Does such a fan controller exist?

dudemiseter182

dudemiseter182

dudemiseter182

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First of all, I've looked into similar thread for the last couple of hours and still haven't reall found an answer.

I'm looking for a fan hub like the NZXT Grid Fan Hub. Up to 10 fans, molex powered, very small form factor. But no fan rpm control.

I don't wish to have all my case fans running at 100% all the time, I'd like to be able to connect up to 10 fans together to run at the same controlled speed, and i'm not looking to get a 5.25" bay controller due to the aesthetics of my case (corsair air 540), this case's bays are mounted vertically whereas most 5.25" bay fan controllers are commonly used horizontally.

Does such a device exist?
 
Nzxt grid +?

Phanteks PWM hub?

Tealc PWM to 3 pin converter as shown below


Not sure if these would suit you.
 
Yes,google ModMyToys 4-Pin Distribution PCB.

Small pcb you can stick anywhere in the back of a 540 and hook all your fans up to it,and control them off a single header,owered by molex or sata.

Theres versions for 3 pin,4 pins and versions that can control both at the same time.


Cheaper,smaller and more versatile than things like the NZXT/phanteks hubs.
 
so if someone was to get one of them fan controllers how would they control the speed of the fans baring in mind it says in the notes not to use the motherboard header for more than two fans?

what connection should you go for? molex, 6pin, 8pin etc etc? and why?
 
Currently looking into the ModMyToys PCBs but, how are these software controlled? They appear to do the same job as the NZXT splitter and just run multiple fans at full speed.
 
unless you stick them on the mobo but then they might overload the mobo? although i read that the mobo can do 5amp max on a single header but most fans are 0.3amp? so 10 would be safe and i wont even be using 10 more like 6 or 8.
 
dudemiseter182 said:
Currently looking into the ModMyToys PCBs but, how are these software controlled?.
Click to expand...

You'd need the input voltage to be changed, which would need another controller. They are really just fan splitters mounted on a PCB. This'll be why they are so cheap. PCBs are fairly cheap especially when they are so small.
 
So this guy needs something that has a front control panel that mounts from top to bottom rather than left to right.

So do you think one of these things with 10 fans on would be safe on a normal gaming z170 mobo.
 
dudemiseter182 said:
Currently looking into the ModMyToys PCBs but, how are these software controlled? They appear to do the same job as the NZXT splitter and just run multiple fans at full speed.
Click to expand...

D1craig said:
unless you stick them on the mobo but then they might overload the mobo? although i read that the mobo can do 5amp max on a single header but most fans are 0.3amp? so 10 would be safe and i wont even be using 10 more like 6 or 8.
Click to expand...

The power is suppied by a molex/sata powr cable so overloading them is not an issue.

Fan speed control is handed by the bios via a fan header,just set up a fan curve.Or even better install speed fan and set up a curve with that

I use one of these PCBS to control 5 noctua rad fans and a cougar exhaust fan from the cpu header,it also powers my rigid led strips.


You have to get the right the PCB for your needs tho,if you have PWM fans get a 4 pin splitter and connect it to a PWM header.With voltage control fans get a 3 pin splitter and hook it up to a voltage controlled fan header.

There are also variants of the pcb that can mix 3 pin and 4 pin fans controlled from a PWM header aswell

D1craig said:
So do you think one of these things with 10 fans on would be safe on a normal gaming z170 mobo.
Click to expand...
Yes it would be fine :)
 
Maybe I'm missing something here, but things do now seem very clear .. at all.

dudemiseter182, what kind of fans are you trying to control? As in are the variable voltage, PWM or a combination of the two?

I have not seen any ModMyToys fan hubs that were 10x fan PWM controlled by motherboard with PSU power. I've done a lot of PWM fan controlled systems with hubs and splitters. 8 PWM fans can almost always be controlled by a single PWM signal, but 10 PWM fans becomes hit and miss.

Most fan specified rated power is running load, not startup load .. and startup load can easily be 3-5 times as much as running load!! Basically this means fans rated 2-4 watt running load often pull 4-12 watt when starting up! Sure, a motherboard fan header cna hanlde that .. but the smoke might start leaking if there are 3x or 4x fans rated 2-3 watt running load try starting on a single 1 amp / 12 watt rated fan header. :eek:
 
Just grab a Grid+ V2. 30W total fan controller than has 6 channels that can each have an independent fan curve that depends on CPU or GPU temperature. Really easy to setup and use.

Only issue is that it uses voltage control which sometimes doesn't play nice with PWM fans (particularly corsair)
 
speedfan doesnt work for my motherboard unfortunately. doesnt recognise any of my fan headers.

i was confused because i thought they would either be controlled by the molex, sata, 6, 8 or fan header. i must have missed that when i read them that they connect to the psu and also connect to the motherboard, i thought it was one or the other not both. that does make controlling them a lot easier.
 
doyll said:
dudemiseter182, what kind of fans are you trying to control? As in are the variable voltage, PWM or a combination of the two?

:eek:
Click to expand...

I am trying to find a solution for controlling a maximum of 5 Corair SP140s and 6 Corsair SP120s, I believe these are all 3 pin, variable voltage fans. Not looking for any front panel 5.25" bay controller, due to aesthestics. And in the Air 540 there is a huge amount of room in the cable management chamber for a large fan controller.

Another thought, would it be possible to have 2 NZXT Grid+ V2's in a single system, I don't perticularly like the fan control software that comes with these devices, I would prefer to continue using my current solution of a custom curve within Ai Suite 3, but if it meant I could use all 11 possible fans then I wouldn't mind it so much.

If the above solution is possible could it be done through daisy-chaining them together or would there need to be a USB 2.0 internal splitter?
 
Last edited:
I made my own.

One of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019NZU8CM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

One of these
Phobya 4Pin Molex to 6x 3Pin Fan Splitter

A spare 4 pin molex extender.

I then cut the molex extender and wired in yellow 12V and red 5V to the switch, with the output of that going to the 12V input of the phobya. Along with a black ground going to the phobya.

I drilled a 16mm hole into a 3.5" faceplate and mounted the switch button in this.

So now when my PC boots, I have the switch in the 5V position and I push it in to 12V when I'm gaming.

Perfect :D

Maybe about an hour's work in total to solder/cut/heatshrink things.
 
Robbie_G said:
Why not something like this https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aqua...p-to-9-fans-or-aquabus-devices-bb-004-aq.html
Click to expand...

This exact product would be perfect for my use case, the only downside is that if I was to hook up all my fans to this, i'm pretty sure it would overload the fan header on my mobo.

Something like this but with a molex connector for the power input and then a fan header connection to get the signal for the rpm, would be exactly what i'm looking for.
 
So one (or two) of these then?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-pwm-fan-hub-ca-009-pt.html

Ok so it has Sata rather than Molex. Not sure how robust it is with quite so many fans though. I've not used one.

And then there's this..
11bktad.jpg

..but you'd need 3 of them. Controls 3 pin fans from silly low speeds to max speeds using a PWM signal.

11 fans is a lot.
 
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