Rheobus Extreme - Some installation help please

[thomas hobbes]

While my gpu is away on RMA I thought I'd get this fan controller installed. I bought the sunbeam as its well spoken of on these boards unfortunately
the instructions that came with this bit of kit are poorly illustrated and badly written grammatical garbage, thus being of little to no help to relative beginners like myself.

So:

Despite not using a cpu cooler, apparently (according to the instructions) I still have to plug one of these leads into a motherboard fan header to make it run; if so which lead and which header? At the moment I'm guessing its one of the two cables in the middle (see pic below) I'm assuming one end connects to the controller, another to the motherboard and the third to a fan. Again is this correct? And, if so, which motherboard header do I connect to?

I think the two on the far right are RPM signal wires for the mobo; is this correct?

What purpose do the two cables on the far left serve?

I've just finished water cooling my rig and am loath to make a mistake at this stage so some help is appreciated.

[WoZZeR999]

The 2 on the far right are got power to Molex (some fans only come with Molex)
Middle 2 are for RPM forwarding. It send power to the one with 3 wires, while the black/yellow attach to the motherboard.
The 2 on the left look like extenders.

This is all based on the picture, and I can't quite make out the 2 on the left.

[jkresh]

mine wont be here until tomorrow but I can't see how it would have to be plugged into the motherboard (as WoZZeR999 suggested for rpm forwarding it would make sense but it should work without that), the conenction ot the motherboard should only be so you could monitor the fans in windows (if you care about the rpm), if all you care about is noise then that should not be required.

[thomas hobbes]

mine wont be here until tomorrow but I can't see how it would have to be plugged into the motherboard (as WoZZeR999 suggested for rpm forwarding it would make sense but it should work without that), the conenction ot the motherboard should only be so you could monitor the fans in windows (if you care about the rpm), if all you care about is noise then that should not be required.

I would agree, but check out this review. Apparently it needs to be plugged in regardless.

http://www.bioslevel.com/articles/su...heobus-extreme

[clone38]

Got the same one here,i turned the cpu fan speed to 0 in the bios and plugged in the 3 pin power lead and my fan cables and away i whent .

[thomas hobbes]

Got the same one here,i turned the cpu fan speed to 0 in the bios and plugged in the 3 pin power lead and my fan cables and away i whent .

Ok thanks, I'm prety sure I've disabled or 'set to ignore' the cpu fan in the bios so will give it a whirl in a bit.

[skinnee]

Yeah, I just have mine being powered by a molex into the 2wire power cable. All of my fans run into a common header for each channel with 5 of the 6 channels used atm.

I don't have anything running to my board from the fans or the controller.

[thomas hobbes]

Now working thanks guys. Its so simple, I was looking for problems that didnt exist!

[skinnee]

Better to be overly cautious and ask questions than to dive in and pay for it later.

[thomas hobbes]

Better to be overly cautious and ask questions than to dive in and pay for it later.

No doubt!

Heres another question: Is it ok to plug a 3 pin extension cable into a fan controller and then plug a 3 pin splitter into the extension cable to power two fans?

[Astratuner]

skinnee or some one else who has the fancontroller can you say to me that you had enough stuff to mod your cables?

Cause if you look at what they give with the package it's only 2x 3 pin to 3 pin Wire and 2x 3 pin to 4 pin Wire.


Is that enough to mod the fans per 3 as you did skinnee?

[skinnee]

No doubt!

Heres another question: Is it ok to plug a 3 pin extension cable into a fan controller and then plug a 3 pin splitter into the extension cable to power two fans?

I modded the fan cabling, tied 3 fans or 2 fans into one header (a single 3 pin connector).

You only get 30W per channel on the Rheobus Extreme. 1 YL D12SM-12 takes 3.6 watts (12v * 0.3amps = 3.6watts), you would have to check the volt and amp draw for your specific fans as not to exceed the 30W per channel.

Me personally, I wanted to rely on my soldering for the 3pin fan connectors rather than a splitter cable.

skinnee or some one else who has the fancontroller can you say to me that you had enough stuff to mod your cables?

Cause if you look at what they give with the package it's only 2x 3 pin to 3 pin Wire and 2x 3 pin to 4 pin Wire.

Is that enough to mod the fans per 3 as you did skinnee?

I only modded the power cable for the Rheobus itself. All of the fans have to be modded themselves, and use 1 3pin connector for each channel.

I used different 3pin female connectors and 24AWG wire which I had sitting around, but you may need to purchase all of this seperately as it does not come with the controller.

[Astratuner]

Ok what modding did the power calbe needed then for the fancontroller

[skinnee]

Ok what modding did the power calbe needed then for the fancontroller

I cut off the 3pin connector from the power cable so it just had molex and the 2pin that plugs into controller. I sleeved the cable and used heatshrink for each end, as well as heatshrink the connection for the individual pins.

BTW, I modified my previous post.

[systemviper]

the yellow and black wit hhe molex is your power.... but i guiess you know that now/...

[skinnee]

yeah...this one...

[Wellcomef3-a]

No doubt!

Heres another question: Is it ok to plug a 3 pin extension cable into a fan controller and then plug a 3 pin splitter into the extension cable to power two fans?

As long as the combined current draw from both the fans doesn't exceed the 30W per channel limit on the controller then you're fine and have nothing to worry about.
I have a wiring loom with 1 x 120mm Panaflo H model wired with 2 x 80mm Panaflo H model fans all connected to the same controller on my Rheobus. They are all used as exhaust fans which does not make any difference but the reason I did it this way is that I have one knob/switch on the controller which controls all three exhaust fans. All my fans/cpu/hdd/NB are all connected and monitored with hardware controllers.
Slightly off topic but attempting to run several fans using a splitter of of a motherboard fan header is a no-no. But I guess you knew that already, yes!
In the Rheobus Kit you get the following connecting leads:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ge_scroll_id=0

The wires are only a basic set and do not cater for the splicing or splitting or connecting of several fans into one wire which leads to the controller except maybe the 3 pin female plug (controller) to 2 pin male (cpu wire) and 3 pin female wire (cpu fan header).
I have had some fun with fan controllers and temp. monitors and the routing and connecting of said wires. Boy, that is an understatement! Some people prefer to use software when monitoring component temperatures and fan speeds (such as MBM or Speedfan) but I don't believe software programs can beat hardware when it comes to monitoring temps. and fan speeds.
I hope this has helped make up your mind?...?
BTW, when monitoring RPM be it any fan, pump, etc., the connecting lead must contain the yellow wire. If you are watercooling your computer then why are you connecting an RPM monitoring wire into a motherboard header? Some of them do not even support RPM monitoring! I don't get it! The cpu fan header is not used for measuring cpu temps as far as I know unless it has 4 pins instead of the normal three. I will not use mobo fan headers unless I am aircooling a PC, and then only the ones I have to use such as a NorthBridge/SouthBridge fan header. eg., You cannot plug a Vantec Tornado or an extreme Delta fan into a mobo header!
If I am way off base here just let me know but for best results you should use the flat two wire temp. probes and affix them to the hardware you want to monitor in conjunction with a temperature monitoring device. There are plenty to choose from but do your research before you buy it!
I think I better leave it at that! LOL!