Fan controller commander pro or an alternative?

[fritzo]

Hi all after some advise from anyone using a commander pro as a fan hub in terms of experiences, reliability etc or suggestions for an alternative

currently I have a phanteks evolve x and I’m having issues with the cpu overheating (thread else where) need to do some more testing but in preparation I’m considering swapping cases to sort air flow

currently I have a d5 plugged into my msi x99 krait cpu fan header 1 and the phanteks Case fan hub with 5x sp 120’s and 1x af140 plugged into cpu header 2

fan and pump control is via bios and it’s all worked fine to date

I’m now thinking about getting a Lian li o11 xl and running 3x fans in the bottom as intake, 3x fans in the side as Intake and a 360rad with 3 x fans in top as an exhaust

cpu will be cooled via the 360rad and d5 and the 6800xt is using the air cooler

obviously lian li has no fan hub and so Need something

I have no rbg and im not fussed enough to spend 300quid for 9 Corsair rbg fans, I do use a Corsair keyboard and mouse with Icue hence the commander pro was the first thought

Im happy with a basic fan hub / controller and looking for options as long as it’s reliable and will work with no fuss as spending time and money on issues is getting old

in terms of fans I need 9 number, I have 5 white led Corsair sp120’s ideally I’d like 9 red fans to go with the rest of the theme is worth sticking with sp120’s or is there a better alternatives

thanks
Fritzo

 

[clone]

I had the commander Pro and its a great bit of kit, does what it says that was a while ago don't know if they have upgraded it since.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Corsair SPs are okay, but a bit pants by today's standards.

Hub-wise, have you considered an AquaComputer one? The Quadro and Octo (4 and 8 channels, respectively) run via a USB header, and can be as basic or in-depth as you like.
They're pretty cheap for what they offer, and they give you plenty of options if you want to do things differently in future.

 

[pp111]

I have three Commander Pro's. I consider them pretty essential kit really. They just make controlling all the fans so easy. I have never had any issue with reliability. Thing is though, the more Corsair kit you have the better. The Commander Pro can control six fans through the app iceu, but of course iceu can also control a Corsair water cooler fans and pump. Not to mention power supply and everything else. It almost seems a waste though if all you are doing is controlling a few fans. I mean you might as well just use a powered splitter to do that.

 

[fritzo]

Thanks for the reply’s

looked at the octo and seems decent

to be fair the commander pro was looking like the first choice as I’ve already got a few Corsair products, never really had an issue with Icue and made sense to stay in the same eco system.

was ready to junk the water cooling and go with a Corsair AIO was just the price and availability of the fans that was an issue

So like most things having made my mind up and started planning out my revised build in my head, my last attempt to sort the temperature and freezing issues seems to have worked

so guess I’ll be sticking with what I’ve got for a while yet unless I can’t think of a better way to blow 500quid on new shiny stuff...

 

[TT158]

I've found the Commander Pro just fine, the only issue being that icue glitches when open at the same time as hwinfo unless you use the Corsair safe mode check box in hwinfo. Just be careful not too add too many fans to a single port on the Commander Pro. I think the max is 1A, where the Aquacomputer stuff can take 2A. Most fans will be fine but I had some high powered ROG ones one time that were rated at 0.4A each, so 3 would have been pushing it if I'd used them at full speed.

Having said all that, I've ordered an Octo because I want to send fan speed based on water vs ambient delta, which the Corsair can't do. But for most uses they're great!

 

[fritzo]

So despite me saying I wasn’t going to bother I’ve still got the urge to recase and was doing some further thinking / reading

I take it for using more than 6 fans or 8 with the octo, it’s literally as simple as using a splitter for 2 fans per channel as long as it doesn’t pull more than the rated current as opposed to daisy chaining multiple hubs

the other question I have is under the description for the octo it mentions temp control for the fans.

Am I right in thinking instead setting up fan curves based on temp vs rpm I can set a temperature set point and have the fans ramp up automatically to maintain this temperature?

If this is the case can I pick what sensor it controls against ie loop temperature sensor, cpu package etc and can I set multiple fan groups against different sensors

does the commander pro have this function?

