Good fan controller?

[razaice]

Hey can someone recommend me a good fan controller? I'll be using 2 200 mm fans and 4 120 mm fans.

 

[Brainonska511]

I have a little Scythe 4-fan controller (fits in the 3.5" bay) with just analog knobs to increase or decrease fan speed. Simple, but effective. I have no recommendation for anything larger though. You could always get a 4-fan controller and use a fan splitter cable to attach more.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I have a little Scythe 4-fan controller (fits in the 3.5" bay) with just analog knobs to increase or decrease fan speed. Simple, but effective. I have no recommendation for anything larger though. You could always get a 4-fan controller and use a fan splitter cable to attach more.

I believe I have the same Scythe 3.5" controller, and I like it. No ugly LEDs, nice aluminum faceplate, small. Cheap too... around $20 from newegg. Fan splitters are $1-2 apiece, but the only issue is that you have to make sure you don't exceed the maximum per-channel wattage of the controller (in this case 12w) by adding two high power fans to one channel.

 

[aigomorla]

omg dont get the scythe controller.

Scythe hasnt learned how to make a proper controller yet vs lamptron and sunbeam.

Sunbeam Rheobus <-- cheapest and most reliable route
Lamptron FC series <--- expensive, but most blingy route.

Scythe <--- Avoid like a plauge for fan controllers... they dont last very long, lack proper heat sinks for cooling, and my friends and i have yet to not fry one.

 

[Lightflash]

What kind of budget do you have? I am running a Lamptron FC5v2 right now that I enjoy since it gives a readout of the RPM of the fans.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I have a Sunbeam Rheobus too, and it's definitely a robust fan controller. It's so ugly though... that faceplate... those LEDs... I didn't want to remove them completely, as it's useful to see the colour to judge how much juice the fans are getting, but I needed some black nail polish to keep the thing from flooding my living room with green and blue light.

 

[aigomorla]

this is the FC-5

you can change up to 9 different colors i think on the face:

Its the alternative to the scythe if u need a very similar controller.

As i said i will NOT EVER touch a scythe again.
Infact the scythe i have is ONLY good for giving me temp displays... other then that... its complete crap.

 

[razaice]

Oh wow, it didn't look like anyone was going to respond to my post, so I ended up just buying a controller last night. I got the sunbeam rheobus extreme since the regular one is deactivated at newegg. Anyone know if it comes with fan splitters?

 

[Lightflash]

Oh wow, it didn't look like anyone was going to respond to my post, so I ended up just buying a controller last night. I got the sunbeam rheobus extreme since the regular one is deactivated at newegg. Anyone know if it comes with fan splitters?

Do not think there are any fan splitters with it, but a decent choice for a fan controller.

Wish I had the money and need for the Aquaero, but it is overkill in my eyes right now.

 

[joelmartinez]

rheobus extreme, rheosmart 6, fc-8 good choice

 

[stahlhart]

Really like the Lamptron Touch I put into this new build -- more than anything else for the reason that there are no knobs sticking out in front. Ridiculous overkill for what I'm doing, but it's been flawless.

 

[Brainonska511]

Its the alternative to the scythe if u need a very similar controller.

The Scythe controller I was talking about has no readouts. Just simple knobs, 3.5" bay fan controller.

 

[bleucharm28]

I believe I have the same Scythe 3.5" controller, and I like it. No ugly LEDs, nice aluminum faceplate, small. Cheap too... around $20 from newegg. Fan splitters are $1-2 apiece, but the only issue is that you have to make sure you don't exceed the maximum per-channel wattage of the controller (in this case 12w) by adding two high power fans to one channel.

Originally Posted by Brainonska511
I have a little Scythe 4-fan controller (fits in the 3.5" bay) with just analog knobs to increase or decrease fan speed. Simple, but effective. I have no recommendation for anything larger though. You could always get a 4-fan controller and use a fan splitter cable to attach more.

I bought this 3.5 inch fan controller because is nice and small. my case has a cover for it, because i don't the knobs sticking out of my case; i had it for a year or so with no problems yet.

 

[darkewaffle]

I got the Rheosmart 6 and I've been really pleased with it. I wish the styling was a bit different but all in all I'd get another one, definitely.

The only other one I'd consider for 5+ fans personally would be the Lamptron FC-8.

I did have a NZXT Sentry LXE but as it turns out it simply isn't compatible with my San Ace fans, otherwise I would have liked that one. Wiring to the PCIE slot instead of one of the drive bays was nice and I liked not having anything on the front of my case, but the touchscreen sensitivity wasn't great and I think dials are definitely more convenient.

