it won't run at 100%.

 

[reddrag0n]

swapped out all my fans except the pci fan, made custom cables for the heatsinks and i'm surprised by the outcome of what this machine has done.

fans i have running on auto...
intake and exhaust fans = 2x Corsair CO-9050080
cpu A & B fans = 2x Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX
psu fan = Noctua NF-S12A FLX

once the pci fan comes in, it will be a Zalman ZM-F2 LED and will swap out the blue led's for red ones

 

[Bootso]

swapped out all my fans except the pci fan, made custom cables for the heatsinks and i'm surprised by the outcome of what this machine has done.

fans i have running on auto...
intake and exhaust fans = 2x Corsair CO-9050080
cpu A & B fans = 2x Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX
psu fan = Noctua NF-S12A FLX

once the pci fan comes in, it will be a Zalman ZM-F2 LED and will swap out the blue led's for red ones
View attachment 2155657

Interesting, I believe you are happy about it

It may be a stupid question, but I would like to know

Can you tell us how you connected the custom cable?
first option:

Mac Pro output	Pin	Fan input
GND	1	GND
VCC (12V)	2	* empty *
Sense/Tacho	3	Sense/Tacho
Control voltage	4	VCC

or so? the same 12V cable you shared
second option

Mac Pro output	Pin	Fan input
GND	1	GND
VCC (12V)	2	VCC same as 4.
Sense/Tacho	3	Sense/Tacho
Control voltage	4	VCC same as 2

 

[reddrag0n]

i soldered a male fan plug to the specified wires and hooked it up like a regular fan. i didnt use the 4th vcc output to run the fans at a lower speed. i treated all the fans like a regular pc connection. i specifically ordered 3 pin fans so i didnt have to worry about the pwm signal wire

so pin 1 is gnd
pin 2 is 12v
pin 3 is tach
pin 4 not connected

i tried with the 12v on pin 4 instead of pin 2 but my red led fans were flickering at 700 rpm. thats why i made it so they run full speed. the mac is barely audible and still runs cool. tested using several runs of cinebench

 

[Bootso]

Great job, I have to do it myself.
I'm tired of the noise, but I love the machine.

 

[reddrag0n]

Great job, I have to do it myself.
I'm tired of the noise, but I love the machine.

i figured i would add a few pics showing the wire mod. then from there i tucked the wire in that little hideaway and ran the rest of the fan wire in the same spot apple put theirs

 

[arw]

swapped out all my fans except the pci fan, made custom cables for the heatsinks and i'm surprised by the outcome of what this machine has done.

fans i have running on auto...
intake and exhaust fans = 2x Corsair CO-9050080
cpu A & B fans = 2x Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX
psu fan = Noctua NF-S12A FLX

once the pci fan comes in, it will be a Zalman ZM-F2 LED and will swap out the blue led's for red ones
View attachment 2155657

Sorry to say, but to me it looks like you wired all fans wrong. Wrong in the sense of this thread.
It seems you have no automatic (SMC) fan control at all but all fans run at full speed all the time.
I think you did not solder the Control voltage of the Mac Pro but the 12 V to all of your new fans? Not just the Boosters like you already stated.
Look at the speeds some posts above (Post #356). This is how it should look.
But glad to to hear you are happy with the noise nevertheless.

 

[reddrag0n]

each to their own