Need suggestions for a fan controller

Sanjiyan

Sanjiyan

Sanjiyan

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
153
Hi all,

Just finished a new WC build and I would like to move the fans from the motherboard to a fan controller.

I have a mixture of 3-pin (traditional) and 4-pin PWM fans, below are the number of fans and where:

2x 140mm 3-pin fans at front of case
1x 140mm 3-pin fan at rear of case
2x 120mm 4-pin fans supporting bottom rad.
3x 120mm 4-pin fans supporting top rad.

The 140mm fans are: Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow 3 pin
The 120mm fans are: Corsair Fan, SP120 PWM Low Noise High Pressure Fan 4 pin

So all in all, I'm looking to control 4 sets of fans, so I was looking at the Lamptron FC5 or FC6, the problem as I mentioned I have a mix of 3-pina nd 4-pin, will a traditional fan controller work with the PWM fans?

And if so, whats the main difference betwen the Lamptron FC5 or FC6? I've heard a mixture of issues with the FC5 not being able to control single fans etc on their headers, whereas the FC5v3 looks nice (and expensive) the FC6 not heard of it yet.

So anyone have any suggestions please?

Thanks,
 
4 pin fans will work with a traditional 3 pin fan controller but the nature of the electronics onboard the fan isn't always suited to lower voltage use and you may have higher than normal stall voltage and perhaps additional noise. You may also need adaptors to fit the 4 pin connector into the 3 pin sockets, or modify the socket to allow the extra position to fit.

If it were me I'd put all the 3 pin fans on the PWM signal and just use automatic control with one of these gizmos. But that's me and because I make them. :)
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i waited ages to get a fc5 v3 they look very nice & high quality but imho its garbage i think they have not been in stock for so long because of faults that needed sorting they still have em. an akassa controller one quarter the price works better but dosent look as nice
 
Ahh crud. Ordered a fc5v3 last night. What's the issue with them, so I can see what the problem is and if it's resolved. If not, it will be going back.
 
my problem with it is it dosent actually offer much controll the dial has to be turned three quaters to start the fans that will run at fifty percent then a tad more for full blast. honestly the six channel £20 akassa that i took out this morning was better and run my fans slower when wanted but the fc5 looks the part. whilst i was waiting for mine the eta kept getting put back when i started looking for info i see somewhere that they were recalled due to people having problems so all should be good with them now but for me that isnt the case
 
also i had problems getting it into the case it turned out the two screws that hold the faceplate on were to big i took the two out of the akassa and swapped them then hey presto it fit ! im really dissapointed with it
 
Well it looks like the problems, still havent been resolved.

I have 4 out of the 6 dials pluged into fans, all set to the same RPM of 780..

Knob 1 is at 40% - Voltage: 7.0
Knob 2 is at 30% - Voltage: 7.3
Knob 3 is at 90% - Voltage: 8.2
Knob 4 is at 50% - Voltage: 8.7

As you can see its all over the place, also to adjust the RPM its either stupidly delicate and needs a minute adjustment or one of the knobs has to be turned full 90% to get the same type of fan adjustment.

So I'm going to box this little bugger back up and mail it back to OcUK under an RMA and see about ordering an Aqua Computer Aquaero 5 LT USB Fan-Controller. Yes I cant run as many fans, but I've noticed FAN4 is a PWM socket, and I'm hoping I can run 5 fans from, using daisy-chained the 2-PWM splitters.

Now I'm not bitter, but I would recommend you stay away from this fan controller; the simple ability to control your fans is simply not there.
 
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