Are Fan Controllers Useless? [Archive]

deepcover

06-07-2010, 10:18 AM

OK, I apologize for the inflammatory title, but here's the reasoning behind it. I had a Maximus Formula (x38) with a lot of fan headers and I could set the fan speeds based on temperature thresholds without the need of additional hardware. The Maximus also had temp headers if I did want to plug it into a fan controller. I upgraded to a p6x58d-e and it has the same features, but I'm short a couple of fan headers. I considered getting a fan controller to supplement, but the p6x58d-e doesn't have any temp headers, so I guess I would have to use speedfan for regulating speeds, which seems kinda clunky. I can also tape temp readers onto my motherboard, but that will mess with aesthetics (wire management). I have no experience using fan controllers so please correct me if I'm misunderstanding something.

All my fans are 3-pin Noctuas. Looks to me like the best solution would be to use a fan splitter off of the fan headers on the motherboard, but I have read that this extra pull of power can damage the mb. An ideal solution would be one that would take the reading from the PWM cpu header and have a powered repeater for the rest of my 3-pin fans on the radiator or wherever. I haven't found anything like that. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
-Wil

DarthBeavis

06-07-2010, 10:36 AM

Sadasius

06-07-2010, 11:16 AM

I am using the Maximus Extreme fan headers myself without an outside fan controller. I have my high power rad fans hooked to the PWM CPU fan header with the power wires going directly to the PSU and using lower power case San Ace fans on the 3 pin headers and yeah just like you I find a fan controller useless if you don't need it and can work with the motherboard but also I had motive as I had limited space and did not want to waste it with a fan controller. Rather use the BIOS IMO.

eth0s

06-07-2010, 11:39 AM

Personally, I am losing interest in fan controllers. Do you guys really turn your fans up and down? I don't. I find that I end up setting 'em and forgetting 'em. My personal choice right now, is simply to buy the right speed Gentle Typhoons and just let them run at full voltage. In the olden days, when you couldn't find exactly the fan that you wanted, then fan controllers made sense. But nowadays, I don't think they are so useful anymore. If you have any experience, or really after 1 or 2 builds, you should know the level of noise you are willing to accept from your rig, so why not just buy the GT's that fit your needs, and be done with it? Now, maybe there is somebody out there that is using their fan controller as a six-fan busbar in order to ease the burden of the wiring, but that would be a pretty sad reason to buy and install a fan controller, IMHO, when you can make your own busbar-type device, or buy one, or figure out a better way to wire the fans. Now as for temps, I am big on having a device showing temps, and maybe it is worth having a fan controller with a combo temp display, just to get the temps, IDK. :shrug:

Vinas

06-07-2010, 11:57 AM

My five deltas take some juice to spin up, then I turn them down to about 1600 rpm. Otherwise, it would sound like a jet... Make that two jet aircraft at 4,000rpm each. I can totally see the point in buying something like the GT's too though and saving some dough. I hear the big NG is pretty cool as far as automatic fan controllers go.

NKrader

06-07-2010, 12:18 PM

lol i use striker II extreme headers and still cant get them to controll the speeds.. 100% all the time no matter what.

and i dont use my kaze server fan controller either as it can only controll 1 fan per header..

zads

06-07-2010, 12:56 PM

Personally, I am losing interest in fan controllers. Do you guys really turn your fans up and down? I don't. I find that I end up setting 'em and forgetting 'em. My personal choice right now, is simply to buy the right speed Gentle Typhoons and just let them run at full voltage. In the olden days, when you couldn't find exactly the fan that you wanted, then fan controllers made sense. But nowadays, I don't think they are so useful anymore. If you have any experience, or really after 1 or 2 builds, you should know the level of noise you are willing to accept from your rig, so why not just buy the GT's that fit your needs, and be done with it? ...

I bought 1850rpm Gentle Typhoons and a NZXT Sentry 2 fan controller because I didn't know where my personal optimum balance is (temperatures vs. noise). It could an expensive exercise buying fan after fan if you're picky about these things.

So on my setup, I ended up turning them down all the way to their minimum speed setting on the fan controller.
This method also gives me some headroom to increase airflow/noise to keep my temperatures in my "comfort zone", say on a hot summer day or if I upgrade my hardware to something hotter.

