Fan controlling. What to do?

[Floppers95]

Hi. I couldn't find a "Cooling" or "fan" category. So this is what I picked

I recently bought 3 "Arctic F12 PWM 120mm Rev 2" fans to replace the stock fans that came with my CM Storm Trooper (2 front intake and 1 rear exhaust) for the soul purpose of making my rig run more quite. So I thought a better fan controller would good for keeping my rig quite when not stressing it and go full power when best possible cooling is required.

I looked at a few controllers (all of them from NZXT) and I liked the "Sentry Mix 2" the most. HOWEVER I noticed that it outputs a max of 30W per channel and only goes down to 40% power. So does that mean the minimum is 12 watts?
I am also replacing the top 200mm exhaust fan with a AeroCool Silent Master because it's probably more quite and moves less air and it matches the Black & Red theme I got going on. Over at AeroCool's website it says that the Silent master runs with 3 Watts, so would I kill all the fans if I hooked them up to a "Sentry mix 2"?

---NUT SHELL---
•I'm looking for a good & cheap fan controller
•Will I kill my fans if I hook them up to a 12-30watt power source
______________

I feel as if I haven't explained myself very good (and my grammar sucks). If you have a hard time understanding what I meant, please tell me and I will try explain myself better

 

[TheDualshock]

I have the NZXT Sentry Mix 2 and I've got 5 fans plugged onto it. You won't be killing your fans as the fan controller can support up to 30 watts total. You can only reduce the voltage on the fans by manualling sliding down the slides to slow them down and make them quieter.

So no, you won't kill your fans and from my experience with it, no problems at all.

 

[nukemaster]

Most boards can control fans already, this reduces the need for the user to remember to turn up and down fans. Controllers with thermal probes work, but can be a mess of wires.

If you have PWM headers on the board you can run the fans with the board in control. If you do not at least 2 fans can run on the cpu header of most boards(cpu + a case fan). These fans have a built in PWM splitter of sorts, just do not stack 10 fans on one header.

You can get PWM splitters that are made to get power from the power supply and just get the pwm signal from the board. These most times allow 5 PWM fans to be controlled from one header.

A fan controller that is good for 30 watts will not be harmed running a 1 watt fan. The fan will only draw the power it needs. This is much like running a computer on a large power supply. It will not hurt the system in any way.

 

[mbreu996]

Most boards can control fans already, this reduces the need for the user to remember to turn up and down fans. Controllers with thermal probes work, but can be a mess of wires.

If you have PWM headers on the board you can run the fans with the board in control. If you do not at least 2 fans can run on the cpu header of most boards(cpu + a case fan). These fans have a built in PWM splitter of sorts, just do not stack 10 fans on one header.

You can get PWM splitters that are made to get power from the power supply and just get the pwm signal from the board. These most times allow 5 PWM fans to be controlled from one header.

A fan controller that is good for 30 watts will not be harmed running a 1 watt fan. The fan will only draw the power it needs. This is much like running a computer on a large power supply. It will not hurt the system in any way.

Here is one such splitter that I have purchased. Takes the worry out of drawing too much power from the MB, as it comes directly from PSU (good for PWM set ups).
PWM Female to 4 x PWM Male Computer Case Fan Splitter Power Connector Black Sleeved Adapter Cable

I have 3 Artic F12 PWM PST fans. These are nifty because they split out the "sense" wire, so you can daisy chain the fans together without sending multiple speed sensors to the same header, which can confuse it. This is especially true if you combine this with a CPU fan that is a different diameter. An expert can correct me if I am wrong, but sending the same PWM pattern to fans of different diameters will result in them running at different RPM.

Depending on the other fan headers you motherboard has, you could also use one of those instead of the CPU_FAN if the different diameter fan combo turns out to be an issue. PWM set up is as follows:
1 GND
2 +12 V
3 Sense
4 Speed Control

4 pin does not mean PWM. For example, some 4 pin are as below, and not PWM:
1 GND
2 +12V/Speed Control <--voltage control, not PWM
3 Sense
4 VCC

But you can still control the speed of PWM fans even with the voltage control method. Although, it makes buying the PWM fans seem pointless (this is actually what happened to me because I did not realize my 4 pin header was not PWM). Not a biggy since the fans you mention are low cost.

 

[Floppers95]

Most boards can control fans already, this reduces the need for the user to remember to turn up and down fans. Controllers with thermal probes work, but can be a mess of wires.

If you have PWM headers on the board you can run the fans with the board in control. If you do not at least 2 fans can run on the cpu header of most boards(cpu + a case fan). These fans have a built in PWM splitter of sorts, just do not stack 10 fans on one header.

You can get PWM splitters that are made to get power from the power supply and just get the pwm signal from the board. These most times allow 5 PWM fans to be controlled from one header.

A fan controller that is good for 30 watts will not be harmed running a 1 watt fan. The fan will only draw the power it needs. This is much like running a computer on a large power supply. It will not hurt the system in any way.

I know, but I like the idea of manually turning the speed up/down of all the fans separately, fast and easy. Monitoring of RPM and such are less of a concern.

 

[Floppers95]

I have the NZXT Sentry Mix 2 and I've got 5 fans plugged onto it. You won't be killing your fans as the fan controller can support up to 30 watts total. You can only reduce the voltage on the fans by manualling sliding down the slides to slow them down and make them quieter.

So no, you won't kill your fans and from my experience with it, no problems at all.

Well. That's good to know.
So If I slider the slider, say all the way up on my F12, it will only hit 1350RPM?

 

[TheDualshock]

Then the Sentry Mix 2 should fit your needs.

 

[TheDualshock]

Well. That's good to know.
So If I slider the slider, say all the way up on my F12, it will only hit 1350RPM?

Yes it should, I've done the test of plugging it in a 3 pin header on my motherboard and then the fan controller and they come up to about the same speed full speed.

 

[Floppers95]

Well. That's good to know.
So If I slider the slider, say all the way up on my F12, it will only hit 1350RPM?

Yes it should, I've done the test of plugging it in a 3 pin header on my motherboard and then the fan controller and they come up to about the same speed full speed.

Thanks! all I need to know