Drumroll, ARGB fans need power and lighting cables. so with this ARGB 12 port hub is this just for lighting and not power?
Because most full size ATX motherboards will have AIO/CPU/CPU-OPT PWM ports + 4 PWM fan ports for case fans. Considering that most decent motherboards will allow at least 1A per port, and most fans would be 0.2-0.3A (just be aware that the required A to start moving the fan will be higher than the marked A on the fan, so don’t abuse it), you can easily run 3 x front, 3 top, 3 side or bottom and 1 rear, easily, as I expect most people would run each “section” at different rpm. Don’t really need to run one front intake at higher or lower rpm than the other 2 for example, but the rear exhaust would have much less restriction exhausting than the front pulling air through a fine mesh/filter, I would expect the front to be at 10-15% higher rpm.
ARGB, different scenario. Most mid-life AM4 motherboards used to offer one RGB and one ARGB. Latter was 2 ARGB (there’s exceptions, but that was my experience).
I would be happy to connect 6 fans to one ARGB port, but that would be the limit for me. Add to the fans, AIO or CPU Cooler’s ARGB fans, ARGB strips/cables/GPU anti sag bracket… and the list goes on.
The O11d evo, without the front mesh would allow 10 fans, straight away.
The only issue with so many ARGB connected to only one hub (that would only connect to one ARGB port) is that everything connected to it will produce the same light effect. I always liked solid static colours, not an issue for me, but when you start adding a lot of ARG and wants to have different light effects, things tend to get more complicated.
The HUB for ARGB only would allow to have more than “6” fans or any other ARGB safely connected to one ARGB port.
The HUH that offers PWM, would do the same as the ARGB. The hub, unless is some controller like aquacomputer quadro/octo or similar, will only get the signal from the one of the PWM ports from the motherboard, but power will be supplied by the hub. Personally I wouldn’t use a hub for that, as I like to control fans according to their position in the case, and if was the situation where the motherboard doesn’t offer enough PWM ports, like some ITX boards, I would use something like the aquacomputer quadro instead.
Something like the NV7 case does that. You can pretty much connect 12 fans ARGB plus some other gear to their ARGB hub - 2 ARGB channels, that’s all.
Or you can have some hub that isn’t really a hub, is more like a posh splitter, like the “hub” from the Fractal North Mesh. You can install up to 4 fans, if O remember well, and the hub is powered by one PWM fan port of the motherboard. You won’t see a 10-12 PWM hub, without its own power (SATA/MOLEX), unless someone wants to blow up your PWM port.
