Are fan controllers really necessary?

baylorrulez

Honorable
Aug 22, 2012
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Hello,
I've had a fan controller the past 3 years in my pc and I just recently took it out when I over-hauled my cooling last week which is now as follows
2xNoctua NF-F12
2xNoctua NF-A15
1xNoctua NF-P12
1xNoctua NH-U14s single fan

My fan controller was a NZXT SENTRY 2, I took it out because I read that "it made the fans louder" not sure how this works, and it was just a wired mess for me and the temperature probes could never stay in their spots and the temperature readings were probably really inaccurate.
Now back to the question, if it is worth it, is there a better fan controller, or even perhaps a computer software that will work equally as well?

For what it's worth if it helps at all these are my current specs:
Rosewill Hive 750w
Intel i7 3770k @4.1 ghz
Nvidia GTX 970
G Skill 1600mhz 12gb ram
4tb seagate 7200rpm hdd
1tb western digital 7200 rpm hdd
128gb sandisk ssd (OS and software only)
Odds are I probably forgot something, but thanks for any possible feed back in advance.
 
Solution
Fan controllers aren't necessary, more of a personal preference to slow down fans which are loud at full speed. I've never heard of fan controllers making them louder unless it's a weird situation where pwm fans are clicking at lower speeds. That's caused from the spacing of the pulses and can happen to various fans at various speeds. For instance fan xyz brand/model may be known to exhibit ticking at the 900-1000 rpm speed range but may go away at 800 or 1100rpm.

Did a little reading (since I've never used that particular controller) and it seems a few people have experienced issues with the sentry 2 so you're not alone. Reports of unusual buzzing and some suggest it's a problem with that particular fan controller nzxt never fixed...
Fan controllers aren't necessary, more of a personal preference to slow down fans which are loud at full speed. I've never heard of fan controllers making them louder unless it's a weird situation where pwm fans are clicking at lower speeds. That's caused from the spacing of the pulses and can happen to various fans at various speeds. For instance fan xyz brand/model may be known to exhibit ticking at the 900-1000 rpm speed range but may go away at 800 or 1100rpm.

Did a little reading (since I've never used that particular controller) and it seems a few people have experienced issues with the sentry 2 so you're not alone. Reports of unusual buzzing and some suggest it's a problem with that particular fan controller nzxt never fixed. Nothing I can verify. The type of controller I use is a 3 pin rheobus style, nothing fancy. No touchscreen or any of that, just voltage reduction via knobs and don't have any buzzing regardless what fans I've used with it from various scythe to phanteks to noctua, I think I even used an older cooler master and mad dog on it at one point.

Someone mentioned they went with a lamptron controller and it solved the issue.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=43629
http://www.overclock.net/t/1415440/fans-buzzing-on-nzxt-sentry-mix-fan-controller

The best way to check would be to plug the fans into the motherboard and listen to see if they make the same sound. If not, then it's probably the controller.
 
Solution
If the pc is in a climate controlled environment, and your mobo will support that many fans, the fan controller is useless. If it's not climate controlled and you need that many fans for airflow, and your board doesn't support that many fans, its useful. But only if you want some control of fan speeds.

Other than that, I'm at a loss as to what placement you have those fans at, 4 of them being primarily used for cpu coolers.
 


Well since you're at a loss, the NF-A15s (140mm)nare on the top of the case acting as exhausts, the NF-F12s(120mm) are mounted by the hdd brackets pushing air towards the video card, and the NF-P12(120mm) is on the exhaust location by the cpu. The case is a corsair c70.