Fan controller

  • Thread starter Thread starter sja
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sja

sja

sja

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I'm needing to source a fan controller, but struggling to decide which one is best...

I've got the Antec P182, so there's two large fans at the top/rear of the case, plus one in the lower section of the case between the PSU+HDD. I've added a 120mm fan to the front of the case (at the end of the GFX card) and there's the CPU fan too.

I've never used a controller before, so I'm not really 100% sure on how they work - for example, if I set the fan speeds to a decent balance between noise and cooling, and something causes the temp to rise unexpectedly when I'm not around, will the controller automatically raise the speed of the fan(s) to compensate?

The reason I ask is that I quite often remote into the computer from work and I don't want to end up causing the PC to heat up when I'm not around to hear an alarm...
 
Mostly the fan controller will not ramp up the speed if necessary, except on the much more expensive ones.

The best thing to do is often to leave the CPU and one intake+one exhaust fan on 4 pin PWM motherboard headers. Let the motherboard control these three in case it needs to cool things down. Any above these fans, attach to a fan controller and you can run them as fast or slow as required.

If you want full control it can be a good thing to make sure you've checked out your PC at heavy load with fans on low - if it stays reasonable while running prime95 then it's never going to explode. Leave the fans on the lowest setting to maintain a temperature you're happy with.

At the end of the day, if you're not there you may aswell ramp the fans up (you can't hear it) and if you're there you'll know when you're putting load on the system so can ramp it up yourself.

Always leave the cpu fan on PWM if you're concerned - it's most important for cpu temps
 
sja - seems we are both asking much the same questions here - I too am about to fit a fan controller, soon am getting an old P180, and also want to be sure the CPU is cooled whatever..!
 
sja - seems that you might be better off running one fan for the CPU from the mobo and using speedfan to control it - that way your CPU will be looked after automatically and you can rest easy !
I plan to fit a thin fan (Yest Loon 20mm 120mm) infront of the HD compartment running at slow speed, then one or maybe 2 noctuas in the top front with a third at the back to exhaust. These will all be controlled by the fan controller. The cooler will have one running from the mobo as suggested, thus giving me noise control and mental tranquility.
Or something like that..!
 
Yep, it's kinda looking that way, cheers for advice guys.

Think I'll see if I can get a six fan controller to future proof myself, even though I only need 4 right now.

~Steve
 
StevenRaith said:
Whack the fans up to max before you go to work, kill the fans when you get back in, job jobbed :)
Click to expand...

Aye, but as simple as that sounds my brain is useless in the mornings - so I'll more often than not forget. ;)

I reckon the above advice is the way to go, let the M/B control the CPU cooler fan and I can fiddle with the rest through the controller.
 
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