control DC fan with motherboard?

[birthdaymonkey]

I'm trying to control the speed of a 3-pin fan using Speedfan or my motherboard's software. I've got an Asus P7P55D. I can control my PWM chassis fan no problem but the fan I've got on the CPU is a Scythe GT, which means no PWM. It runs at a full 1800 rpm all the time with Asus Q-fan enabled. With Q-fan disabled I can adjust the speed of the PWM fan no in Speedfan but not the DC fan. Suggestions? Am I out of luck?

 

[WildW]

Probably out of luck. I think I've seen the occasional motherboard with an option in the BIOS to choose between PWM or voltage control of fan speed, but usually you get one or the other 🙁

 

[Jimmah]

Out of luck sadly, unless you find some sort of guide how to do it specifically, best bet might be to either solder some resistors inline or get a controller.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Thanks for the info, guys. I've got a bunch of Noctua resistor dongles and a Zalman fanmate lying around. I was using the fanmate, but I'm going to have to drill a hole in the back of my case if I want that to be a permanent solution. I'd definitely buy a drive bay fan controller, but I had to agree to a 2-month computer spending moratorium (enforced by GF) to get permission to buy a new laptop 🙂.

In the mean time, I guess I'll just have to put up with a slightly loud CPU fan... or maybe try adding another GT (got a couple lying around) to my 212+ to make it a push-pull, which would presumably allow it to have better cooling performance at lower RPMs. That way I can just install a couple of resistors and leave it on low RPMs all the time.

 

[zagood]

Are you using all the PCI slots? You can ghetto mod a fanmate into one of those with tape.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Are you using all the PCI slots? You can ghetto mod a fanmate into one of those with tape.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I think I've got some double sided mounting tape somewhere. At least that way I wouldn't have to take the stuff out of my case to drill.