PIN out of Z440 memory fan connector?

[Snoopmasta]

Hi, 

it's me again, with a new project.

This time I'm building a Z440 workstation.

I've already 3D printed a front air inlet to mount a bequiet! 120 mm Shadow Wings 2 fan.

 

 But now I've ran into an issue again that maybe one of you had already solved previously.  (?)

I've installed 4 32 GB RAM modules and the mainboard wants to see the memory cooling assembly with those.

I could just buy one, yes. But where is the fun in that? I want to build one!

Question is: Is there a wiring diagram for the memory fans or a pin-out description for the original memory fan connector?

 

 

Anyways, greetings and very much thank you in advance for your help. 😀

Daniel

 

[Snoopmasta]

Why is the picture of the fan connector not there anymore? Is there a violation of forum terms to show that?

[SDH]

Daniel,

If some moderator is picking on you just PM that image to me and I'll post it, and I bet they would not try that again. I know of no forum rule that would justify such a delete, and the moderators are supposed to say why the did something anyway. We post all kinds of pics of motherboard parts while helping others, and I'm sure you're not planning on going into competition against HP with your work! I bet it was just a glitch so why don't you post it again. I'll post some related images for you, below:

First, you clearly are a master of your printer... wonderful work you show. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for that Z440 next. I've been "optimizing" these workstation for years now but mine are more ghetto than yours. I know the work you'd put in would turn out amazing but I'm sticking with the HP memory cooler. Those are quite well done and a custom fit for the Z440. They stick a bit going in and out, but I use a very small amount of silicon "grease" on the bearing surfaces to greatly reduce the friction. I also introduce just a bit in the complex self-centering 6-pin plug device that does help it not stick also. There are two identical fans in each memory cooler, shown below. The "saddles" I had here for the Z440 happen to have Sunon and Foxconn 60mm fans, and the HP part numbers can be seen on their labels. Go look those up on eBay.

Those are PWM controlled 4-wire fans, and the 8 total wires leading from them get aggregated into the self-centering device down to a 6-pin contact with the motherboard. The wires are all black and it looks like I'd break that device if I tried to pull it apart so that won't happen. However, here cost from eBay including shipping is as low as 30.00 USD today, and I've gotten some in the past for a little over 20.00.

Fans blow towards their label, and the labels are pointed up (towards the left side case cover) so cooler air is drawn in from below across the memory sticks and then up and out to be exhausted from the case by the rear case fan and also by the power supply exhaust fan.

I'm going to have to go look up that nice front fan you found... and here's your pics:

Inside view from memory's perspective

Self-centering device... 8 wires come in

Foxconn fans example

Sunon fans example

[Snoopmasta · Accepted solution]

Good morning,

I'm having my coffee now and will try to adress the memory fan issue. First and foremost - I got the solution and correct PIN-out.

Thank you @SDH for your detailed reply again. You really seem to be deep into those Zxx0 workstations and I hugely appreciate your input and the help you provide. A rare thing to see these days. 🙂

Now into the process.

First I tried the solutions posted in Silentbogos techpowerup thread which included the simple jumper hack, where you basically feed the PWM signal back to the Tacho pins.

This should theoretically work and it kinda does. At least the error message during boot is gone.

But I wanted to see why some folks seem to have problems with that.

Aaaaand sure enough - there was something to be seen.

I don't think that the controller is happy about that. XD

Step 2 was to finally get the PIN-out correct and install 2 aftermarket PWM fans just to see if it makes a difference.

First I messured the PINs on the mainboard during operation and found .... nothing helpfull. Ground and +12 V was easy but all the other pins show around 3V - so I assume the got a pull-up to 3V each and I still know nothing.

Assuming that the PIN-out in the techpowerup thread might be correct, I started to build my adapter out of 2 Noctua cables and some thingies that I still had lying around.

Note that I pulled out the connector housing fron the mainboard and am using that as my new plug. The more elegant solution and the one I would suggest is buying a 2x3 Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 mm. I just could't be asked to do that - I wanted a solution now! 😉

So I plugged in my adapter, two fans and hoped for the best.

YEAH, success!

But wait! Why is one fan spinning so much faster than the other one and why do I get ONE of the two memory fan errors?

Ok, I'll just switch PWM and TACH on one of the fans and see.

Sure enough I was back at TWO memory fan errors. XD

So I undid that step and changed the other one. 

It's done! And it wasn't even that hard.

The solution:

PIN-out board

PIN-out connector

I did both graphics to make it easier to understand and hope it helps. 🙂

Performance advisor reports both fan speeds correctly and I also tried a higher fan-curve in BIOS to make sure they are performing as expected.

Now I'll have to figure out a way to create and install my own memory cooling assembly. But this is a task for another day - and not an easy one.

