Fan Controller With a Specific Function

[clayofthe757]

Hello friendly people at Tom's,

I'm looking for a fan controller with the functionality to automatically leave fans off and only turn them on when the attached thermostat reads a designated temperature. I am building a passive work machine in which I would like to install fans as a safety measure. Any recommendations?

Please no speculation. I have read quite a bit but cannot seem to find the desired functions. Your responses of "... I believe this one," or "... This one might be able," will do me no good.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[hwc1954]

The Aquaero 5 LT, Aquaero 6 XL, and Aquaero 6 PRO versions will all do that. You can either use the included thermistor sensors (the controller comes with four, connections for eight) for the temperature input or use any of the temperatures reported by you motherboard (such as CPU core temps, etc.). Or, you can use a virtual temp -- for example, exhaust temp minus intake temp to get the temperature rise or delta and then base your fan profile on the delta. Whatever you want.

You can either have the fans turn on to a preset speed when the minimum temperature is reached or you can have a smooth fan speed curve that starts the fan (at whatever minimum speed you set) when the threshold temperature is reached and then increases the fan speed as the temperature continues to rise (up to whatever maximum fan speed you set).

All of this can be set individually for the four fan headers. So, for example, I have chassis fan speed based on air temp delta. I have a northbridge heat sink fan based on the temp of the northbridge chip. CPU fans based on CPU temp, etc.

BTW, some motherboards, including many of the ASUS motherboards with Fan Xpert software can do this without any additional fan controller.

 

[clayofthe757]

The Aquaero 5LT, Aquaero 6 XL, and Aquaero PRO versions will all do that. You can either use the included thermistor sensors (the controller comes with four, connections for eight) for the temperature input or use any of the temperatures reported by you motherboard (such as CPU core temps, etc.). Or, you can use a virtual temp -- for example, exhaust temp minus intake temp to get the temperature rise or delta and then base your fan profile on the delta. Whatever you want.

You can either have the fans turn on to a preset speed when the minimum temperature is reached or you can have a smooth fan speed curve that starts the fan (at whatever minimum speed you set) when the threshold temperature is reached and then increases the fan speed as the temperature continues to rise (up to whatever maximum fan speed you set).

BTW, some motherboards, including many of the ASUS motherboards with Fan Xpert software can do this without any additional fan controller.

A perfect reply. Thank you!
I already have a Gigabyte motherboard for the build that has no such function. So that's out. But I'll look into your suggestions.

 

[hwc1954]

The Aquaero 5 LT is the "affordable" version. It's just a circuit board that mounts inside the case or hidden behind a drive bay. All of the control is done with the included software (which is the only sane way to do it anyway). The other two versions have fancy touch panels and are meant to be installed visible in drive bay to show off the fancy lights. Kind of pointless since nobody in their right mind would attempt to set one of these up with the inscrutable touch panel menus when you have a Window app sitting there the whole time that is so much easier.

For less money, the Corsair Link is supposed to do a lot of the same stuff, but I've seen mixed reports on how well it actually works. It's not that much cheaper than the Aquaero 5 LT. I have actually made the Aquaero 5 LT do exactly what you want in my system. I've even used the "boost start" feature that starts the fans at a higher speed (you set) for a few seconds (you set) before dropping down to a lower speed than the fans could start at. It's fair to say that it will do just about anything you could dream up, limited only by your ability to figure out the software and the options.

Here's the 49 page manual which is, at least, a good overview of the features/functions.

http://aquacomputer.de/handbuecher.html?file=tl_files/aquacomputer/downloads/manuals/aquaero_5_6_en_2014_04_14.pdf

 

[clayofthe757]

The Aquaero 5 LT is the "affordable" version. It's just a circuit board that mounts inside the case or hidden behind a drive bay. All of the control is done with the included software (which is the only sane way to do it anyway). The other two versions have fancy touch panels and are meant to be installed visible in drive bay to show off the fancy lights. Kind of pointless since nobody in their right mind would attempt to set one of these up with the inscrutable touch panel menus when you have a Window app sitting there the whole time that is so much easier.

For less money, the Corsair Link is supposed to do a lot of the same stuff, but I've seen mixed reports on how well it actually works. It's not that much cheaper than the Aquaero 5 LT. I have actually made the Aquaero 5 LT do exactly what you want in my system. I've even used the "boost start" feature that starts the fans at a higher speed (you set) for a few seconds (you set) before dropping down to a lower speed than the fans could start at. It's fair to say that it will do just about anything you could dream up, limited only by your ability to figure out the software and the options.

Here's the 49 page manual which is, at least, a good overview of the features/functions.

http://aquacomputer.de/handbuecher.html?file=tl_files/aquacomputer/downloads/manuals/aquaero_5_6_en_2014_04_14.pdf

Unfortunately Aquaero products are not available in the U.S. Guess I'll need to look into Corsair or something else.

 

[hwc1954]

I'm in the US. I ordered from these guys:

http://www.aquatuning.us/

$12 shipping. Got here in three days UPS Express from Germany.

These guys stock them in Florida:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/aquacomputer-aquaero-5-lt-usb-fan-controller.html

That's the part you need. If you want to mount it in a 5.25 inch drive bay, you need the adaptors:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/aquacomputer-aquaero-5-lt-drive-bay-installation-kit.html

If you are concerned about heat, you can add the big heat sink kit for the fan driver mosfets:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/aquacomputer-passive-cooler-for-aquaero-5-new-version-20mm-high.html

I got the heat sink, but I'm not sure it's really necessary for standard computer fans. A lot of people are driving water cooling pumps and massive numbers of fans off these things.