[SOLVED] What is a good fan controller?

[JLat51]

My motherboard is the Gigabyte B450M DS3H. I do not OC so i am fine with a budget board, the only issue I am facing is that my case has three fans (4 if including CPU fan) but only two spots for fans. One being the CPU and one being a regular case fan. I do not want to hook the other two up to my PSU as then they will be 100%. I am looking into getting a fan controller but not sure which type is good.
https://www.amazon.ca/DEEPCOOL-FH-1...ontroller&qid=1563817610&s=electronics&sr=1-3 something like this should do the trick?
If it matters I have the ryzen 5 2600 and an rx 580 power color edition.

 

[Lutfij]

Why not get a PWM fan splitter and pair that with all PWM case fans? Edit, yes, that can be used on your build. Just remember to use PWM fans on that controller(alongside the CPU fan) since a 3 pin fan will run at full speed.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

That's just a fan hub, but it would work fine to power extra fans. You can control their speed via power or PWM by changing those settings for the fan. As long as they are getting extra power from SATA (or other) then they should work fine. Phanteks makes a high-quality fan hub also.

 

[Paperdoc]

That DeepCool FH-10 unit is a fan HUB and it will work just fine with fan that have FOUR-pin connectors. Also called PWM Fans. You can NOT use that with 3-pin fan (the older style). The hub requires connections to a SATA power output of the PSU for fan power, and to your only mobo SYS_FAN header (NOT to the CPU_FAN header). When you plug your fans into its output ports, ensure that one of them is into the FAN#1 port, because that's the only port that will send its fan's speed signal back to the mobo. Look at your mobo manual on p. 24. For the SYS_FAN header you use, ensure that its "Fan Control Mode" is set to PWM, and that its "Fan Control Use Temperature Input" is set to the motherboard temp sensor, and not to the one inside the CPU chip If you have to change either of those, make sure to SAVE and EXIT so your new settings are saved.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

That DeepCool FH-10 unit is a fan HUB and it will work just fine with fan that have FOUR-pin connectors. Also called PWM Fans. You can NOT use that with 3-pin fan (the older style). The hub requires connections to a SATA power output of the PSU for fan power, and to your only mobo SYS_FAN header (NOT to the CPU_FAN header). When you plug your fans into its output ports, ensure that one of them is into the FAN#1 port, because that's the only port that will send its fan's speed signal back to the mobo. Look at your mobo manual on p. 24. For the SYS_FAN header you use, ensure that its "Fan Control Mode" is set to PWM, and that its "Fan Control Use Temperature Input" is set to the motherboard temp sensor, and not to the one inside the CPU chip If you have to change either of those, make sure to SAVE and EXIT so your new settings are saved.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. That fan hub clearly says it can use 3-pin or 4-pin fans. You can also plug the fan hub into the CPU_FAN header as long as you plug the CPU fan into the fan hub. That will allow all fans to increase/decrease with the CPU, that is if you are using PWM fans.

 

[Paperdoc]

Like almost all such Hubs, that unit has outputs ONLY for 4-pin fans and using only the newer PWM Mode to control fan speeds. Although such devices CAN be used with 3-pin fans, and 3-pin fan plugged into a 4-pin port using PWM Mode will always run full speed . There is no speed control possible for the 3-pin fan in this mismatch situation.

The cable from the Hub to a mobo header can be plugged into either a CPU_FAN header or a SYS_FAN header. They work differently. The CPU_FAN header always governs its fan's speed according to the temperature sensor inside the CPU chip because it is designed to cool the CPU. The SYS_FAN header CAN be configured (should be for most situations) to use instead a temperature sensor on the MOTHERBOARD since it is trying to cool the whole case and especially the general motherboard components. OP wants to power and control fans for CASE cooling, not CPU cooling. So this Hub should be connected to the SYS_FAN header, and the actual CPU fan should NOT be connected to the Hub. The CPU cooler fan alone should be plugged into the CPU_FAN header.

