Q-fan disabled? What the heck?

I've recently become dissatisfied with the noise my computer makes. I've heard much noisier computers (usually computer-store-built) where the machine sounds like it's taxi-ing down your desk and preparing to take off. But I was still irritated with mine, especially in comparison to Linda's computer and my old computer.

I assumed it was due to more holes in the case. My old computer has a grille at the side, as does Linda's, and the whole front of her computer is a mesh. I was thinking of getting the drill out and putting a few more holes into my Antec Sonata case!

So I started thinking "Hey, this motherboard has heat pipes on it. Could I run it without a chassis fan?". After checking with the manual, it sorta seemed like it was possible, so I tried it. Disconnected the chassis fan and went into the hardware monitor of the BIOS.

And noticed exactly the same level of noise as before. The motherboard reached 30 degrees before I decided that the experiment was dumb. Just as I was about to kill the power, I noticed that "Q-fan control" on the CPU fan was disabled! I knew from past experience with Linda's computer that "Q-fan" is the feature on Asus motherboards that turns the fanspeed up when you need it, and turns it down when you don't need it.

I had assumed that this was turned on, as during the summer I had noticed the CPU fan increase in RPM as things got hotter. But this must've been an effect of hot air coming into the case and making the fans turn faster by some kinetic effect.

Long story short, I turned on Q-fan for the CPU fan, re-connected my chassis fan (manual speed control), and now my computer is whisper quiet.

Earlier on I also re-routed the cables inside the computer. In their previous configuration I think they were blocking airflow into the PSU.

I was getting a weird rubbing noise before when both cores were pushed to 100%, but I'm hoping that my cable management will help stop that. I have no idea what was causing it, to be honest.