 

[aigomorla]

The Scythe controller I was talking about has no readouts. Just simple knobs, 3.5" bay fan controller.

its all crap.

scythe makes awesome fans...

Fan controllers, u can totally tell they were off labored to even a sub par standard of what china typically makes.

Seriously, only get a scythe fan controller if ur using piss weak fans, ie silentX crap...

You put a real fan on one of those guys.. like a san ace... and it WILL DIE quick.

 

[Syzygies]

I second aigomorla's assessment of fan controllers. The one purpose that a decent electronics circuit can serve here is to drop 12 volts down to a lower value without shedding the entire difference as heat. That takes a well-designed transistor circuit that can handle the amps in question. A rheostat, or diodes, or linear regulators, just dump the difference as heat.

This can nevertheless be a small number of watts. For example, if one has four fans totaling 1 amp at 12 volts, they're doing less work at lower voltages, and they'll roughly draw 0.75 amps at 9 volts (75&#37. A basic circuit that dumps the other 3 volts as heat is producing 3 volts * 0.75 amps = 2.25 watts of heat. This isn't much, and a better circuit can only save part of this. This calculation is back-of-the-envelope, using first-order rules of thumb; one can measure exactly using an inexpensive multimeter and a custom cable to insert the multimeter in the current path.

Saving this nightlight worth of heat inside the case doesn't seem worth putting up with the crap that passes for fan controllers these days. The added complexity is just something else that can break, damaging more expensive system components. I just lost an SSD to a cheap drive bay device, so this issue is real to me.

I'm a big fan of the Lamptron Fan-Atic: 5-port bay device; I have them in two builds now. They're just passive switches, and they're built like brick Pentiums.

As designed, this provides five 3-way toggle switches with red/blue indicator LEDs, powering five fan headers at 5 volts, OFF, or 12 volts. The 5 volts is drawn from the power supply's 5 volt source, so there is no heat shedding. In practice, if one has enough case ventilation, one leaves all switches at 5 volts.

For example, I swapped in two Cooler Master Blade Master PWM fans, controlled by the motherboard CPU fan header (*), for my Noctua NH-D14 cooler, scaled in my ASUS P8P67 Pro BIOS to 10% at 57 C, 100% at 75 C. My case is a Mountain Mods Plateau, and I leave my nine Scythe Scythe S-Flex SFF21E case fans at 5 volts. At a modest Core-i7 2600K overclock of 4.4 GHz, my core temps are 61 C to 63 C at full load, driving the PWM fans at 30% to 40%. My system is close to silent at 4.4 GHz full load, a great compromise over the louder 4.8 GHz overclock (par for this cpu).

So with Sandy Bridge, any fan controller is like renting a storeroom rather than throwing out junk. With PWM cooler fans and 5 volt case fans, fan controllers aren't really needed, except for extreme overclocks. Even then, with ample case ventilation the case fan voltage makes a scant difference in core temps, not worth the added noise. And knobs can be rotated down to the point where fans stall; my fans don't stall at 5 volts. Nevertheless, the toggles and LEDs are nice case bling, allowing me to confirm my cooling assertions when desired. Fan cables can't handle the current of many fans, so the Fan-Atic serves as a convenient power splitter while looking decorative, avoiding a jungle of Y-splitters inside the case.

As an abstract DIY component, the Lamptron Fan-Atic comes into its own. It inputs whatever power sources one puts on the "5 V" and "12 V" pairs of lines coming into the 4-pin power header. The toggles then select, fan by fan, which source to use. For example, one could wire a string of diodes or a beefy rheostat into the 12 volt source, leaving the 5 volt source alone. I have a string of 3 amp diodes feeding a Q6600 build Fan-Atic, allowing me to choose between 5 volts and 8 volts. If one is comfortable with the risk to one's power supply, one could also rewire the 12 volt source using the infamous "7 volt trick".

Lamptron Fan-Atic: 5-port
(Sidewinder) (Silicon Valley Compucycle) (Xoxide) (Amazon) (Performance PC's)

Sidewinder 50 Watt Rheostat

(*) To state the obvious, a PWM Y-splitter cable should only return one RPM signal. Various sources sell splitters wired in the "obvious way", hooking up all wires where they look like they should go. This is stupid, but easily fixed by playing "Mission Impossible" background music and deciding which wire to snip. The unused pin then pulls out easily.

 

[Wangstang]

I'm also in the market for a fan controller and I'm currious to know if there are any other thoughts before I make a purchase.

Thanks
Wes