is there any hybrid hardware/software solution for managing many fans ?

Nanako

Nanako

Nanako

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8 Nov 2013
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Hi all. I'm pretty new to overclocking, and i'm finding myself with a growing interest in cooling technology. Generally my attitude towards fans is that i like to get ones which offer maximal airflow first, with noise reduction as a distant second, and having them run as slow as possible while still keeping components cool (I don't mind them going really loud when it's needed). I'm currently favouring the coolermaster jetflo 120 (i have one already, and i'll probably buy another four gradually over time)

currently i have a pretty neat case with seven fans (five 120m case fans with varying airflow, plus the ones on the cpu and videocard). I spent several hours last night fiddling with speedfan, and learning from tutorials, and i finally got my noisiest fans under control, also setup fan controllers to automatically manage the speeds.

With speedfan i've been able to programmatically control the CPU and GPU fans, as well as the single hyperpowered case fan on the side, those are the important parts, but i'm a bit of a perfectionist and i'd like to control the other, lesser fans too.

The problem is, i don't have enough fan headers on the board. My current motherboard only has two 4-pin fan headers (in use by the cpu and side fans) and a single 3-pin header which speedfan seems unable to control (still working on that) and used by a minor roof fan. Also a secondary problem is that several of the fans use molex instead of fan header, but i'm sure i can fix that with adaptors, or failing that just outright replace those ones because they're kind of sucky anyway)

Getting a new motherboard is out of my price range, and this one is brand new anyways, so i'm investigating other possibilities. I've looked at fan splitters, but they seem to have the fatal flaw that i would only be able to change speeds simultaneously on all fans attached to a single board header, that i can't control each of them independantly.

The other main solution that comes to mind is using fan control hardware. i've seen the various control panels that fit into a drive bay, and have knobs and buttons and such, but those alone seem useless to me. I use speedfan because it lets me customise in detail how each fan behaves, and i doubt any hardware with a tiny LCD screen can offer the same functionality.

more importantly, i have zero interest in manual control. i dont want knobs or buttons to change fan speeds, i want to set them up to work on temperatures from board sensors.

so yeah, i guess i'm looking for a complete fan solution. It would have to be either some piece of hardware that talks to speedfan and works with it, OR some hardware that has it's own management software to completely replace speedfan, and let me control all 7 fans through a combination of motherboard sensors and connections to the fan controller device.

Does any such thing exist?
 
oh another possibility comes to mind, also:

I notice that speedfan is able to control the fan on my GPU, but that fan isn't connected to any header. It only connects to the motherboard indirectly, through the PCI-e slot. Speedfan recognises it as a different chip internally, but it is still able to detect and control the attached fan.

So logically, can't this behaviour be extended to other PCI devices? Is it possible to get a PCI card with 4-pin fan headers on it, and have speedfan control those by detecting it via pci ?

I'm trying to find such a thing now, but all the ones i can find don't actually connect into a pci slot, they just hover over it and connect to the back of the case, so that wouldn't work
 
Uncle Petey said:
Have a look at an Aquaero.
Click to expand...

+ 1
There are fan controllers out there that use temp probes to allow the fansto ramp up or down to desired settings just like with your motherboard. Aquero is one of the more expensive on the market. There are others by Kaze, Lamptron, even NZXT do a full lcd programmable touchscreen for fans. Limiting factor is the price, and what kind of wattage the fans are.
 
i'm looking at the aquaero, it seems to fit in a drive bay. How will that fit my needs? how does it connect to the motherboard, and would speedfan be able to access/control it ?

i really don't want a screen, or buttons, or a display of any kind. although i'd accept a solution with those features as long as i can ignore them and just use software instead. I'm ok with using different software instead of speedfan, but software control of some sort is a mandatory feature.
 
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Also looking up the brands mentioned by hakanese. all the fan controllers seem to install in drive bays, and only take molex input. The logic chain there is PSU > Controller > Fans. At no time does that interact with the motherboard, and therefore i'm pretty sure it can't be controlled by software. are there any which do ?
 
The aquero is a complete conrol unit designed for multiple fans and pump control. There is the bay mounted version and there is also a no frills pcb board that attatches to your system and fans. You then use the software provided to set behaviour of each fan or pump just like speed fan. Tbh I think to not use fan splitters for at least a couple of fans is a bit extreme. Most cases have fans that are side by side cooling the same area. I can't see there being any issue with linking control of those 2 or more fans to a single fan port
 
Hakanese said:
aquero 5 lt
So the fact it connects to your mobo vua usb an you can control up to 10 fans via software isno good to you?
Click to expand...

actually i think that's just about what i'm looking for :D the price is a bit steep though, i can only find one of them on ebay and its about £70 including delivery D:

the other brands you mentioned, do they have an equivilant product? (with the internal USB connection)
 
Aquero would be the only one that I can think of that will allow you such control. It's a serious piece if kit designed for expensive watercooling systems.
 
If you use all PWM fans you could use a PWM splitter with PSU power. Only problem is all fans would be on one PWM control. Swiftech and Gelid make good PWM splitters.
 
You could use your motherboard's PWM outputs and your GPU PWM outputs coupled with splitters, adaptors and converters to have several controllable fan profiles. How many different profiles you could then use depends on how many your motherboard supports.

Alternately you could use PWM converters for each fan or fan zone individually dialled to your desired fan speed response curve, which could be then controlled via your motherboard's available and controllable headers and Speedfan. With the device set in a certain way you could have a fan that goes from 70% to 100% speed and another identical that goes from 40% to 70% across the same duty cycle range.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18421145

Another option could be a Bitfenix Recon set up with Phoebetria, although I'm not sure quite how controllable the fans are as my Recon's USB interface decided to fizzle before I could use the newer versions of the software.
 
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