Question Case Fans 100% speed when waking up from sleep mode Phanteks PWM Hub

[itsmebrolol]

Mobo: Gigabyte AB350 Gaming-3
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo w/ be quiet Pure Wings 2 120mm
PSU: EVGA SuperNova 750 G3
GPU: R9 380 4G
CASE: Phanteks Enthoo (PH-ES614PTG_BK)
Case Fans: 2x stock 140mm Case Fans, 3x ThermalTake Pure 12 120mm ARGB, 2x BeQuiet Pure Wings 2 120mm
BIOS: F52e
Fan Controller: Phanteks PWM Hub (included with case)

Phanteks PWM Hub installation guide ( https://phanteks.com/assets/manuals/PH-PWHUB.pdf ) requests that the fan hub be connected to CPU_Fan for full PWM control. If connected to other 4 pin headers like CPU_OPT with the 12v SATA cable plugged in as well it will result in fans running at 100% Speed.

Well I followed the instructions closely. The fan Curve for both my CPU and PWM Hub is working smoothly when POSTing from BIOS. Made sure that PWM Control mode was on for CPU_Fan where my Fan Controller is plugged into. It all works smoothly until my computer wakes up from Sleep Mode and the case fans plugged into the fan controller go back to Full RPM. Any ideas?

AMD Cool&Quiet is turned off. I've tried switching to CPU_OPT (with no 12v SATA plugged in as the installation guide instructed) and my fans wouldn't even spin when the computer was on.

My other BIOS settings are all preserved and do Not reset after waking from sleep.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'd recommend ditching the integrated fan hub, because it sucks (Believe me, I've tried using that integrated Phanteks hub on the Enthoo pro and Enthoo pro M on a number of client builds) and get something a bit more substantial like one of the Corsair or NZXT Grid hubs that give you a lot more control since you lack an adequate number of system or chassis fan headers on the motherboard to simply pair off fans with splitters from each individual motherboard fan header and still retain all the fans you have. Which honestly, seems substantially overkill for the hardware that's installed. In truth you probably need maybe four of those case fans.

Two in front as intake, even three if you really are worried about the aesthetics, one in the rear as exhaust and one in the top-rear as exhaust. That's more than enough airflow for pretty much ANY hardware configuration these days barring a seriously overclocked system with a very high end high TDP GPU installed.

But it's your system, so your call. All I can tell you for sure is that those integrated hubs are like 50 cent units bought in bulk numbers and slapped into these cases, ok, maybe a buck, and they are always problematic even when they are working mostly normal.

Much better option to run directly from the motherboard headers with splitter cables per each two fans, or use a third party hub or controller of substantially higher quality and design.

 

[Paperdoc]

That is an old Fan Hub, one of the early ones on the market. Assuming it is not defective, it can be made to work. BUT the instructions with it are outdated and misleading.

When it came out, Phanteks struggled with the many odd ways that mobo headers were dealing with the new PWM 4-pin fan design. The one thing they could rely on for MOST mobos is that the CPU_FAN header always could use the new PWM Mode of control, and that is REQUIRED for this type of Hub. You see, the Hub does things exactly as a mobo header does in PWM Mode: the power supply to all of the fans is a fixed 12 VDC (drawn from the PSU via its power input connection) on Pins 1 and 2 of each port, and then the PWM signal from the mobo header is simply shared out to all of the connected fans on Pin #4. Provided that you do connect 4-pin fans to the ports, each of those fans has a small chip inside that uses the PWM signal to modify flow of power from the fixed 12 VDC line through the windings to control speed. So it ONLY works if it gets a PWM signal from the mobo host header, and it can control the speed ONLY of 4-pin fans.

In this early design Phanteks also tried to make it adaptable to someone using 3-pin fans and headers. So if you do NOT connect it to a header that uses PWM Mode - that is, the header behaves like a 3-pin fan header in Voltage Control Mode, and controls fan speed by varying the VOLTAGE supply on Pin #2 - then this Hub can simply pass on those signals to all its fans. It then behaves like a simple Splitter. BUT that also means that you can NOT connect to it the fixed 12 VDC power source from a PSU, or that will overpower the reduced voltage coming from the host header and may even damage that header. In a recent new product Phanteks has used a quite different design that really is, as named, a Universal Fan Hub.

Your best plan is to use it as a 4-pin PWM Mode Hub and ignore the 3-pin mode possibility. That does REQUIRE, however, that all the fans you are using on it ARE the new 4-pin PWM type. I believe you have that, BUT if you are trying to do this with 3-pin older fans, do NOT follow the rest of this. POST back here in that case for other instructions! Further, I recommend you use it only for CASE Ventilation fans, and leave the CPU cooler system separate. Connect only the CPU cooler fan to the CPU_FAN header and let it control that cooling system according to the temperature measured by an internal sensor inside the CPU chip.

