[SOLVED] Phanteks Fan Controller & AIO Pump, help me understand!

[JacobMWolf]

Hey guys,

So I'm new to the PC building game. I just assembled my first build this week, and it's all up and running with windows installed, so so far, so good!

HOWEVER, I can not for the life of me get my head around the the fans, and I'm finding very little reading materials pertaining to my situation.

So I have a Phanteks P600s case, a MSI Z490 Unify Mobo with a NZXT Kraken x73 cooler installed in the top.
I have an intel i9 10900k and I really wanna give it the best setup to ensure I get the best performance out of it.
(I probably won't manually overclock but to my understanding, the lower the temps, the better the turbo will perform?)

Now the Phanteks case has a fan controller preinstalled, with 3 DC connections on the left and 5 PWM connections on the right. It's powered by a SATA cable, and theres a cable labelled PC_IN, that I assume is what goes into one of the fan headers on the motherboard (the manual doesn't even refer to it, oddly). The white PWM connection furthest right on the controller apparently carries the RPM signal to the motherboard (which I don't understand the significance of, cause I'm a newbie).

SO! The case came with the rear fan plugged into the white connector, but I decided since its a 3 pin DC fan, I'll plug it into the left with the other 2 case fans. I then plugged my Kraken cooler fans into 3 of the PWM slots. Then I plugged the controller into the CPU_FAN header on my mobo.

(The CPU_Fan header on the Unify mobo is the only header that carries the PWM signal, bar the pump header but well...my pump is in there)

Now all my fans are turning, so good. However, in BIOS all I can see is one fan reading, coming from CPU. After installing windows I hoped some drivers would turn up that would allow me to see the status of all my fans, but nada. I installed SpeedFan hoping it would see something, but it basically can't identify any fans. Is this normal?

Basically it's disconcerting me that I can't seem to monitor or control any of my fans presently. I think currently ALL my fans respond to just the temp of the CPU, which is nice cause the case stays quiet when there's no heavy loads, but it's actually hard to tell if my case fan speeds are actually speeding up/slowing down, cause I can't see any readings!

I guess all I'm asking is... is this a stupid setup? Is there a better way to connect them?
I was considering just plugging only my cooler fans into the cpu_fan header using the splitter provided by NZXT, but then where do I plug in the case fan controller? FAN_1? Does it matter? Ideally I'd like to be able to see what all my fans are doing, so I'm not sure if that will still just show up all my fans as 1 unit. Plus would that make my case fans run at full speed constantly?

Sorry for the myriad of questions, I'm a total newbie and just want a better understanding of how these things should work!

Thanks in advance to any responses.

 

[Paperdoc]

What you have done works, but there is a better arrangement. Before that, some info to help understand.

Every 3- or 4-pin fan generates its own speed signal sent back to its host mobo header on Pin #3 of the connector. It is 2 pulses per revolution, and the header just counts those. BUT the header can only deal with a pulse train arriving from ONE fan - more than one causes wrong readings because they never match up. So ANY proper Fan Hub or Splitter will only send back to its host mobo header ONE fan's speed, and ignore all the others connected to it. What you have is all fans connected to a single Hub, and so the ONLY fan speed signal being fed by it back to the only mobo header you are using (CPU_FAN) is the fan plugged into the white Port #1 of the Hub. You cannot "see" any other fan speed, because none of them is connected directly to another mobo fan header.

What you have done puts all of the fan speeds under control of the CPU_FAN header. It is the only control signal sent to that Hub. Now, what that header does is devote its efforts to monitoring the internal temperature of the CPU chip itself via a sensor built into the chip, so it is ideal for controlling any device that cools the CPU. But that is not necessarily good for cooling the rest of the mobo. For that purpose, almost all mobos also have SYS_FAN or CHA_FAN headers whose actions are based on a different sensor in the mobo. That way you can set up two different fan groups - one for the CPU, and one for the mobo.

So here is how I suggest you change things. First, the fans on the radiator of the Kraken X73 system. They SHOULD be powered and controlled together from the CPU_FAN header. For that purpose I believe the system included a three-way Splitter you use to connect all three of those fans to that header. You still will see only ONE fan's speed on the CPU_FAN header display, but it WILL be the fan(s) that are cooling the CPU.

