Fan controller with speed presets?

nicodemus3d · 16 Jan 2009 at 13:24

Fan controller with speed presets-NZXT Sentry LX or MCubed Tbalancer?

Is there a fan controller that will let me connect around 4-6 fans and instead of giving me a dial for to control each, will let me set or program in 'fan states'.
e.g.

Quiet mode-sets all fans to low for watching movie or downloading overnight

Medium-medium speed

High-sets all fans to full for gaming etc

So i can basically just switch to whichever state is needed without turning a load of dials.

cheers

ION · 16 Jan 2009 at 13:44

You want the Mcubed T Balancer bigNG. Its an automated fan controller its a little expensive at 50 quid but is amazing (have one myself) made my system so quiet its stupid along with not having to having them run at a constant speed. Instead this fan controller uses sensors and depending on the temps will depend how fast it runs. These can fit 4 fans as standard (can add more using a splitter but each fan port only supply a certain amount of power. However u can buy a extra fan attachment addition that allows u to fit as many fans to the system as you want. For example scans great white contains over 12 fans all of them are controller by the bigNG.

nicodemus3d · 16 Jan 2009 at 14:48

thanks for the reply ion. had a look at the mcubed and it looks like it'll take some time to set up. That, and the cost are putting me off a bit. Is there anything that'll do something inbetween setting up my own temp-voltage graphs and just turning dials for 4 fans?

What about the NZXT Sentry LX? has anyone got one?

A review read:
The NZXT Sentry LX is a nice tool to add to your air cooling system, and it allows you to get the most out of your fans. When it's time to keep your components cool during a gaming session, it speeds up the fans. When it's time to read an e-book, and the PC is idling, it slows the fans down to reduce noise.

ION · 16 Jan 2009 at 15:13

Remenber to check for the miniNG then it has less sensor probes instead and can still be linked to an adapter to add more fans.

Well just checked that nzxt sentry and its selling at 50 quid aswell

.

Btw the bigNG and miniNG are not as hard to set up as it looks only hard parts is choosing where u want to place ur temperature probes (but u will get that with any fan controller that uses temps as a speed meter of the fans).

Also remenber this provides power via PWM which means that if u wanted u could run that at 1% of there normal speed (normal fan controllers cannot do this).

PWM = Pulse Width Modulation Applies the full power to the unit however only for a short time. Thus will constantly turn on and off so any level of speed is achieveable.

nicodemus3d · 16 Jan 2009 at 16:23

You make a good point. haha.

So say i got the Mcubed T Balancer bigNG. What is the addition called to let me connect more fans. My case is an Antec twelve hundred so there are fans EVERYWHERE. 7 120mm+the top 200mm one (not including the cpu and gfx card coolers). Also, the fans supplied by antec in the case have a switch with 3 settings on so im guessing they wont be compatible? What are good fans to replace them with if need be? (without spending too much?)

Cheers

ION · 16 Jan 2009 at 23:16

Well heres the thing each socket that it has can actually support up to 50 watss of pwm fans on each channel before the speed of the fans is reduced which is like 18 fans or something stupid. I would personally choose sharkoon silent eagles but ur fans will still work. Say if u set it to the lowest setting the bigNG will go up to that but no higher even if the fan can go higher so u just set it to highest setting then dont worry about.

So really depending on how many watts each fan uses in ur system will depend on how many u have. I have 8 fans atm (been testing it for my more to a quad rad) and have had no loss in speed on either channel but all my are sharkoon eagles 1000rpms.

Also plan for it to monitor my watercooling setup soon

can get a keep has temp probes and flow meter and will turn off the system if the temps get too high (another addition has to be fitted to psu).

Also just checked for u on average a fan uses about 9 watts in the worse case. Thats why they are called fan channels as it just means it can have 4 different fan loops all running at different speeds if u want.