Sincerely

Daniel

[DGroves]

if there are two 4 pin pwm fans, then the pinout to a 6 pin header should be  

one for +12 (both fans)

one for ground (both fans)

one (of two) for tach first fan

one (of two) pwm first fan

-------------------------------

one for tach for second fan

one for pwm for second fan

------------------------------

use a multimeter to probe header pins while system is on and find the +12/Ground pins

now connect single 4 pin pwm fan power lines (+12 and gnd) to the id'd six pin  header then use fan tach line and probe remaining 4 pins till fan spins up full speed on two pins, these are the tach ones

the remaining two should be pwm for each fan

[Snoopmasta]

Thank you for your reply DGroves. 🙂

I appreciate your help in this matter.

I did already figure those things out and would've posted a complete solution including pictures.

Sadly the reply has been instantly deleted by the server or someone.

I was also not able to repost it, since it got deleted instantly again.

I've removed the single hyperlink I had in there but it still wouldn't let me post anything.

Hope that a moderator can fix that. I sent a complaint about it and am hoping for help.

[SDH]

Snoop,

You're right... that is a great HP workstation family. Good and necessary hardware and BIOS improvements finally came out with them and they've come down so far in cost for parts/barebones cases that they're great HP starter workstations now. A properly tuned Z440 build can hold its own against the Z4 G4 next generation.

Great work... now we just need to get you to figure out the pinouts of all the HP thunderbolt cables! DGroves is good at that too. I was thinking about the posts getting messed with and maybe that is automatic. In the past images have been the cause. A moderator needs to see and approve them due to the risk of risky pics being posted. IIRC the original poster can see their images before the moderator releases them, but not other readers. After release all can see.

I can see your posts in this thread now perfectly so a mod likely reviewed and released. Those look like excellent fans. The HP Z4 G4 is using a 120mm rear exhaust fan so when you move on to one of those workstations you'll not need to print out an adapter.

You might have seen my Noctua PWM fan findings that those are generally built with low speed to start with and when the standard HP PWM algorithm is applied to those then they end up going too slow and thus may not cool the case enough. When I was looking at your fan's info yesterday I came across a video saying they're releasing a faster version of that one. If so, that might be just the one you want to use later to get the benefit of their technology and sufficient cooling. That is what HP does... they start with a quite fast PWM fan and slow it down so they have headroom as needed. Just an idea...

[Snoopmasta]

Hey SDH,

about the fans... Yes, I've realized that the fans in the Z440 are pretty nice and that whenever I install slower fans I can run into problems.

I changed the CPU cooler fan as well here for a bequiet and it has been a pretty close call. The CPU got 15°C hotter.

I had to raise the general Fan RPM in BIOS to counter that.

It's still silent and it's better for the front fan to run a little faster but I'd say ... I didn't gain anything from swapping the fans.

It's unnecessary since the Z440 is already very very silent.

[Snoopmasta]

And there it is: Custom memory cooler for the Z440

 

 

 

 

First series of tests are running but they seem to work quite nicely. They are detachable by using the stock mounting points and mechanism.

It took me around 9 hours to construct and print them. The 2 fans are Silverstone FTF 6025 PWMs. They are absolutely silent when the case is closed. 🙂

Greetings Daniel

P.s. I reinstalled all the stock fans because I wanted the best performance for the soon arriving E5 2697A v4 Xeon.

[SDH]

Nice work again with your 3-D printer... the vertical side add-on mounts that clip into the front and rear metal attachment slits are not shown individually but are pretty clear on your final pics after assembly. Did you use super-glue to bond them to your horizontal over-the-ram parts?

On the processor... nice specs. I note it is a 145W max TDP processor so that may trigger the BIOS call for a "Premium" heatsink/fan like you saw in your earlier Z420 v2 project. My guess is that the same solution of feeding Tacho signal from pin 3 over to pin 5 will be needed. A modDIY adapter on your stock (BIG) Z440 heatsink/fan probably would do the job for others, but you know how to do the jumper on the fan's plug end to get Tacho signal from pin 3 there instead of a ground jumper to pin five from pin 1. That is exactly what HP's official kit to run 145W or higher processors on the Z4 G4 does... modDIY just copied the official HP adapter and HP's kit includes a stock Z440 heatsink/fan which are very reasonable in price recycled on eBay.

HP has had "Mainstream" heatsink/fan, "Performance" heatsink/fan, and now the "Premium" which in the past was liquid cooled. The big Z440 stock heatsink/fan is significantly better than the smaller similar one used in the Z4 G4. Of interest the big Z440 one still fits beneath the stock HP memory cooling "saddle" HP has as an option in the Z4 G4, and that is why their "Premium" kit for 145W processors works there too. Different pinout are present at the bottom of the socket but the stainless mount parts are the same in the Zx20, Zx40, and Zx G4 workstations... handy.

I'm interested in seeing the performance figures for that processor in your hands. By the way... the official HP memory for the Z4 G4 works perfectly also in the Z440. It can't run faster than 2400 in a Z440 but due to market factors may be less expensive to buy for you... more supply of that than the older slower 2400 stuff (which is no slouch either).