Secondly, now that you have disconnected the Hub's input cable from the CPU_FAN header, plug it into one of the SYS_FAN or CHA_FAN headers. Connect only case ventilation fans to this Hub, using the output ports (3- or 4-pin) appropriate to your fan types, as you have been doing. Again, you will only see displayed for that mobo header the speed of the one fan plugged into the Hub's Port #1. In BIOS Setup, just check the MODE setting for that header - it should be in PWM Mode ideally (not DC Mode). The Hub is Phantek's newest and best, so it will use that PWM signal for its PWM ports, and "translate" it for use by the 3-pin ports.

By the way, you are correct in having the PUMP connected to the PUMP header, and doubtless it shows you that pump unit's speed.

Every fan header on a mobo has an important second function - to monitor the speed signal it receives from its fan for FAILURE (as in, no speed signal) and warn you if that happens. The CPU_FAN header gives extra attention to this function and MAY even shut down your system if it detects fan failure to prevent CPU damage. So it is really important that the speed signal the CPU_FAN header receives IS a fan cooling the CPU. (I expect that the PUMP header also monitors its device (the pump you have there, as it should be) for failure, too.) However, there is a limit to this. If you are using a Splitter or a Hub for several fans on a header, only ONE fan's speed can be sent back and monitored for failure. Thus, from time to time, YOU should check that all your fans are still working.

With this arrangement, you will "see" separately three speeds - one of the three rad fans (for the CPU), the pump speed (which always should be a fixed "full speed"), and one of the several case fans. If you want to observe these while doing normal work, look in your mobo manual for info on a Windows app normally found on the CD of utilities that came with the mobo. There is usually one there (may already be installed waiting for you to use) for checking on fans, temperatures, etc. You run it on your screen like any other Windows app while you are doing ... whatever.

 

[JacobMWolf]

Thank you so much Paperdoc!

That’s actually exactly what I did last night while waiting for responses, to see what my computer would pick up, and that seems to be on the money.

I plugged the controller into sys_fan5 because that was basically the closest and my cable couldn’t reach sys_fan1, but I think I’ll order an extension cable of some kind (don’t think anything like that came with my mobo) so I can connect it to sys_fan1 and see the reading from the dashboard on Dragon Center. I can actually see the sys_fan5 speed in settings on Dragon Center, but the dashboard only shows sys_fan1, don’t think I can change that bizarrely. Speedfan strangely can’t pick up any fans still! Maybe it’s not compatible with my motherboard drivers? I dunno.

I also changed the sys_5 fan in BIOS to PWM and set it to Smart Fan, so I think they change dynamically, but I also set it to respond to the PCIE_1 temp (my gpu) cause I thought... why not? I think the cooler has my cpu under control and the only other component I’m generally concerned with keeping cool is my GPU... so I guess that makes sense? Tell me if you think it’s better set to System or something! Cheers!

 

[Paperdoc]

First, thanks for Best Answer.

The temp sensor labelled some common term like "system" is placed on the mobo where its maker believes is the most important mobo item to cool and monitor; they don't worry about other things for that. However, many mobos (yours, too) have extra sensors available as options. The usual use for that is this: you mount a particular fan to aim its air directly at a particular component (the Voltage Regulator section, or a graphics card, etc.) and connect it to a SYS_FAN header, then set that one header to use the temp sensor that actually measures what your fan is cooling. This is usually an extra fan beyond the general case coolers. What you have done is like that, except that you've made all your case fans guided by the temp near the graphics card. That may be quite all right - I'm sure there is a good correlation between workload (and heat generation) on the graphics card and workload elsewhere on the mobo.

In fact, you have done the only way I can think of to emphasize graphics card temp for fan control. There is no standard way for a graphics card to feed its own internal temperature measurement out to the mobo for use there. For your own interest, among the tools in the graphics card configuration app (on its CD?) I bet there is one to observe and adjust the GPU chip temperture and its on-board fan. But that fan depends on the case fans for its air supply, of course.