PWM fan hub runs fans at full speed, header runs 1 fan fine

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Kian Palmer

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Jul 31, 2013
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Hello!

I recently bought a couple of Silverstone 8-fan PWM hubs to power 16 fans on two 480mm radiators. The hubs are powered by a SATA connection and also have a 4-pin PWM connection to go to a header on the motherboard.
I am having a problem with all 16 of the fans running at 100% speed. Quite loud.
The fan hubs are connected to the CPU fan 1 and 2 headers because they are the only 4-pin fan headers on the board that actually utilize the 4th pin. I did some research and found that the 4th pin on the my SYSFAN and OPTFAN connectors aren't connected to anything.

So the fans stay at 100% speed all the time, despite me changing fan speed settings in the BIOS.
I later investigated whether the problem lied in my motherboard or the hub, so I plugged in one of the PWM fans into the CPUFAN1 header and ta-da, the fan was running at the percent speed I specified.
So a single fan plugged into either CPUFAN header works, but the hubs plugged into the CPUFAN headers runs all fans at 100% speed.

I'm wondering if there is anything else I should try to get the fan hubs working correctly or are they both somehow faulty?
Also, if it is decided that they should be returned, what other products/solutions are recommended to control 16 PWM fans?

Motherboard is an MSI Z97 XPower AC
Fans are Corsair SP120 PWM Quiet Editions
Fan Hubs are the Silverstone CPF04

Thank you very much!
 
Solution
Aeacus
If the fan hubs doesn't work then last resort would be fan controller. E.g NZXT Sentry series,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/dQ8Zxr,tWW9TW/

You can buy 2 of those and with the rest of fans (6 or 4), you can use Y-splitter and connect 2 fans on a single MoBo fan header.
Y-splitter at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-SYC1-Accessory-4-pin-Y-Cables/dp/B00KG8K5CY

E.g with 2x Sentry 3, you can connect 10 fans to the fan controllers and using 3x Y-splitter to connect the rest of 6x fans to the MoBo.
Or with 2x Sentry Mix 2, you can connect 12 fans to the fan controllers and using 2x Y-splitter to connect the rest of 4x fans to the MoBo.

It is possible that Corsair SP series fans doesn't play nice with fan hubs and...
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I have read that thread and learned that either my motherboard PWM header isn't in its PWM mode/manual control or is not working (which I found not to be the case) or both hubs are faulty.

I created another thread because I didn't think that two identical products could be faulty in the same way when I have no way to prove that they are both faulty or if an error exists in my operation/setup.

I understood in advance that the thread I would be creating would be similar, but because the problem was consistent among the two hubs I have, I thought the problem could be something outside of utilizing the proper header setting/mode as described in the other thread.
 
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To test your hubs, try plugging your fans around and also try having less fans connected to the hub.

E.g if you have only 2 fans at the hub, one in spot #1 and another one in spot #3, does both fans still run 100%, despite the changes in BIOS? Or does only the fan in spot #3 run 100%?

It is a possibility that Silverstone hubs are faulty. To keep your cost down, you can buy the same Swiftech fan hub as did the OP in the topic i linked,
specs: http://www.swiftech.com/8-WayPWMsplitter-sata.aspx

First try with 1 Swiftech fan hub and if you get your fans running as needed, buy the 2nd Swiftech fan hub too.

There are other fan hubs as well, e.g Phanteks but that supports only 6 fans per hub,
specs: http://www.phanteks.com/PH-PWHUB.html

If you don't have any luck with fan hubs then the last resort would be buying fan controller that has separate channel for each fan. But that costs quite a bit and also takes up great deal of real estate. E.g Thermaltake Commander F6 RGB,
specs: http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002777

While fan controller gives you absolute manual control over every single fan, you'd need three of those since they support 6 fans per controller. You'd also need 3x 5.25" external bays where to mount them. But the plus sides are that they come with temperature sensors, RPM counters for each fan and high temperature alerting system that is toggle-able.
 
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Thank you very much for your thorough response,

I tested the fan hubs and found that they control up to 5 fans at the correct speed. Once I connect a 6th, they all run at 100% speed. It doesn't matter which 5 headers the fans are plugged into on the hub either. I also noticed that, with 5 fans, the fans would occasionally spike to 100% speed and then go back down to what I specified, as if the hub was intermittently losing the PWM signal. The fans consume very little amounts of current (0.08 amps each, 0.64 amps each hub @ 12V), so I have concluded that both hubs are faulty in the exact same way.

Also thank you very much for linking me to different fan hubs. I am going to try one of the Swiftech hubs and buy a 2nd if it works how I want it to like you suggested.
I'll update you once the hub is delivered in hopefully a few days (Amazon Prime FTW!)

Thanks again!
 
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If that's the case for me as well, what other ways would there be to control 16 PWM fans with 2-3 mobo headers? I don't really want to have to buy new fans
 
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If the fan hubs doesn't work then last resort would be fan controller. E.g NZXT Sentry series,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/dQ8Zxr,tWW9TW/

You can buy 2 of those and with the rest of fans (6 or 4), you can use Y-splitter and connect 2 fans on a single MoBo fan header.
Y-splitter at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-SYC1-Accessory-4-pin-Y-Cables/dp/B00KG8K5CY

E.g with 2x Sentry 3, you can connect 10 fans to the fan controllers and using 3x Y-splitter to connect the rest of 6x fans to the MoBo.
Or with 2x Sentry Mix 2, you can connect 12 fans to the fan controllers and using 2x Y-splitter to connect the rest of 4x fans to the MoBo.

It is possible that Corsair SP series fans doesn't play nice with fan hubs and other fans do. But since i don't know which fans play nice with fan hubs, i can't suggest you which fans to go for.
 
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Solution


I tried the Swiftech splitter today and had the exact same result. I'll look into both of those fan controllers.
Thank you!
 
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right now my solution for my setup is to use two swifttech 8 fan fan hubs and plug 4 fans in each fan hub and control it that way... I would rather use two of these fan hubs, than to swap out all of my fans, because like I said the issue is the fan itself and not the fan hub. For my next fan upgrade it will not be the sp 120s... there is so many issues with these fans.
 
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Thanks for your reply! That is a good idea. I think I will order 3 more of the hubs to control the 16 fans I have vs. buy 16 new fans. I hope PWM fan splitters can be used to give the hubs a PWM signal without encountering the 100% fan speed issue
 
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