Sadasius

06-07-2010, 12:58 PM

Personally, I am losing interest in fan controllers. Do you guys really turn your fans up and down? I don't.

Well with 6000 RPM San Ace's you better believe I want to turn them down from time to time or else my damn computer will hover away on me. :rofl: Hit the second link in my sig and you will see 4 of these fans on a rad and be able to hear what it sounds like at full speed. Not to mention each fan operates at 50watts and 4amps of power and no fan controller let's me play with those numbers without making a smoke show.

deepcover

06-07-2010, 04:26 PM

I may then have to put my rad fans on the available 3-pin headers and either get the bitspower x-station like Darth Beavis suggested for the other fans and just set them at a low voltage, and perhaps replace some of my fans with PWM fans to utilize more if the available fan headers on the mb or use a powered splitter like Sadasius did.

1)Can anyone recommend some good PWM fans?

2)any of them with white LEDs?

Philwong

06-07-2010, 05:34 PM

My Asus Rampage II Gene has a built-in fan controller with 5 headers and supports 2 thermal probes. Although I felt the temp/fan speed settings are not as flexible compared with a dedicated controller, this approach is still much more elegant, while minimizing clutter and free space. Plus I could also use Everest and display these parameters plus voltage and etc on a VDU real time to monitor my rig.

I also tapped on my 5870 fan header and charted a custom respond curve using MSI burner.

Phil

Sadasius

06-07-2010, 06:01 PM

I also tapped on my 5870 fan header and charted a custom respond curve using MSI burner.

Phil

Ha I did the same thing in my GPU. I tapped into the fan header to control the upper rad fans (using Rivatuner) and have them both separated in Everest as well and also displaying on the display on the front of the case as well. I did this so I had a multistage fan system. I can turn on half the fans full speed and then the other half if needed for OC'ing and such. Works really well!

Philwong

06-07-2010, 06:53 PM

Basically my rad fans are configured in this way..

- 2 x Artic Cooling F12s on a single CPU PWM header automatically thermal throttled based on CPU temp.

- 2 x Artic Cooling F12s on a single GPU PWM header automatically thermal throttled based on GPU temp.

Anyone know if the Aquaero USB can be programmed to display CPU and GPU temps, core voltages, etc?

Phil

BeepBeep2

06-07-2010, 06:58 PM

Just a random tip:

A single motherboard header can handle about 15 watts. I undervolted my Panaflo's and Delta on my motherboard down to 500 RPM (4v?) without issue.

Sadasius

06-07-2010, 07:51 PM

Just a random tip:

A single motherboard header can handle about 15 watts. I undervolted my Panaflo's and Delta on my motherboard down to 500 RPM (4v?) without issue.

Which is exactly why my power wires are direct to the PSU on the PWM fans. Only the signal wire and the RPM wire are connected to the headers. The PWM fan headers have 4 pins, not 3. The 3 pin headers are simply for power and RPM and control fans using voltage regulation. PWM fans use a signal that makes the fan shut off and on to get the same result using a constant voltage.

Philwong

06-07-2010, 08:48 PM

Which is exactly why my power wires are direct to the PSU on the PWM fans. Only the signal wire and the RPM wire are connected to the headers. The PWM fan headers have 4 pins, not 3. The 3 pin headers are simply for power and RPM and control fans using voltage regulation. PWM fans use a signal that makes the fan shut off and on to get the same result using a constant voltage.

Just to share. My mobo's CPU fan header only support PWM and not voltage control.

Edit: Corrected.

Phil

Sadasius

06-08-2010, 03:41 AM

Just to share. Although all my fan headers have 4 pins, only the one labeled as CPU supports PWM function. The rest still uses voltage control to regulate fan speed.

Phil

Weird. What is the other pin for then on the one's without PWM control?

prava

06-08-2010, 03:58 AM

Weird. What is the other pin for then on the one's without PWM control?

As far as I know, you don't need a PWM fan in order to control it via PWM. If you do it this way, the controller (be it the MB or a fan controller) adjusts the voltage by using pulses: it switches the voltage to on and off all the time to get the desired voltage. The problem is that it causes "clicking" in some fans at low speeds... The benefit from this system is that you don't need to regulate the voltage in any way...

