Question DeepCool Fan Hub - Controlling Fan Speed

[samgenovese03]

Hello,

I recently just built my first pc, its built in a NZXT H5 Elite. The case comes with 3 fans, one in the bottom to cool the GPU, and two in the front. I then added two with my liquid cooler, and then one more in the rear as an exhaust. So, I have 6 fans all up.

My motherboard I am using is a ASUS ROG B660-A WIFI motherboard so it has plenty of fan headers, but I went out and bought a deepcool fan hub, the one that can fit up to 10 fans. Now everything works, all the fans spin and light up, the only problem is how loud they are, and I presume this is because they are running at a high rpm. Now when I run BIOS, none of my fans come up, the only thing that comes up is my liquid cooler RPM. All my fans are NZXT so I downloaded the NZXT CAM which is a program to manage all the nzxt products, but like the bios the fans didnt show up, just the liquid cooler. So my question is how to i fix this. I've read a bit and come to a conclusion it might be the fan hub, but im really not sure, hence why i've made a post.

Cheers.

 

[Nigel Spike]

If this is the fan hub you bought, the linked product page says:

Each port has its own PWM function and the fan speed can be adjusted at the same time, but only the speed of Fan 1 can be identified by the system.

The reason is that only motherboard fan header is connected to the hub, and that is the only header that has a fan speed reported in BIOS.

 

[Paperdoc]

Five things come to mind for you to check on.

1. A mobo has two very similar groups of fan headers that differ in an important factor. One is for the CPU cooling devices only and it is guided by a temperature sensor inside the CPU chip. On your mobo, these are the CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT, and AIO_PUMP headers, the last of those being the one for the PUMP part of your cooler system. The second group are the three CHA_FAN headers that are guided by a different temp sensor on the mobo, and these are for your case ventilation fans. You should NOT plug any of your CPU cooler system fans into those. So you have only THREE fans to plug into a CHA_FAN header using that fan Hub.

2. Fans come in two main designs electrically. The older type has a connector with THREE holes in it and its speed is controlled by the header by sending to it varying VOLTAGE from Pin #2. These are called Voltage Controlled Fans. The newer design has FOUR holes in its connector and the header uses a different set of signals to control its speed, including a PWM signal from Pin #4; these are called PWM Fans. On the mobo ALL fan headers have four pins, but in BIOS Setup for each header you can configure it to act either in older 3-pin Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode) or in the new 4-pin PWM Mode. Mechanically and electrically you CAN plug either fan into either header type and it WILL work to give you cooling. BUT there is a limit on compatibility. If you plug an older 3-pin fan into a header using the 4-pin PWM Mode, that fan will always run full speed with no control. You get max cooling, but no ability to reduce speed and noise when the system is cooler. If you plug a 4-pin PWM fan into a header using the Voltage Control Mode that fan's speed WILL be controlled even though this is not ideal from a technical perspective.

What IS ideal is that you connect each fan type to a header configured for that fan type only, so you should NOT mix the two fan types together using a Splitter or Hub to ONE fan header. Furthermore, a HUB (which is what you have) can only control the speeds of 4-pin fans, and MUST be used with a header using the PWM Mode signals. A 3-pin fan plugged into such a device can only run at full speed all the time. Check your three case fans. IF any of them has a THREE-pin connector on its cable, do NOT plug that into your Hub. Instead, plug it into one of your mobo CHA_FAN headers and configure that header to use the older Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode). Also check the configuration of the header where the Hub is connected, and ensure it is set to PWM Mode.

3. A mobo header can deal with the speed signal sent back to it from only ONE fan. So any Hub will send back to its host header the speed signal from ONLY the one fan plugged into its marked Port #1. The speeds of all other fans on the Hub are ignored, and you will never "see" them anywhere. Now an important secondary function of a header is to monitor that speed signal for NO signal, indicating fan FAILURE, which will cause it to issue a screen warning. Since the Hub allows only ONE fan's signal to get to the mobo header the others cannot be monitored for failure. From time to time YOU should look and verify that all fans still are working.

4. You have not told us exactly what AIO system you have. There are several design types, so you need to connect them as their instructions say. IF yours say that the PUMP plugs into one mobo header, and the FANS into another, then the pump goes to your AIO_PUMP header and the rad fans to the CPU_FAN header. If the instructions are not that way, post back here exactly what AIO system you have for more precise advice.

5. Your mobo has several fan headers and each is designed to supply power AND speed control to one fan. By using a Splitter or a Hub you can connect several fans to one header and have them share the power and control signals from that header. As an alternative, you can buy third party Fan Controller modules like ones from NZXT. Usually these look like boxes with several fan ports plus two connection cables: one to a SATA power output connector from the PSU for power, and another to a mobo USB2 header for communication with a software utility running under Windows. The box contains its own fan controllers to be used in place of your mobo headers, and gets its instructions from the software utility via that USB2 cable. You tried to install and use the NZXT CAM utility, but you did NOT install the NZXT Controlller box, so CAM has nothing to communicate with and cannot do anything. When using the mobo headers and that Hub, you do NOT need CAM at all.