 

[JLat51]

I will not be plugging it into the CPU header as I do not want to start potentially screwing something up. More research is in order as the case fans are 3 pins. Thanks

 

[Karadjgne]

3pin fans are analog. They are directly controlled by the voltage applied and normally that's either 5v or 7v low to 12v high. Because there's a need for a certain amount of voltage to actually turn the motor, this ends up as @ 40% or 60% to 100% duty cycle in bios. So a 1000rpm max fan will spin at @ 400 or 600rpm low and 1000rpm high.

4 pin fans are digital. They use a pulsed signal to turn the fan motor on/off, but remain at a constant 12v. Consequently, pwm fans can drop as low as @ 20% duty cycle, or 200rpm on a 1000rpm fan.

Because of these differences in voltage use, the 2 kinds of fans don't mix, and neither do hubs unless you go all out for a seriously expensive powered and software controlled hub. Your basic hub is nothing more than a hard splitter that's generally powered by molex or Sata and is always pwm.

DC 3pin fans require an actual controller, as it'll need rheostats to change the input voltages. These controllers are almost always mounted in an optical bay, and can be led or analog or a mix, so enabling auto or manual control of each header.

Each motherboard header is ostensibly rated at 1A, that's just 12w at 12v. A DC 3pin fan will usually run @ 4-6w each (0.3A-0.5A), so general recommendations put no more than 2 splittered DC fans per header. Because pwm fans always run 12v, the motor isn't as heavy duty, it's not required to use higher amperage to make up the difference in wattage at 5v or 7v, so can run as low as @ 0.18A each, or 3-4 fans per splitter. The pwm signal is strong enough to be split upto 10x, so hubs are not an issue, generally being 6-8 fans.

So. You'll need to look at the back of one of the fans. On that sticker is either a wattage or amperage rating. IF the wattage of all 3 fans adds up to less than 0.9A, then 1 splitter with 3 fans will work. If it's more, then you will have to use an optical bay mount controller as the cpu_fan header is dedicated pwm and can't be used with a DC fan. (well it can, but the 3pin fan will always see 12v full speed).

If there's no optical Bay to add a controller, your cheapest option would be to change out the case fans for these,
Case Fan: ARCTIC - F12 PWM PST 53 CFM 120 mm Fan ($8.48 @ Amazon)
which are cheaper and more reliable than most DC fan controllers anyway. This'll make all the case fans pwm, and can be split up however you see fit using 2 or 3way splitters, even using cpu_fan header as control.

 

[Paperdoc]

Karadjgne is right. If you can find the Watts rating OR the Amps rating on the fan labels and add them up, the limit of the single header you have is either 1.0 A or 12 W. If the three case fans add up to less than that, you can safely use a simple SPLITTER to connect them all to that header. A couple of examples:

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E168124..._re=Coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-163-_-Product

That's a simple 3-output Splitter. Although designed for 4-pin systems, it will work just fine for your 3-pin fans.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16882422016

That's a little circuit board with four output headers you fasten down so it does not move about and short out against something.

The SYS_FAN header can accept and deal with the speed signal coming back to it from only ONE fan, so each of these will send back only one fan's speed and ignore the others. For the 3-arm device, the only one whose speed is sent back is the one plugged into the output with all four of its pins. For the board, the speed is sent back from only the fan plugged into the port marked "CPU", so even though you do NOT connect your CPU cooling fan there, DO connect one of your case fans to that header.

For both of these options You would need to configure your mobo SYS_FAN header to use the older DC Mode, not the new PWM Mode.

If your fan calcs say the total load exceeds the SYS_FAN header's limit (12 W or 1.0 A) then there IS another option. There is one Hub on the market that gets all the fan power from the PSU via a SATA power output connector and works very much like other Hubs in getting the speed control PWM signal from the mobo SYS_FAN header. But it is unique in that it converts from the new PWM Mode to the older Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode) for you. It is the Phanteks PWM Hub. You can plug its fan lead into your SYS_FAN header (NOT the CPU_FAN header as some instructions recommend) (configured to use the new PWM Mode), its power connector into a SATA power output, and all your 3-pin case fans into its 3-pin ports, making sure to plug one of them into the White Port #1 that will return the fan speed signal to the mobo header.

If you cannot find a label with Watts or Amps on your fans, see if you can post her the maker and model number of the fans and we can try to find that info.