200mm PWM fans?

[Eureka]

Musing with the idea of switching all my fans to PWM control (off mobo). Do they make 200mm fans with PWM? Also, is there any problem with running two fans off a single PWM header (in parallel using a y-splitter)?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I know that you can run two off one headed using a y splitter.

 

[john3850]

In the early days I was taught to keep the 120mm 110cfm fans off the mb headers.
I only use headers for my small mb cooling fans.
Now that ps got bigger but mb layers or thickness is less so who knows.
I would still keep that extra fan power draw and possible noise away from the mb traces.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

You could just get a fan controller

 

[Eureka]

Fan controller is an option, it actually comes with one in my case (650D). However mine burned out already and while I RMA'ed it, I'd rather not do it again. Also this way I can control everything with software and not worry about it.

Unless someone can find a 200mm PWM fan, I'm actually thinking of building a simple circuit board to control my current ones.

 

[WoodButcher]

You can get PWM splitters that will control from the mobo headers and draw power from a molex of the PSU. I used one to control the 4250 rpm GT's I modded to PWM, I ran 3 on radiators and it worked like a charm. See my FS thread in my signature, you'll find a link to the splitter cable I used.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Assuming you're talking about your Gigabyte board, you don't need pwm fans since the casefanheaders only support voltage control. Not sure why they use 4-pin headers since the 4th pin isn't connected at all.

 

[Eureka]

Assuming you're talking about your Gigabyte board, you don't need pwm fans since the casefanheaders only support voltage control. Not sure why they use 4-pin headers since the 4th pin isn't connected at all.

If that's true, then that's beyond wonderful. How do I access the voltage control (outside of BIOS)? Thing is, I want dynamic control (low speed for low temps, high speed for high tepms).

 

[coffeejunkee]

Yes, it's true. Just check your manual to see for yourself. Notice the difference between cpu and casefanheaders.

To control fans use Speedfan.

 

[Eureka]

I tried speedfan but it didn't work before, I'll do it again later tonight. I do remember hearing that it had voltage control before, but they only referred to BIOS control.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Speedfan can control both normal and pwm-fans. But it has to support the I/O chip on the motherboard. I'm pretty sure that's the case with the Z77X-D3H. Else try the latest version of Speedfan.

For automatic fancontrol you'll have to properly configure Speedfan. Google if unsure how.

I'm not sure but I thought Gigabyte offered some level of casefancontrol in their own utility now? (I take it there's still no bios fancontrol?)

 

[Eureka]

Thanks for the info. I found out that the motherboard automatically does fan control, but you have to set the mode to voltage. SYS fans 1/3 are voltage control, sys fan 2 is not. I So when I tested it before I had a fan on 2, and I also never set the fans to voltage control.

 

[szvwxcszxc]

Just get an adapter.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Thanks for the info. I found out that the motherboard automatically does fan control, but you have to set the mode to voltage. SYS fans 1/3 are voltage control, sys fan 2 is not. I So when I tested it before I had a fan on 2, and I also never set the fans to voltage control.

I checked an old version of the manual but in the new revision it's indeed indicated that sysfan 2 has pwm control but no voltage control.

Are you sure about the motherboard actually changing fanspeeds? The Gigabyte boards I used ran the fans at a constant 50% no matter the thermals.

 

[Eureka]

I checked an old version of the manual but in the new revision it's indeed indicated that sysfan 2 has pwm control but no voltage control.

Are you sure about the motherboard actually changing fanspeeds? The Gigabyte boards I used ran the fans at a constant 50% no matter the thermals.

Yeah, I checked it. It would be buzz quiet but whenever you started up a burn test it would start revving up. At the threshold point (around 30°C), you could hear it spin the fans until the temps got below 30, stop, and repeat the cycle until the CPU got warm enough to warrant constant ramp up (hysteresis, almost).

The board's pretty impressive actually. Easytune can modify the ramp profile of the fans too, to change the threshold levels.

 

[coffeejunkee]

OK, nice to see them improve things.