Fan control

[papaschtroumpf]

I just replaced my Antec TruPower (550W) with a new Cooler Master power supply, both to make sure the new rig had plenty of headroom (gaming rig), and because I wanted to use my Antec in a second rig I'm building with leftover pieces.

The antec PS had a great feature in that it had thermal control for fans: you could plug fans into a specially marked Molex connector, and it even had a "feedback" wire to the mobo that you could plug in any of the mobo's fan outputs. The PS would then automatically control the voltage to the fans base on its temperature.

With the new PS, my fans are running at full speed and the rig is too loud for my taste (at least when in idle)

Long story short, I'm looking for a thermal fan controller, that will monitor the temperature in my case and be able to vary the output voltage to one or more fans.
I thought that would be easy to find, but so far I have come up empty.

I don't want to manually control fans with a knob, and it seems that a lot of the devices out there do that, even when they offer temperature monitoring (Zalman ZM-MFC2 for example).

Other devices turn the fans on and off based on a threshold temperature (e.g. DigitalDoc, so they're all or nothing, which is not what I want. I want slow fan speed when cool, then higher and higher as the rig gets hotter

Finally those are case fans I want to control, so the control needs to be volatage based rather than PWM based, I also ideally want to control multiple fans from one sensor, so the power limit per control line should ideally allow me to control up to 4 fans.

Any ideas to get me started?

 

[papaschtroumpf]

This gizmo appears to be along the lines of what I want (although it seems to use PWM on 3-pin fan). anyone has any experience with it?

Pyramid V: http://www.quietpcusa.com/Pyra...ed-Lighting-P89C7.aspx
Looks like the same product here: http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...cer.html?tl=g34c17s422

which shows the following specs: 40% of full speed when 18 C, 100% of full speed when 32 C.
That seems a little low, I wouldn't hit 100% until 40 C or so if I had a way to chose.

 

[BadOmen]

The Truepower Trio is really the only device I have ever seen that can control fan temps (although it's stuck to low speed/full speed settings only, and my first PSU had this resource burned with less than a year of use).

Now, checking the specs for this Pyramid, it seems pretty interesting. And for that price, I would definitely give it a try.

 

[zagood]

Check out the Sunbeam Theta:
http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=3196

-z

 

[Bluefront]

Look...Noisemagic fan controllers will fix you up. I use these things all the time. They are small and can be mounted anywhere, don't need to be grounded. With a "Y" splitter they can control several fans. There is no software involved. These controllers use analog voltage control...no PWM. The sensor can be un-soldered and extended if you want to pick up CPU temperature for instance. They plug into the MB.....so you can still monitor fan RPM. They're relatively cheap.....I use the NTM3 versions. This version varies the fan voltage from 5-12V over a temperature range of 28-42C.

What more could you want....

 

[papaschtroumpf]

My Antec is is a True Power 2.0 550W, which I think is the ancestor to the Trio. Fan control on it seemed to worked quite well, it was running my case a bit on the hot side, but that allowed it to be silent until I really cranked it up (generally gaming).

I sometimes boot into Linux on that box, and it will be my next Linux server when I get a new computer, so I want to avoid software based solutions like the Theta.

I had seen the Noisemagic but had dismissed them as being an expensive solution because I needed 1 per fan (I need to control 3 fans). I hadn't thought about putting them directly on the mobo or controlling more than 1 fan with each.
Their 28-42 C range is better than the 18-32 C of they pyramid, I am not running in an air conditioned server room after all.

I might look at getting both a pyramid and a noisemagic.

 

[Zepper]

It looks like all those are one controller to one fan. If you want to control multiple fans by the temperatures in various locations or of different devices, you'd want a more comprehensive device like the Theta mentioned above or perhaps the Silverstone Eudemon (SST-FP52). Black is available for $3. more in other online stores. Of course you can hook several fans to one controller channel but they should be the same make and model and not total up to more than the load rating for the channel. Only one speed sensor from the fans can be connected to one channel at a time - while as many power leads as you want can be connected to a channel as long as the load limit is not exceeded.

This comparo includes the Eudemon. and there are other reviews out there.

.bh.

 

[Bluefront]

That Theta looks good on paper. But the software that controls the thing is very buggy. I have never seen a good review of the thing since it first came out.

The other Noisemagic controller is the NTM2......it also does 5-12V, but over a temperature range of 30-50C (I think). I bought one a while back.....even with an extended sensor mounted in the center of a Ninja, I could never get the fan to run 12V during benchmarking. So I buy the NTM3.

Precision Sensor Placement....

