I'm building a PC for my brother-in-law and installed a water cooler. I noticed that the CPU fans run momentarily when I turn on the PC, but then they turn off. Is this normal? Do the fans only kick in when the temperature hits a certain point? When I checked the BIOS, the temperature was at 35 degrees Celsius, but I'm worried about the temperature increasing when I install the operating system.
2 Answers
As long as you plugged the fan into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, it should behave correctly. The fans are controlled by CPU temperature, so they'll spin up as needed to keep things cool. When first booting, the CPU generates a bit of heat, but 35 degrees Celsius is considered cold. CPUs can usually operate above 70 degrees without issue, and they have built-in protections to prevent overheating; they'll shut down before any damage occurs.
I'm glad to hear that! Sometimes you just need a little reassurance to feel confident about your build.
Glad I could help! If you want, you can benchmark your PC to see how it behaves under load.
It's completely normal for the fans to turn off after a brief start-up. Most modern fan systems operate on a temperature threshold, so they'll only kick in when the CPU heats up enough. Don't sweat it unless the fans never turn on!
Exactly! The management of fan speeds is software-controlled, which explains the differences you see in BIOS versus when you're in Windows.