Best Non-Bay Mounted Fan Controller? Aquaero 5 LT?

Frank Jeagar · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:14

I want a fan controller that doesn't mount in a drive bay. My drive bays are not easily reached from my desk and I prefer not to break my case aesthetics with a 5.25" drive.

So far the contenders are the NZXT Sentry and the AquaComputer Aquaero 5 LT

I think the Aquaero has the edge because it doesn't requrie a PCI lane and can be mounted out of sight and it has really good reviews about its software which the Sentry hasn't with plenty of features like profiles that are easy to switch between.

Any thoughts on these products?

Any extra suggestions?

Cyanide · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:19

The Aquaero is absolutely amazing. I spent ages doing the initial setup on mine - checking sensors were in the right place, working out fan curves etc but I've now had it in ~6 months and haven't touched it once. It just works.

Frank Jeagar · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:25

Cyanide said:
The Aquaero is absolutely amazing. I spent ages doing the initial setup on mine - checking sensors were in the right place, working out fan curves etc but I've now had it in ~6 months and haven't touched it once. It just works.

Can you set profiles that are easy to switch between?

I prefer having a quiet profile and a performance profile than having fan curves.

Cyanide · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:42

Frank Jeagar said:
Can you set profiles that are easy to switch between?

I prefer having a quiet profile and a performance profile than having fan curves.

You can save the profiles then just re-load them easily enough, but why not just have a curve with a steep climb once things hot up? Keeps it quiet when you're not using it much then and quickly ramps up if needed.

Frank Jeagar · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:46

Cyanide said:
You can save the profiles then just re-load them easily enough, but why not just have a curve with a steep climb once things hot up? Keeps it quiet when you're not using it much then and quickly ramps up if needed.

That's not a bad idea!

Are the temps relatively accurate? Because the ones I have seen from fan software before has been vastly different from the ones HW Monitor and MSI Afterburner have told me.

Cyanide · 11 Dec 2015 at 11:50

Frank Jeagar said:
That's not a bad idea!

Are the temps relatively accurate? Because the ones I have seen from fan software before has been vastly different from the ones HW Monitor and MSI Afterburner have told me.

I've not found them too bad, but then I've got quite a few sensors and use the software to average them out too which should make them more accurate.

You can also use it to pull in data from HW Monitor as well so you can use inbuilt component sensors as well as the dedicated Aquaero ones.

Frank Jeagar · 11 Dec 2015 at 13:01

Cyanide said:
I've not found them too bad, but then I've got quite a few sensors and use the software to average them out too which should make them more accurate.

You can also use it to pull in data from HW Monitor as well so you can use inbuilt component sensors as well as the dedicated Aquaero ones.

Okay, so it can use Hardware Monitor to get inbuilt sensor readings, that is perfect!

Do you have heatsinks or a waterblock on yours?

Cyanide · 11 Dec 2015 at 13:34

Frank Jeagar said:
Do you have heatsinks or a waterblock on yours?

Mines on a custom water loop. I've got 2 temp sensors on the water averaged out, they control the curves of my 2 radiators (one of them is combined and averaged with the CPU temps as well to bring fans out a bit earlier) - 1 rad with low speed fans that ramp up first and 1 with higher fans that don't come on until things start to get toasty.

Then I've got an inlet fan controlled by the GPU temperature (again, with a nearby air reading as well to help smooth things out a bit) and an exhaust fan controlled by the average of 3 different air temp sensors.

It starts to get very complicated to set things up but it's soooo worth it

Frank Jeagar · 11 Dec 2015 at 14:41

Sounds relatively complex, but you have things how you want them and don't have to touch the settings anymore so I would say it was worth it!

I'm not opposed to a solid weekend of stress to get my fans right so I can leave them, hell isn't that what custom building is all about?