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Looking for a Fan Controller.....

M

Mixman

Senior member
I am looking to replace my Noise Isolator controller. I have a couple of Sanyo Denki 92mm fans and a couple of 120mm Panaflo High Speed fans. I want a controller that can lower these fans with no whine or motor noise.

I know I don't want the Sunbeam Rheobus....LED's too bright and I just don't like the it's look. The models I am looking at are :

Aerogate 1-$14.99
Aerogate 3-$7.99
Sunbeam Lightbus-$14.99

Which of these will control my fans with the least motor noise and whine ? Any other models I should look at ?
 
Check out silentpcreview regarding the Sunbeam Rheobus.

I recall a review/article (by Mike Chen, I think), where he solved the 'too-bright LEDs' problem by simply pulling the LEDs back a bit from the inner panel. Voila - effective and inexpensive fan controller with pleasant appearance.

Hope this helps!
 
I've had bad luck with the Sunbeam Rheobus, which is a shame, because it would be such a nice controller. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit in my system well at all (the sides expand a bit, and it won't fit without modding).

I've had good experiences with the Zalman 6-channel controllers. And the fan controlling system on the Hardcano 13 sucks, I think. The temp monitoring system is nice, but it sucks for controlling fans. So I will never get another digital fan controller again.
 
High speed 120x38 Pans(113-114cfm) are the absolutly wrong fans to undervolt.

Read about them over at SPCR. I won't find it for you.

How do I say this with such authority. I have this fan, it's a cast off as far as I'm concerned.
It undervolts with great protest on a Sunbeam Rheobus and a NeXus PWM fan controller.
The PWM controller is noticably worse.

The Sanyo Denki 103cfm at 39dBA will run near silent at 5V. It will start/run reliably at 4.6V.
So at 5V there never has been a problem for start-up.

Over at overclockers.com you will find a short tutorial, it covers soldering resistors into the
ground wire of the LEDs. This is a much better fix for the uber-bright LEDs on the Sunbeam
Rheobus than the tutorial at SPCR.


...Galvanized
 
If you decide on the Aerogate I, I have some for sale in my listing in the FS/T section (for less than the price you mentioned) which is linked in my sig here.

.bh.
 
Originally posted by: Mixman
How is the Aerogate 1 ? Does it control the fans without a whining sound ?
Click to expand...


My Gigabyte case came with three very quiet 120mm fans and my Zalman CPU HSF 92mm fan is quiet stock.

The Aerogate 1 doesn't *add* any sound to my system as it turns the rpm's down.
 
You don't have any "high speed" fans. Those are the ones that will whine and make noise when turned down.
 
If you want to be assured that your fan controller will NOT under ANY circummstance exacerbate any fan noise problem, then you must get a linear (rather than a PWM) controller. The only one that I know for sure is linear is the Sunbeam Rheobus. Or you could get a handful of the rheostats that Radio Shack et al. sells for a fully passive arrangement (no lights at all). You could mount them into one of your drive bay filler plates or drill holes into the back of your case...

.bh.
 
I am not sure that all PWM fan controllers have problems, I just think that the Noise Controller that I am using is just a poorly executed PWM fan controller. It's very picky with it's fans. I know the my Sunbeam Chromatic Windmill didn't have any problems with noise, but it had a few other problems though.
 
Originally posted by: Mixman
You don't have any "high speed" fans. Those are the ones that will whine and make noise when turned down.
Click to expand...

Nope. I'm all about the fast, cool, and QUIET!
 
I went from the Noise Isolator to the Sunbeam Rheobus and couldn't be more happy. Low cost, good workmanship and no whining noise that I got from the "Noise Isolator".
 
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