Question What are some disadvantages of pump and fans managed by single PWM splitter

Dec 16, 2019
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on the best aio cooler page it says that a down side to the arctic Liquid freezer II 280, that was that the pump and fans managed by single PWM splitter, so what are some disadvantages
 

Karadjgne

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A typical header has a 1A rated limit. That's industry standard, but can vary slightly, the really low-end boards I'd not tempt over 0.8A. Figure a decent pwm fan at 0.2A, doubled for a 280mm, so right off the rip there's 0.4A accounted for, leaving 0.4-0.6A for the pump. And that's with stock fans, if you swap to RGB, expect that to be closer to 0.35A per fan. Serious overload on a single pwm splitter unless it's alternately powered by usb/Sata.
 

Karadjgne

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That's (in a word) asinine. The inability to change fans? Forever stuck with the Arctic choice?...

Count me out. I'd just as soon cut those fans loose, and plug my fans into cpu_fan and the pump into cpu_aux, cpu_pump, or any of 4-5 sys_fan headers.

Since I'd want to see both fan speeds and pump speeds, which is impossible with both tied to a singular header.
 
That's (in a word) asinine. The inability to change fans? Forever stuck with the Arctic choice?...

Count me out. I'd just as soon cut those fans loose, and plug my fans into cpu_fan and the pump into cpu_aux, cpu_pump, or any of 4-5 sys_fan headers.

Since I'd want to see both fan speeds and pump speeds, which is impossible with both tied to a singular header.
Truly, no customization options at all. Too much of a trade-off for less cables and clean installation.
 

Karadjgne

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I mean if you look at Corsair's directions, or most any other copycat, they state specifically that pump to cpu_fan and fans to a sys_fan. This gives monitoring ability to both. It's a safety factor if the pump fails, rpm will lower past the threshold and ding the cpu, which bleats out a warning and will shutdown the pc to protect itself from damage.

With both fans and pump on a single pwm, what gets monitored? The fans? And if the pump fails, no warning. If the pump is monitored, how are fans controlled? Or does the pump speed up according to duty cycle that affects the fans according to bios set fan curves?

Asinine.
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
You can disconnect the fans at the radiator - they connect to a Y-splitter that itself runs down the sleeving, not the actual fan headers themselves.

This is how I tested it...disconnected the fans from the Y-splitter and ran them in dependently so the pump could be run at 100%