Decent fan controller with USB interface for fan control?

crinkleshoes · 18 Aug 2016 at 00:04

So, I've figured out that to power 14 fans... I'm going to need a decent fan controller

It looks like my motherboard, even with the included expansion card - can only handle 8 fans with the 2 headers required by the 2x water pumps i'll have.

However, there are 2x high-amp connectors... each which can deliver about 30-35W without any trouble.

I really like the Asus Fan Xpert software... but NZXT Cam is also rather good.

I'm trying to find something that will link to these two pieces of software and allow them to control the fans.

I was looking at the NZXT Grid+ v2... but it only has voltage control which will mess with the LEDs on my fans. It's a shame as that type of thing would be ideal.

Another option is to try and split the high-amp fan headers to power multiple fans. Normally it's best to only put one fan per motherboard header in order to avoid issues... but with the high power output potential of these two connections... I might be able to get all fans running of the motherboard which would be great.

I've looked at the Aquero 6 Pro and it's a consideration as it can easily do what I want with that unit. But it's quite expensive when I think there are other options out there that should do the fan control I want, without all the extras the Aquero has that I won't use.

Are there any other fan controllers I should be looking at?

Thanks

doyll · 18 Aug 2016 at 10:21

If we can believe your motherboard manual, you have 7 PWM controlled fan headers. Each should be rated for approximately 1 amp load limit, so even if we give ourselves a 20% safety margin that is 0.8 amp or 9.6 watts .. most fans are only a few watts so 2 or 3 could be ran on a header no problem.
I often use PWM signal from motherboard to a PWM hub powered by PSU. These will easily handle 8 fans each. There are a few exceptions, like some Corsair (think SP120) fans that do not PWM well with other fans, even same model, but generally 8x PWM fans can be controlled with one PWM signal. I have ran 13 TY-140 and T-147 fans on on PWM signal. Don't know how many more would have worked .. that was all of them I had.

crinkleshoes · 18 Aug 2016 at 14:06

OK, fair enough.

I have found that I had a powered PWM splitter sitting in a box not doing anything that takes the PWM signal from the motherboard but the power straight from the PSU and can power 4 fans each... it came from EKWB for my last WC build and I didn't use it.

I'm going to give that a go and see if it works.

When I did my last build, I originally had just a normal 2-way splitter from Noctua connecting 2x Noctua fans to 1 header and it was causing boot issues... POST stalls even.

It took me a little while to figure out what that was as I didn't imagine 2 fans on one header would cause such issues.

That was the MSI Z170A Titanium.

doyll · 18 Aug 2016 at 14:13

Hadn't heard of that fan issue before, but I do know for a fact that computers have gremlins in them. This little beasts like nothing better than to mess with our heads by creating issues like that.

crinkleshoes · 18 Aug 2016 at 14:34

Yeah - it could have simply been related to it being on an early bios revision and is now fixed... but it was definitely the source of the issue - as soon as I tried that after trying just about everything else - the issues magically disappeared

doyll · 18 Aug 2016 at 15:02

I think your gremlins were just tired and is taking a little kip. I'm sure they will wake up sooner or later.

Tealc · 18 Aug 2016 at 17:30

Isn't there a PWM hub that takes one PWM feed and outputs to multiple PWM fans? If not there should be.

crinkleshoes · 18 Aug 2016 at 19:11

doyll said:
I think your gremlins were just tired and is taking a little kip. I'm sure they will wake up sooner or later.

Tealc said:
Isn't there a PWM hub that takes one PWM feed and outputs to multiple PWM fans? If not there should be.

Yes, it's just all of the ones I found when I was looking were un-powered and I didn't want to split motherboard header power after past experience.

Now I've found some powered splitters... I think I'm set to use the motherboard software like I wanted

Will test for certain when the build's complete.