Question Looking for alternative/similar hardware like ASUS Fan Extension Card

[BladePocok]

Hey there!

Sadly my current Asus motherboard only support three fans via onboard headers, however I have 5 fans installed in my case (two of them is disabled right now). The goal is to regulate every fan via software (Fan Xpert to be specific or any other), but can't do that if I would use splitters to power all fans (without lack of sensors built in).

For that I was looking for a dedicate external hardware and that's when I found the ASUS Fan Extension Card, but sadly that was discontinued some time ago (or just not available in Europe, conflicting info) and not sure about alternatives that has the same compatibility.

Could you guys recommend a similar and not too expensive method for my problem? RGB lightning is optional, not recommended, I just want don't want those extra fans spinning at max RPM without reason.

Thank you!

 

[SkyNetRising]

my current Asus motherboard only support three fans via onboard headers, however I have 5 fans installed in my case

Put two fans on 1st header,
next two fans on 2nd header and
last fan on 3rd header.

Use fan splitters.

 

[BladePocok]

So I have three fans on the front, one at the side and one at the back, the ideal situation would be if all frontal ones has the same speed and the rest are separate, but most likely that put too much pressure on a single header. no?

Could they still be controlled with the motherboard software?

 

[faalin]

treat each fan header as being able to do 1 amp, as long as your fans total amperage rating does not exceed that you will be fine. There should be a sticker in the middle of the fan that will tell you the voltage and amp rating for each fan. if its less then .5 amps you can put 2 on each header, if its less the .3 amps you could put 3 on one header.

 

[BladePocok]

Thank you, I'll have a look at them.

 

[SkyNetRising]

ideal situation would be if all frontal ones has the same speed and the rest are separate,
but most likely that put too much pressure on a single header. no?

Depends on exact fan models.
Read power specification from label glued to back of fans.

Generally fan headers on motherboard support 1A current (or sometimes 2A - read motherboard specification).
So if single fan is 0.3A , then you can put 3 fans on single header.
If single fan is 0.5A, then you can put only 2 fans on single header.

Could they still be controlled with the motherboard software?

Yes.

 

[Paperdoc]

Above is all correct. Regarding control, a fan header can read the speed of its fan and show that to you, but it does NOT need that info for its control function. In truth, the header concentrates on the TEMPERATURE measured at a sensor on the mobo and changes its fan speed to achieve a temp target. It does NOT care what the actual fan speed is.

However, a fan header can only deal with the speed signal coming back to it from ONE fan. So when you connect more than one fan to a single header by a Splitter, the Splitter sends back the speed from only ONE of the fans (via its only output with all four pins) and ignores all the others. You will never "see" those "other" speeds anywhere. But this has NO impact on ability to control the speeds of all the fan on the Splitter. You just can assume if all fans are the same model that all are running at the same speed.

This lack of speed reading DOES limit a second different function of the header. The header monitors the speed of its fan for NO speed signal, indicating fan failure. If that happens you get a warning message pop up on your screen so you now there is a problem to fix. IF that fan that fails is the one connected to CPU_FAN the system may take more drastic action to protect the CPU from overheating, but a CHA_FAN or SYS_FAN for case ventilation fans will not do that. So, when you use a Splitter that monitoring cannot be done for ALL the fans on one Splitter. That means only that, from time to time, YOU should look at all your fans to be sure all still are working.

 

[BladePocok]

Turns out all three frontal fans have 0.43A and the board can handle 2A, so in theory a single splitter would suffice!

Once again appreciate all the replies, I'll keep an eye on the those fans closely in case something goes wrong.