So connect the Hub and any case ventilation fans this way. DO connect the Hub's power supply cable to a SATA power output connector from the PSU. Connect the cable from the Hub's input port on the other end to a mobo SYS_FAN header using the supplied 4-pin cable. Now plug in all your case fans to ports on the Hub. But NOTE that PORT #1 is recommended for use on the CPU. Do NOT do that. What is important on this port is that it MUST have a 4-pin fan plugged in there. That is the ONLY output port that can return its fan's speed signal to the host header.

Now on to configuring that port properly. Go into BIOS Setup and see p. 24 of the mobo manual. Select the particular SYS_FAN header where the Hub is connected and make these settings.

1. Fan Speed Control to Normal (automatic control)
2. Fan Control Use Temperature Input to Motherboard, not CPU. This controls those case ventilation fans' speeds according to temperture on the mobo, and not inside the CPU chip.
3. Pump / Fan Control Mode to PWM, not DC or Auto. This ensures that the header DOES send out a PWM signal. If it is left in Auto and it does NOT receive a speed signal, it will decide it must be dealing with an older fan and switch to DC Mode, which will NOT send out the PWM signal the Hub needs.
4. (Optional) set the Temperature Warning Control to a reasonable limit - say, 80C - for now to enable a warning if the mobo temp sensor reads a high temp. You may decide to change this setting after some experience.
5. Fan / Pump Fail Warning to ENabled so you will get a screen warning if the one fan on Port #1 fails. NOTE that the speeds of all other fans on the Hub can NOT be read by the host header to detect any failure. So from time to time YOU should check to verify all fans are still working.

When you have all these set, use Esc to return to the Main Menu (p. 21) and click on Save and Exit at upper right. See p. 34 and choose Save & Exit Setup to save your settings and reboot.

When set up this way, the Hub can relay PWM control signals to all its fans from the Host header, and supply all the power they need from the PSU. It can monitor the speed of ONE fan (on Port #1). It should always receive the PWM signal it needs from the host header so it does not have to worry about whether or not it gets a fan speed signal.

 

[Paperdoc]

An update here and correction. Sorry, I forgot a couple details of that old Hub, but it actually makes no difference for the things I recommended above.

That Hub actually was designed to help people with only 4-pin PWM headers on a new mobo to use several older 3-pin Voltage Control Mode fans. It also allowed use with 3-pin mobo fan headers IF you did NOT connect it to the PSU for extra power. It DOES require that it receive the PWM signal from a 4-pin header is you are using the extra power connection. But then it actually TRANSLATES the 4-pin PWM signal system into the older Voltage Control Mode (3-pin) system. Now, the new 4-pin PWM fan design has a backwards compatibility feature for mixing systems: if you plug a 4-pin fan into a 3-pin header, the fan DOES work and its speed IS controlled even though the fan does not receive a PWM signal, although from a technical viewpoint this is not quite as good as using the real PWM Mode of control. Further, the mechanical layout of the connectors is such that you CAN plug a 4-pin fan female connector into a 3-pin male fan header, and this Hub has only 3-pin output ports. So this way you can plug into this Hub's output ports either 3-pin or 4-pin fans, and they WILL be powered and speed controlled via signals of the older Voltage Control Mode system. The tricky detail is in the way the INPUTS to the Hub from a mobo header are managed. IF it is connected to a header using the older Voltage Control Mode system, then there is NO PWM signal supplied and the Hub can only act like a simpler Splitter and you must NOT connect to it any 12 VDC power supply from the PSU. In this condition the Hub and its fans are limited by the ability of the header to supply power up to 1.0 A max load. But if you do connect it to a mobo header that is using the newer PWM Mode system, then you should also connect it to the PSU for extra power. Then the Hub does its "translation" trick and outputs varying voltages on its 3-pin output ports, but the power for that comes from the PSU and it does not overload the mobo header.

OP, the only change this makes to my post above is regarding my cautionary note in the fourth paragraph starting with "Your best plan is ..." I cautioned you that this won't work for 3-pin fans. Not correct. What I said above CAN work for either type of fan, so go ahead.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That is an old Fan Hub, one of the early ones on the market. Assuming it is not defective, it can be made to work.

So, let me preface by saying that I know paperdoc knows his stuff, probably better than 95% of the people out there, even those of us with fairly broad experience in this game, but I gotta tell you I agree with this statement and having worked with a few of these older Phanteks hubs that came in the Enthoo Pro and a few other Phanteks cases, I would find it very hard to make a recommendation of trying to continue to use them. They are extremely cheap pieces of hardware and I've even seen them burn up the 200mm fans that came preinstalled in them in the Enthoo pro, and I'm talking when they were properly connected and such. I just have no faith in them especially if they have some miles on them. My recommendation when faced with using one of these hubs is always going to be to seek a better, newer, and more reliable alternative even if it's something inexpensive but of much newer design. Just my thoughts on this but again, I take paperdoc's recommendations pretty seriously as he is generally well versed in all things related to cooling electronics.

