Fan control, in general

gooner_47

gooner_47

gooner_47

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9 Mar 2005
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162
OK, bear with me - in my current PC I have a few zalman fan controllers to control the fan speed. In the new system I'm planning I want the fans to be controlled automatically depending on temperatures.

I know this can be done, what I'm just confused about is how it happens?!

I have a P180 planned, and four Akasa ambers standing by - where do they get plugged into, do you need temperature probes, etc etc

If someone could give me an overview of how things work it'd be great.
 
It depends on the fan controllers, some have temp probes which allow you to set fan speeds depending on the temperature, some are entirely manual letting you set you fan speeds. The most expensive ones come with software that allows you to tailor the fan speeds to the readings coming from the temp sensors.
 
so for it to be fully automatic do you have to have a fan controller like that?

or can it be done via the motherboard and software like speedfan or something?
 
You can do it via Speedfan or mobo... I prefer to have an independent system that works whether the pc is working or hanged or maybe the app doesent want to load or whatever.

However since I''m watercooling all the temperatures I need for fan control are case and coolant (no onboard sensors reading)... if I was still part of the unwashed aircooling masses I would probably think differently. ;)

Still, the configuration options in a T-Balancer when it comes to temperature response for the fans are far superior to whats available on BIOS or Speedfan.
 
Well said Creidiki. Im in the process of getting together the parts for my 'ultimate rig', and a T-Balancer is certainly on that list. Speedfan can do a lot of cool stuff, and is a great program. However the T-Balancer is an independant hardware solution that far exceeds the capabilites of speedfan.
 
What's the most common way to do it without having a proper fan controller?

Not necessarily having the fan speed adjusting itself automatically, just the most common way
 
Just hook the fans up to the motherboard and as long as they are 3 pin, you should be able to control them via Speedfan. Another way would be to 7 or 5 volt the fans.
 
ok thanks i'll just do that initially. that t-balancer does look pretty cool tho, is it really necessary if you don't have a fan on your cpu tho? if you have the ninja for example

do you think it's overkill just to have case fans hooked up to it
 
Well if you are running a ninja passive, then the ambient air temperature in your case is very important. Being ablt to control all the case fans allows you to have the fans as quiet as possible without having to worry about any component overheating, for example on a hot day. Personally I will be using the T-Balancer for a water loop. The CPU however will be Phase cooled, so that will be all handled by a seperate controller.
 
well now i feel stupid.....

i naively assumed the ninja could passively cool a conroe e6600 (what i plan to buy) - only just now did i read the description and see that it actually needs a fan as well! lol

so the t-balancer could be a good buy.. i'll consider it
 
It should be able to rather well (passivley) so long as you adequate case airlfow.

The TDP of an E6600 is far lower than that of a Dual-Core AMD, let alone a PresHOT.
 
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