 

[TT158]

You can definitely just daisy chain multiple fans on one header as you say.

I'm not sure about the temperature set point on the Octo. Sounds good, hope we can! The Commander Pro doesn't have this function

 

[TT158]

Duplicate post.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I take it for using more than 6 fans or 8 with the octo, it’s literally as simple as using a splitter for 2 fans per channel as long as it doesn’t pull more than the rated current as opposed to daisy chaining multiple hubs

That's exactly as simple as it is.
I have 10 fans across four channels, with each set to match Channel 1 in terms of performance. You can have up to 25w per channel, or 100w combined. I could run about 35 ML120s, if I wanted!

Am I right in thinking instead setting up fan curves based on temp vs rpm I can set a temperature set point and have the fans ramp up automatically to maintain this temperature?

Yes indeed!
Water temp is the one most people choose, but you could use anything, really.

If this is the case can I pick what sensor it controls against ie loop temperature sensor, cpu package etc and can I set multiple fan groups against different sensors

Yes and yes!
Use a hardware sensor, software one or a combination. It integrates with HWInfo, so can read anything you see there.
You can even create complex algorithms that aggregate and average out a selection of sensors, but that's way beyond what I've delved into!

does the commander pro have this function?

I do not believe so....

 

[fritzo]

Thanks for the confirmation, sounds like a winner

funnily enough was just reading up on it and it mentions being able to adjust PID so assumed it did do set point control

I’m thinking to run the radiator exhaust fans and side inlet fans under the dictates of the water temperature sensor in the cpu loop

and if it can pull info from HWinfo then control the bottom inlet fans and side exhaust based on the dictates of the GPU temp

In theory should reduce fan noise as it’s only running what’s needed, when it’s needed

In reality probably won’t make a massive difference especially as I’m stuck using the GPU air cooler, but if I was doing it all again and had a card with a water block available I’d deffo think about a dual loop


Now I guess I should go price it all up lol

 

[TT158]

The only problem with the Octo as far as I can see is sourcing one. I couldn't find any in the UK and had to use an annoyingly uncommunicative German outfit. A real pity OCUK are out of stock.

 

[ttaskmaster]

If you can find one, the Quadro would work just as well, given how many fans you can get per channel.
The annoying German outfit is actually not bad in general, though they may also be suffering Covidic issues like most people.

 

[TT158]

If you can find one, the Quadro would work just as well, given how many fans you can get per channel.
The annoying German outfit is actually not bad in general, though they may also be suffering Covidic issues like most people.

To be fair they do deliver stuff, they just don't really keep you informed. I'm mostly annoyed because I asked to cancel an order minutes after making it and they sent the thing anyway. Not great service. Still, Octo incoming

 

[pp111]

The commander pro can set curves up for any sensors including it's own supplied sensors. When you think about it, having the ability to force temperature to a specific point is no different to just having steep curves. No, it's can't do complex functions with sensors, but really I just don't think that is necessary. Fact is that employing complicated systems doesn't make the cooling any better, it just makes it more complicated.

 

[fritzo]

The commander pro can set curves up for any sensors including it's own supplied sensors. When you think about it, having the ability to force temperature to a specific point is no different to just having steep curves. No, it's can't do complex functions with sensors, but really I just don't think that is necessary. Fact is that employing complicated systems doesn't make the cooling any better, it just makes it more complicated.

To an extent that’s correct and it’s certainly not necessary, but controlling to a set point is more efficient than relying on a best guess fan curve and if set up correctly stops the fans constantly hunting up and down

The change in fan pitch as it ramps is a lot more intrusive acoustically than a fixed speed as it just becomes white noise

in theory you can calculate the fan speed required to maintain the required heat rejection based on the TDP, then adjust the dead bands to suit so you end up with the most efficient means of providing the cooling required, at the minimum fan speed

more so if it was set up as a dual loop with fans controlled against both the GPU and CPU individually

It’s probably slightly more complicated, definitely more expensive and marginally better from a performance perspective and arguably that makes not particularly worthwhile

the same could be said about custom loops vs AIO’s etc etc

the main reason is it gives me something to do