i5 3570K - Speed vs Voltage

[Biernot]

Yep, the Dark Rock Pro 2 is a beast. Would be my cooler of choice, if i ever
a.) wanted to do heavy overclock
b.) had a windowed case.

As you are getting a MSI board, these are the settings i would recommend for the fan controller:

- target temperature: 60°C
Note that the temperatures will rise slightly above 60°C (but should not go above 70°C)

- minimum fan speed: 12.5% or 25%
Just make sure that fans spin up properly when set to 12.5%. With 25% there should be no problem, but depending on the fans, the 12.5% could be slower that 200rpm and that can prevent some fans from starting correctly. But i think the be quiet fans shouldn't have that problem.

[Deleted]

do you actually have a fan controller/built in on the mobo?
also aiming for a specific clock or just as high as it can get without too high Vcore/temps?

Don't have a specific clock in mind. Really just wanting to find out how far I can get while at the same time minimalizing the chances to screw something up. Ambient temps still need to rise a good 20 degrees so I'll be keeping my eye on it all summer anyway. (Assuming the summer actually shows its face at some point in the upcoming months.)

As you are getting a MSI board, these are the settings i would recommend for the fan controller:

- target temperature: 60°C
Note that the temperatures will rise slightly above 60°C (but should not go above 70°C)

- minimum fan speed: 12.5% or 25%
Just make sure that fans spin up properly when set to 12.5%. With 25% there should be no problem, but depending on the fans, the 12.5% could be slower that 200rpm and that can prevent some fans from starting correctly. But i think the be quiet fans shouldn't have that problem.

I'll be trying to find out if there's a decent fan controller on my planned mobo. (MSI Z77A G45) - Will be googling for a manual after I finish typing this post. If that one doesn't have a decent controller, and the shop I'm returning my current mobo to doesn't have good other ones, do you have any recommendations for an 'external' fan controller? I've seen the ones that just have knobs to regulate case fans, but I would guess they don't respond to certain temperatures?

Thanks for the tips on fan rpms! I'll be keeping a close eye on it, making sure it starts up. I actually don't mind the sound it makes at 100% at all, so I would not mind going for 25% minimum speed rather than 12.5%.

[Biernot]

All (retail) motherboards have some kind of fan controller. Usually you can find them under "Hardware Monitor" or something similar in the BIOS/UEFI. Only OEM boards are sometimes restricted so the user can not change certain settings.
A separate fan controller for the cpu fan is absolutely not necessary. Unless you have some special heatsink like a Corsair H100i (which comes with its own integrated fan controller)

As far as your motherboard goes, the only thing about the MSI onboard fan controller i don't like: Most of them have no automatic fan speed for case fans, only static speeds in 25% steps. But that is no problem, as the case fans usually do not need to be adjusted. Like with my case, i theoretically could have hooked the fans onto the motherboard for automatic fan control, but i just connected them to the fan controller of the case and have them running at 5V. (At which speed they are inaudible from more than 30cm away)