I want to have the best of both this worlds. Passive and active cooling. Preferably as low budget as it can go.
My mainboard is only allowing me to spin down my CPU fan to 12.5%. I am looking for a solution to activate fans only if my system is on load.
I imagine something like a fan controller that actually reads the PWM signal from the mainboard and switches them on based on how high it is, meaning off in 12.5% mode and if my smart fan control kicks in the next tier power on fans.
In case picking up a signal from the mainboard is to complicated maybe just a external sensor bases solution like picking up the temp from behind the CPU (so cool air not messes to much with it) and have a fan controller that powers on fans based a temperature I can define.
Please please please only answer if you really know a solution, I have had horrible experience with a tech board with this question.
Just a little note: There are this Asus STRIX Graphics cards that do exactly that, the fans do not spin when the cards are not under load. I like my entire system work like that.
Best Answer
If you have hardware that allows fan control, then try Speed Fan.
It will allow monitoring of motherboard temperature sensors, and set up fan speed based on temperature.
I would recommend being familiar with safe and usual working CPU, RAM, Disk, and GPU temperatures before setting new limits (it sounds like you are, but this advice is for anyone else reading also).
If you overheat the CPU, these days it should throttle back to reduce temperature, or shut down if severely overheated. However, other components may not be monitored so closely, and could potentially be damaged if you allow them to get too hot.