 

[Paperdoc]

I know how they are designed to work, but I have not worked with many of them for first-hand experience. Darkbreeze's comments have a backgound of experience.

 

[itsmebrolol]

That is an old Fan Hub, one of the early ones on the market. Assuming it is not defective, it can be made to work. BUT the instructions with it are outdated and misleading.

When it came out, Phanteks struggled with the many odd ways that mobo headers were dealing with the new PWM 4-pin fan design. The one thing they could rely on for MOST mobos is that the CPU_FAN header always could use the new PWM Mode of control, and that is REQUIRED for this type of Hub. You see, the Hub does things exactly as a mobo header does in PWM Mode: the power supply to all of the fans is a fixed 12 VDC (drawn from the PSU via its power input connection) on Pins 1 and 2 of each port, and then the PWM signal from the mobo header is simply shared out to all of the connected fans on Pin #4. Provided that you do connect 4-pin fans to the ports, each of those fans has a small chip inside that uses the PWM signal to modify flow of power from the fixed 12 VDC line through the windings to control speed. So it ONLY works if it gets a PWM signal from the mobo host header, and it can control the speed ONLY of 4-pin fans.

In this early design Phanteks also tried to make it adaptable to someone using 3-pin fans and headers. So if you do NOT connect it to a header that uses PWM Mode - that is, the header behaves like a 3-pin fan header in Voltage Control Mode, and controls fan speed by varying the VOLTAGE supply on Pin #2 - then this Hub can simply pass on those signals to all its fans. It then behaves like a simple Splitter. BUT that also means that you can NOT connect to it the fixed 12 VDC power source from a PSU, or that will overpower the reduced voltage coming from the host header and may even damage that header. In a recent new product Phanteks has used a quite different design that really is, as named, a Universal Fan Hub.

Your best plan is to use it as a 4-pin PWM Mode Hub and ignore the 3-pin mode possibility. That does REQUIRE, however, that all the fans you are using on it ARE the new 4-pin PWM type. I believe you have that, BUT if you are trying to do this with 3-pin older fans, do NOT follow the rest of this. POST back here in that case for other instructions! Further, I recommend you use it only for CASE Ventilation fans, and leave the CPU cooler system separate. Connect only the CPU cooler fan to the CPU_FAN header and let it control that cooling system according to the temperature measured by an internal sensor inside the CPU chip.

So connect the Hub and any case ventilation fans this way. DO connect the Hub's power supply cable to a SATA power output connector from the PSU. Connect the cable from the Hub's input port on the other end to a mobo SYS_FAN header using the supplied 4-pin cable. Now plug in all your case fans to ports on the Hub. But NOTE that PORT #1 is recommended for use on the CPU. Do NOT do that. What is important on this port is that it MUST have a 4-pin fan plugged in there. That is the ONLY output port that can return its fan's speed signal to the host header.

Now on to configuring that port properly. Go into BIOS Setup and see p. 24 of the mobo manual. Select the particular SYS_FAN header where the Hub is connected and make these settings.

1. Fan Speed Control to Normal (automatic control)
2. Fan Control Use Temperature Input to Motherboard, not CPU. This controls those case ventilation fans' speeds according to temperture on the mobo, and not inside the CPU chip.
3. Pump / Fan Control Mode to PWM, not DC or Auto. This ensures that the header DOES send out a PWM signal. If it is left in Auto and it does NOT receive a speed signal, it will decide it must be dealing with an older fan and switch to DC Mode, which will NOT send out the PWM signal the Hub needs.
4. (Optional) set the Temperature Warning Control to a reasonable limit - say, 80C - for now to enable a warning if the mobo temp sensor reads a high temp. You may decide to change this setting after some experience.
5. Fan / Pump Fail Warning to ENabled so you will get a screen warning if the one fan on Port #1 fails. NOTE that the speeds of all other fans on the Hub can NOT be read by the host header to detect any failure. So from time to time YOU should check to verify all fans are still working.

When you have all these set, use Esc to return to the Main Menu (p. 21) and click on Save and Exit at upper right. See p. 34 and choose Save & Exit Setup to save your settings and reboot.

When set up this way, the Hub can relay PWM control signals to all its fans from the Host header, and supply all the power they need from the PSU. It can monitor the speed of ONE fan (on Port #1). It should always receive the PWM signal it needs from the host header so it does not have to worry about whether or not it gets a fan speed signal.

Thanks so much for the detailed answer. 2 of the fans are 3 pins, the Phanteks ones that came included with the case oddly enough. The fan hub has two 3 pin headers on them that they were plugged in to from the factory though. Should I follow your instructions and give it a try anyways? Also I do not have the cpu fan plugged into the hub, it’s plugged into the motherboard. Thanks for all the information

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, use that Hub with your 3-pin fans. You also can use 4-pin fans (if you have any) with that Hub. Having the CPU cooler fan plugged into the mobo CPU_FAN header is the RIGHT way to do this. Just configure the header you use for the Hub as I recommend above and be sure it is set to use PWM Mode..