In need of a good, stealth/non-descript fan controller

[The Mailman]

hey

in need of a good indescript fan controller in black

anyone know of anything that fits this description? i dont want anything flashy because the case is very industrial looking, if anything id want something that can control my fans thats as invisible to others as possible

any suggestions?

thanks

 

[VinDSL]

This is as invisible as it gets...

 

[JPas]

i'm using a sunbeam rheobus. it's mounted in a lian-li faceplate and i didn't use the led lights. 4 black knobs on a black faceplate is all you see

 

[Zepper]

I suggest you edit your thread title (yes, it's possible on this forum) to either nondescript or stealth fan controller.

I'm also a fan of linear fan controllers like the Sunbeam Rheobus (I think jab-tech.com still has the best price when ordered along with other stuff (suggestion: J-T carries some very nice tools ) - if ordered alone, shipping will be excessive) or the Vantec units. The Sunbeam has garish LEDs but those can be muted in several ways including the method JPas above used or you can replace them with lower brigtness LEDs or you can add resistance to dim them or you can simply unplug them as they are mounted in machine pin sockets. The Vantecs have lit rings around the knobs - don't know how easily those lights can be disabled. The Sunbeam has 4 channels while the Vantecs seem to have 3 fan channels and a CCF control.

The Silverstone FP33-B/S (blk/slvr) controller has three channels and has no lights at all and can even be mounted in a PCI slot plate (comes with both a 3.5" bay panel and a PCI slot plate) for the ultimate stealth. The controller circuitry itself is located on a small PCB that can be stuck anywhere in your case that's convenient. It seems to be a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated - aka digital) controller as the pots at the knobs are too small for a strictly passive controller and the PCB isn't big enough for linear, but nothing I've seen is explicit on that nor what power of fans can be controlled. The other controllers mentioned can handle 18 or 20 Watts per fan. I suppose it could be totally passive, but to do that properly it would have to be tuned to the different powers of fans. I don't know how they could spec a 5V to 12V control range and still be passive... If anyone knows for sure, let us know.

Use the price search engines to find your best bottom-line price from a reliable reseller.

.bh.

 

[Zepper]

A couple more ideas: Zalman Fanmate 2 - one for each fan totally hidden inside the case. Or you could recess any of the controllers back into the bay and put the plain bay cover plate back in place - again totally hidden.

On most of these fan controllers, if you don't connect the 5V line at the main power connector (pull the pin from the shell or cut the red wire) to the controller, the LEDs and perhaps some other ancillary features won't work, while the fan control function will still work fine. I've tested that on the Sunbeam Rheobus and the CM Aerogate I.

.bh.

 

[Shadowknight]

Doo you want to be able to turn fans up and down on a regular basis, or dow you want to keep them at more or less the same speed? Zalman makes a fan controller that you place inside the case. It's meant for one fan, but you can just plug several in series and have them all use the same resistor.

 

[Zepper]

shadow,

Parallel, not series, as long as the total load doesn't exceed the capacity of the Fanmate.

.bh.

 

[letdown427]

Nobody has mentioned speedfan? That's stealthy... Granted it might not work with your mobo and all the fans you want, but it's pretty cheap to find out...

 

[The Mailman]

holy christ i wish i had a fan controller for my current PC

its noiser than a mack truck

ughh its so annoying


edit: thanks for the speedfan tip. i just tuned down my stock intel cpu fan to 75% and man its a million times quieter!