Vantec Tornado fan, Sunbeam rheobus, and voltage questions - Please help

[jader]

I received my Sunbeam rheobus yesterday, and was anxious to install it to replace a crappy Vantec 4-Fan Controller. Now I'm wondering if the Sunbeam will work any better for me.

Problem #1: When I turn the fan knob down for the Tornado fan, when the rheobus light changes from blue (>7-12V) to red (<7V), the Tornado fan on my CPU stops running. Some of the other fans in the case that are connected to the Sunbeam rheobus do the same thing if I turn them down. I would think I would be able to turn the fan speed down gradually to a complete stop, not having it spinning fast at 12V, then completely stopping when I turn it below 7V. I have the Vantec Tornado 80mm fan on one fan connection, Panaflo H1A 80mm intake fan (case front) on second fan connection, a second Panaflo H1A 80mm intake fan (case front) on third fan connection, and then two Antec LED 80mm exhaust fans (case rear) on the fourth fan connection. Am I overdoing something here?

Problem #2: My ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard now tells me that there is no CPU fan detected, since the CPU fan is connected to the rheobus instead of the motherboard header. This is annoying, especially to hear about a problem that doesn't exist every time I start up my computer. Maybe I'll have to disable the POST reporter in the BIOS I guess. I wish there was a way to channel the fans to the rheobus, then from the rheobus to the motherboard. As it is, I'm unable to monitor the fans in my case as they are all connected to the rheobus.

Is there anything I might need to change or check on that may be causing the fan controller to turn off the Tornado fan when voltage drops below 7V? Or is everything set up fine, but there's just some incompatability or something?

Am I even making any sense? Suggestions?

 

[jvang125]

it isnt recommended to have your cpu fan connected to the fan controller as you or someone can accidently turn the knob to a point where it stops and all that is cooling the cpu is a passive heatsink. i'm sure in no more than 5 minutes you'll notice the smell of a cooked cpu.

as for your fans turning off at 7v, i think your fans are the type that requires a little more than 7v to run and continue running. sounds like you have quite a few fans. if you are running them all off the fan controller, maybe having too many fans on each controller is drawing too much current which at 7v, it just wont be able to support all the fans at once.

i have the same fan controller and on my setup, they work fine at 7v since i only have one fan per controller. i dont notice too much difference at full 12v to 7v since my fans are the pretty silent type but something in the case is still making too much noise. i'm pretty sure it's the hs/f but im reluctant to connect it to the fan controller as the problem i mentioned above.

 

[EeyoreX]

I have Sunbeams in both of my cases. They claim a 20watt per channel rating, but I still wouldn't put that much on one channel. I won't connect more than two fans to each channel (which works well for me, as each case has 2 front intakes. One has two exhaust, the other just one.) I notice I can turn the single fan down to lower rpms than I can with the two connected fans, so I agree with the above poster, it is likely too many fans or too high powered a fan that require more power to spin. I can turn mine all pretty low, low enough to make them d@mn near silent. The loudest fans are my HSF (one 80mm@2500rpm, and one 70mm@2000rpm). My GPU fan is actually the loudest, but that'll be going soon, for a Zalman setup I think. I also refuse to connect my HSF to the Sunbeam for the same reason as mentioned above. I'd hate to accidentally turn off the wrong one and fry my CPU (I did that once already with an improperly connected HS, I don't want to do it by turning my fan off).

\Dan