[SOLVED] More fans than fan headers, how can I power them all as well as control them?

[jm-april20]

The motherboard has 3 cha_fan headers and I plan to use 6 fans. How can I power and control them all individually?

 

[rgd1101]

get a fan controller ?
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998156

 

[jimmysmitty]

Depending on which fans they may have one but you if you want to control them all your best bet is a fan controller:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Description=fan controller&Submit=ene

 

[Paperdoc]

Fan controllers are made by third parties and generally require that YOU be the controller. That is, YOU decide what speed they should be (based on what rules??), AND you have to keep checking things to decide when to change fan speeds as your workload changes. Virtually none of these devices can do any of this for you - they only allow YOU to set speeds manually.

On the other hand, those CHA_FAN headers on the mobo are driven by software automatic control system that use TEMPERATURES actually measured at important points in your system, and adjust their fans' speeds to keep those temperatures close to pre-programmed targets. You do not have to give them any special attention. Such headers normally can supply up to 1.0 A EACH to their total load, so you can use either Splitters or a Hub to connect more than one fan to each header. To set that up properly we need a but more info. What mobo do you have - maker and exact model number. What fans so you have, or plan on - maker / model again? with that we van look up their specs and tell you what options work best for you.

By the way, I assumed from your post that you are talking now only about the CASE ventilation fans. The CPU chip cooling system (fans, AIO, or whatever) is managed in a very similar manner, but by a different header, normally CPU_FAN but sometimes added helpers.

 

[Karadjgne]

I'd not control fans individually, but in groupings. Use 1 header per group. If you have 3x fans at input, team them up with a splitter to a single header. 2x top fans to another splitter and the rear exhaust by itself. This puts the entire group under the same fan curve setting so you don't get fans fighting and drowning each other out.

 

[Paperdoc]

Karadjgne's way of grouping fans of similar use under the same control system is very good. If you're dealing with multiple fans on limited headers and using Splitters or Hubs to do that, grouping them this way is by far the best way..