 

[Zepper]

No controller gives you much more than 11V to the fan - even my Rheobus. Most fans won't lose a lot of revs with a 1V drop. Or you could always mod in some bypass switches in case you really need to hit a fan with raw +12. An SPDT switch for each fan you want to bypass.

.bh.

 

[Bluefront]

A controller that uses PWM will usually give the full 12V. An analog controller such as a Fan-mate might give around 11V maximum. I usually plug a fan straight into a 12V fan header on the MB.....and check what rpm it will run. Then as the fan is being automatically controlled, I get a general idea of what's happening. Using the Noise-magic controller NTM3, I can read a maximum rpm figure very close to the un-regulated 12V. That is using an extended sensor stuck on the CPU base.

If you stick a Noise-magic controller directly on a fan, without the sensor extension, you'll never get close to 12V, no matter what. One thing I like is the gradual voltage rise of the Noisemagic, following the temp rise very closely. There are no voltage "steps"......which are usually audible. Many controllers only give three or four steps. Some only give two....with the fan going from 5-12V in one step. You can hear that.

The Noisemagic voltage rise is like .1V at a time.

 

[Modelworks]

Maybe I should finish the project I started earlier this year.
I designed a circuit that would read 5 temp locations, control 6 fans, 2 20A relays, 5 voltages, and is controlled by a microprocessor that required no software running on the host pc.

It also has a lcd readout that can be placed on your desk like a small digital clock so you can view the temps, fans, voltages. Its settings are programmed by a serial cable. Once programmed it can do its own thing without the host pc.

Serial port interface was chosen because usb requires drivers and because it can be used on any OS out there.

I got the circuit layed out, but never built the final product.
I wanted to just put it on a web page and let people build there own.

I put it aside doing other things, but may go back to it if people think they could really use such a thing.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

One thing I like is the gradual voltage rise of the Noisemagic, following the temp rise very closely. There are no voltage "steps"......which are usually audible. Many controllers only give three or four steps. Some only give two....with the fan going from 5-12V in one step. You can hear that.

I second that!

 

[mwalt2]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
Look...Noisemagic fan controllers will fix you up. I use these things all the time. They are small and can be mounted anywhere, don't need to be grounded. With a "Y" splitter they can control several fans. There is no software involved. These controllers use analog voltage control...no PWM. The sensor can be un-soldered and extended if you want to pick up CPU temperature for instance. They plug into the MB.....so you can still monitor fan RPM. They're relatively cheap.....I use the NTM3 versions. This version varies the fan voltage from 5-12V over a temperature range of 28-42C.

What more could you want....

How many fans (say run of the mill 120mm fans) can you hook up to 1 NTM3 using Y splitters? These controllers look pretty interesting.

 

[Zepper]

The specs tab on the Frozen CPU pages show the rating of the NMT-3 as 2.5W or a little over 0.2A - so probably just one fan per unit. Would have to be a pretty weak fan to use less than 0.1A . Though in several places I've seen reference to 3W and 5W - your guess is as good as mine.

re. max voltage out of linear or PWM fan controllers. Any time you power something via an electronic circuit (Sunbeam Rheobus uses a power transistor so cheap, low current pots can be used for adjusting - Cooler Master Aerogate 3 is PWM) you're going to lose some voltage simply due to diode effect. To get Vout = Vin, you have to bypass the circuit.

.bh.

 

[Bluefront]

I have a few setups running with an NTM3 running two fans.....usually a 120mm Yate Loon or a Sythe, and a second 80mm intake fan. I've never had a failure with one of these controllers. But they're cheap enough....buy two if you're concerned.

 

[Bluefront]

Here are two examples of a two-speed fan controller.....they are the same product with only the outer shell being different.

http://www.svc.com/tr3a1-47.html]http://www.svc.com/tr3a1-47.html[/L]]Lian Li

http://www.svc.com/fp206sl-22.html]http://www.svc.com/fp206sl-22.html[/L]]Logisys

There is no software with either. The buttons allow you to set the base idle of a fan. The sensors allow you to program a particular temperature at which the fan changes from your base idle speed to a full 12V (wide open). Two fan speeds only. These units are useful however....they individually control three fans, along with an LCD readout of the temperatures and the rpms.

But if you want more precise fan control, I suggest you look elsewhere.....like an MTN3. I also suggest to attempt to find reviews on any automatic fan-speed controller you might buy. They all sound good in the specs, but very few work well. The ones that rely on software, are plagued with problems. Some like the Thermaltake controllers, have quality control issues also. Hard to find a good one.......