Fan Controller

Rab · 29 Sep 2006 at 17:01

never had 1, so looking for advice on a good fan controller, will be in a lain li pc+7 case, will run 2x120mm fans in case, 80mm fan,artic freezer pro & evercool chipset fan ( can controllers do this with chipset fans )

looking for a controller that can make the 2x120mm & 80mm fans run @ 7v without the need 2 mod the wires ( possible??) on a budget here around £40 max, any advice b great, thks

postmanfw · 29 Sep 2006 at 19:46

Highly recommend sunbeam rheobus. Costs about £15. Has 4 channels and each can take 20w which is quite high. Comes in silver or black. It connects using 3 pin plugs but you can get adapters to run off molex fans. Mine came with 2 in the box but that was unexpected. They only cost about £1.50 each.
Fans can be varied to any speed unlike some other ones that only have three speeds.
Leds are a bit bright but can be "modded" to sit further back and reuce the glare from them.

Hope that helps

Rab · 29 Sep 2006 at 22:49

cheers m8, noticed that 1, been reading around web , seeing what
would b best, that model was mention few times, n1

Massive Attack · 30 Sep 2006 at 11:36

Have a look at the akasa fc-03 pro fan control, got a big thumbs up from me

V|per · 30 Sep 2006 at 13:51

Was about to ask the same question

i have way to many zalman fanmates in my pc now...getting rather silly :rolleyes:

silentphoenix · 30 Sep 2006 at 15:08

Another vote for the sunbeam rheobus - they have good build quality and the silver metal finish would look decent in your Lian Li.

Ive also owned the Coolermaster CoolDrive4 which was cool - harddrive cooler with 40mm fan, and controlled 4 fans in total and has 4 temp sensors. Shows fan RPMs and has a fan fail alarm too.

Cheekykid · 30 Sep 2006 at 15:18

I have the zalman zw-mfc1 and it's great for me. Also nice looking

WJA96 · 30 Sep 2006 at 18:19

mCubed TBalancer is the best real fan controller on the market. All the other ones are just twisty knobs. Completely under software control too. Shame OcUK stopped stocking them - I guess no-one except Yewen and I bought them :rolleyes:

Hades · 30 Sep 2006 at 18:37

WJA96 said:
mCubed TBalancer is the best real fan controller on the market. All the other ones are just twisty knobs. Completely under software control too. Shame OcUK stopped stocking them - I guess no-one except Yewen and I bought them

Fine if you use Windows but not so good for OSX or Linux

WJA96 · 1 Oct 2006 at 16:07

Hades said:
Fine if you use Windows but not so good for OSX or Linux

I can't help on the OSX - Is OSX on the PC a mainstream market? But as for Linux, http://sourceforge.net/projects/xban/ This actually is almost better than the windows stuff. After all - mCubed are from Austria, where Linux is huge.

squiffy · 1 Oct 2006 at 16:11

I prefer simpler knobs only design- KISS. Need 3.5" with two 4 pin molex outputs, rather not use adaptors.

WJA96 · 1 Oct 2006 at 17:03

squiffy said:
I prefer simpler knobs only design- KISS. Need 3.5" with two 4 pin molex outputs, rather not use adaptors.

I'm all for KISS, but surely when it comes to computers KISS no longer applies? Was KISS the reason Dot Matrix died out in mainstream home use? Was KISS the reason Golfball printers died out? Taken to the ultimate (stupid) extreme shouldn't you be using an Abacus? Are you using wireless ethernet or have you stuck with a CAT 5 cable? Are you still dialling up with a modem? No, because something better came along and you adopted it. Automatic PWM is the way forward. Laptop cooling fans have been using it for some time now. All Intel CPU fans since LGA775 came out have been PWM. And there is no way that anyone can control a fan against a temperature like a proper dedicated controller. Automated PWM controllers can stop fans, then spin then back up again, even in a non-linear fashion) as the temperature rises. With the software supplied by mCubed you can even determine the shape of the cooling curves. You might not like the current execution, but you will find you'll be using it in the foreseeable future. The next generation of NVidia chipsets use PWM for all the fan headers, not just the CPU. It can't be long before someone mainstream (Thermaltake probably) brings out a cheap, automatic PWM controller. Then more people will buy them. In many ways the problem with the mCubed is that people can't see the benefit.