Fan Controller Temp Sensor

[WrektGlitch]

Not sure that this is the right place for this, but I'm considering installing a fan controller like the ThermalTake Commander FT, and I see that it has a temp sensor. I've watched more than a few install videos, and NONE of them show what to do with the temp sensor. Is it as simple as just running it into your case in the bottom somewhere, or does it need to connect to something? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The sensor should be taped to what you want the fan speed to respond to. The problem with this is practicality.... pit it on a CPU and you can't mount heat sink properly

Fan controllers are poor substitutes for what you already have.

1. Mostly they require manual adjustment which makes the name rather inappropriate ... the controller isn't really controlling anything, you are.

2. Thermal sensors have their place when cooling specific items,\you can place the sensors on the surface. So while good for HDs, heat sinks and such, they fail when we think about anything we are actually concerned about, that being CPUS, GPUs and the chips under those heat sinks.

3. Your motherboard already has built in heat sensors.... and your motherboard usually comes with 2 ways to control them. BIOS offers limited control, and the oft included fan control utility offers far more control than a "fan controller"

4. If water cooling, and looking to cool the coolant in your loop, you wouldn't use a sensor taped on the radiator. It will not indicate actual water temp but radiator surface temp and even this reading will be in error as the fans blowing air will cool one side of that sensor. In this case you would use something like this

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10373/ex-tub-620/Bitspower_G_14_Temperature_Sensor_Stop_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBWP-CT.html?tl=g30c229s579

But you can't use these on a CLC type cooler as it has no means to attach it.

5. For fan control I recommend Fan Control PCBs, th best of which is made by Phanteks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811984004

You attach a cable from a PWM (11 fans with power connector) or DCV (typically 6 fans @ 140mm 0.14 amps ... no power cable req'd) header on your MoBo to the input of the PCB (Hub) ... you can then connect the number of fans needed and have the BIOS / utility control all of them

 

[WrektGlitch]

The sensor should be taped to what you want the fan speed to respond to. The problem with this is practicality.... pit it on a CPU and you can't mount heat sink properly

Fan controllers are poor substitutes for what you already have.

1. Mostly they require manual adjustment which makes the name rather inappropriate ... the controller isn't really controlling anything, you are.

2. Thermal sensors have their place when cooling specific items,\you can place the sensors on the surface. So while good for HDs, heat sinks and such, they fail when we think about anything we are actually concerned about, that being CPUS, GPUs and the chips under those heat sinks.

3. Your motherboard already has built in heat sensors.... and your motherboard usually comes with 2 ways to control them. BIOS offers limited control, and the oft included fan control utility offers far more control than a "fan controller"

4. If water cooling, and looking to cool the coolant in your loop, you wouldn't use a sensor taped on the radiator. It will not indicate actual water temp but radiator surface temp and even this reading will be in error as the fans blowing air will cool one side of that sensor. In this case you would use something like this

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10373/ex-tub-620/Bitspower_G_14_Temperature_Sensor_Stop_Fitting_-_Matte_Black_BP-MBWP-CT.html?tl=g30c229s579

But you can't use these on a CLC type cooler as it has no means to attach it.

5. For fan control I recommend Fan Control PCBs, th best of which is made by Phanteks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811984004

You attach a cable from a PWM (11 fans with power connector) or DCV (typically 6 fans @ 140mm 0.14 amps ... no power cable req'd) header on your MoBo to the input of the PCB (Hub) ... you can then connect the number of fans needed and have the BIOS / utility control all of them

It looks like the hub is powered by a SATA port and cable. My power supply is only 400W, which I'll be upgrading in the future, just don't have the time or cash right now, but I'm concerned about drawing too much power and starving everything else. Right now, I have one 140MM case fan, one ThermalTake Riing 120MM radiator fan on a DeepCool Captain 120 AIO cooler, FX4300, and a PNY GTX 960. I wanna add two more Riing fans, one 120MM and one 140MM, which together is only gonna draw about 5 watts more. I can just use splitters, but I'd rather go with a hub for future installs. Is the Phanteks gonna be my best option?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. The Hub is powered by whatever you choose. MoBo Fan Headers are typically rated at 1 amp (12 watts). A 140mm fan typically draws about 0.14 amps. Options using Phanteks 140mm PJ-F140SP fans in this example:

6 fans x 0.14 amps = 0.84 amps < 1.00 amps OK... no SATA connection required / can use DCV or PWM fan header
11 fans x 0.14 amps = 1.51 amps > 1.00 amps NG... SATA power connection required / must use PWM fan header.

2. I don't understand your concern about adding the hub and starving something ... with or without the hub, you consume the same amount of power.

3. You will need to address the following:

a) Are all fans DCV 3 pin fans ?... PWM fans can not be used with the Phantaks hub.
b) It would appear that CLC fan and the fans you want to add are PWM also.
c) There is no indication of the case fan type.

4. The Phanteks hub provides the best of both worlds scenario using a PWM signal to drove DCV fans giving you all of the advantages of PWM and none of the disadvantages. If you are using PWM fans, you would use something different. You can't mix PWM with DCV .

5. For PWM Fans, I would use one of these (choose SATA or Molex connector)

http://www.swiftech.com/8-WayPWMsplitter-sata.aspx
http://www.swiftech.com/8-WayPWMsplitter.aspx

If you use a mix of PWM (4 pin) and DCV (3 pin) fans, then they should be connected to different MoBo Headers.

Option 1
CLC => CPU Header
All other PWM Fans =>Swiftech Hub => CPU_OPT Header
3 pin DCV fan => any other header


Option 2
CLC => CPU Header
PWM Fans => CPU_OPT Header
All 3 pin DCV fans => Phanteks Hub => any other PWM header, or
Up to one amps worth of 3 pin DCV fans => Phanteks Hub => any DCV header