PaganII

06-08-2010, 07:44 AM

Tapping the PWM - What a great idea!
I was about to remove a 4x fan controller from top of server cabinet for new WC rig. Put it up there when I swapped out the noisy 120v fans for 12v.
No sense running fans on GPU loop full speed when not gaming or CPU loop when idle, browsing etc.
Thank You :)

Edit: The server cabinet is used for home theater. 7.1 receiver on top shelf under the fans with fan controller plugged into the 120v switched outlet on back of the receiver. Fans only run when amplifiers are on.

deepcover

06-08-2010, 08:25 AM

Anyone knows anything about these?

Arctic Cooling fans with built-in temp control (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_48_79&mID=280)

May be cool, but may be worse than just getting the PWM fans.

Sadasius

06-08-2010, 11:49 AM

As far as I know, you don't need a PWM fan in order to control it via PWM. If you do it this way, the controller (be it the MB or a fan controller) adjusts the voltage by using pulses: it switches the voltage to on and off all the time to get the desired voltage. The problem is that it causes "clicking" in some fans at low speeds... The benefit from this system is that you don't need to regulate the voltage in any way...

I understand how the Pulse Width Modulation works it was the 4 pin header without PWM control in Philwong's rig that had me scratching my head. I was wondering what the other pin was for if it wasn't a PWM signal. Maybe an extra ground?

How do you use a non PWM fan on a 4 pin header and control it using the PWM on the MB? How would you wire that? Would it be the power wire to the PWM pin?

longh

06-08-2010, 12:17 PM

I think the 4 pin headers on the mb start to work as a normal voltage controller when a 3 pin fan is plugged in. I seriously doubt a 3 pin fan can work with PWM

Philwong

06-08-2010, 05:41 PM

I understand how the Pulse Width Modulation works it was the 4 pin header without PWM control in Philwong's rig that had me scratching my head. I was wondering what the other pin was for if it wasn't a PWM signal. Maybe an extra ground?

How do you use a non PWM fan on a 4 pin header and control it using the PWM on the MB? How would you wire that? Would it be the power wire to the PWM pin?

Sorry, I was kind of confused earlier. Those are PWM-enabled 4 pin fan headers alright. However, the CPU header supports PWM only, while the rest are compatible with 3 pin fans and can throttle via voltage control.

Phil

Philwong

06-08-2010, 05:47 PM

By the way, another beauty of using mobo fan controller is they can read CPU and other critical temps directly, while standalone controllers require external thermal probes. Most offer manual fan speed control, too.

Phil

Sadasius

06-08-2010, 06:03 PM

Sorry, I was kind of confused earlier. Those are PWM-enabled 4 pin fan headers alright. However, the CPU header supports PWM only, while the rest are compatible with 3 pin fans and can throttle via voltage control.

Phil

Ahhh okay. :up: That explains everything. Thought I was going nuts there for a second then realized I had already years ago. :rofl:

Philwong

06-08-2010, 06:20 PM

Ahhh okay. :up: That explains everything. Thought I was going nuts there for a second then realized I had already years ago. :rofl:

Hahaha... this PWM vs. voltage thingee was driving me nuts too.

Phil

DarthBeavis

06-08-2010, 06:34 PM

Phil, thumbs up and your setup bud!!!!!!

The name Phil is dear to my heart. My uncle, Phil McReavis, passed away last year. God rest his soul. He loved water-cooling.

Philwong

06-09-2010, 06:30 AM

Phil, thumbs up and your setup bud!!!!!!

The name Phil is dear to my heart. My uncle, Phil McReavis, passed away last year. God rest his soul. He loved water-cooling.

Thanks man.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Phil

Philwong

06-09-2010, 06:38 AM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/tmwong/inline.jpg
Anyway, I had Shoggy (thanks man) shipped me Aquacomputer's inline temp sensors for my wife's rig.

The problem now is how am I going to display the coolant temp, together with other parameters such as CPU/GPU temps and fan speed on a 5.25" bay LCD.

Phil