Variable Fans with a fan controller?

AngelusNexx

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2007
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This is my first time buiding a PC and I am confused about the fans.

I purchased a CoolerMaster Stacker 832.
The motherboard is a abit IP35 Pro

I am considering getting a Zalman MFC1 Plus If I need one.

It says the motherboard has 6 places for fan hookup with voltage control. I am going to have a total of 9 fans. Could I just chain a few fans together and use the motherboard or would the fan controller be better?

Lastly Should I use normal or variable fans with a Fan controller?

If anyone knows of a guide on case fan hookup or chaining fans please post it. I am very confused about all of this!
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
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It makes no sense to pay for a controller with a fan if you are buying a fan controller separately. The fan connectors on most mobos have little current capacity, maybe 0.5Amp. Separate controllers are usually much stronger than that (at least three times) and could take a few, low power fans on each channel. It's just basic electricity to figure out fans. In parallel, you just add the currents or powers together to see how much you need for the group.

.bh.
 

AngelusNexx

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2007
2
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Thanks for the reply. On Newegg I dont really see any current listings on the fans or on the fan controller channels.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
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You may have to go to the vendor's site to find the ratings - Newegg's consistency in their descriptions isn't very good. In DC, for resistive loads, power=current*voltage, so if you have two of them you can find out the third.

.bh.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,738
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I'm speculating that the technical specs for this year may have exceeded Zepper's off-the-hat common-sense based on last year, just as they did mine.

I don't know about the ABIT motherboard. Unless I should do it for you, go to the motherboard manual, find the section on the fan plugs, and see if they give an "average per plug" amperage spec and a "cumulative" amperage spec.

My mobo is a Striker Extreme, and it has eight fan plugs. The manual says that each plug is capable of handling >= 0.32A @ 12V and less than 0.80A @ 12V. It also says " . . . or 7A @ 12V total." By this, I've verified that they mean that you could put a 0.90A fan on each of four plugs, and still have only used just short of four-sevenths of the motherboard's fan capacity.

What I meant about Zepper's remarks is this: My last build was used an ASUS P4P800SE motherboard, and its cumulative fan-amperage spec was around 2.5A. Until two months ago, I had assumed that this was what I could expect for the Striker, but consulting the manual made it clear that newer boards are a whole new ball-game.

As he said, you can splice fans together if you splice them in parallel. I urgently recommend that the fans spliced together be of the same make and amperage-draw. It is convenient to do them in pairs. So if you had two Panaflo's rated to draw 0.6A of current, you would get a total of 1.2A pulling off one plug, and unless your mobo manual says otherwise about an individual plug's limit, the effective limitation would be the cumulative fan amperage for all plugs combined.

But here's the rub. If you splice them together and you want tach-monitoring of fan-speed, you would leave one fan's tach-wire disconnected and only connect the tach-wire for a single fan, or you would run the combined fans off one plug with one tach-wire attached there, and use up another fan-plug for the monitoring wire from the second fan.

If I'm mistaken about this, someone should correct me, but I'm pretty sure of it (having done these things.) In your case (ha-pun), and if it were me, I'd use the limited number of fan plugs for your more powerful fans which you want to spin up with temperature, and then hook the slowest, quietest fans to the power-supply directly. that assumes that you have thermal sensor wires that pair with the fan plugs, or that most or all of the fan-plugs can be thermally controlled off the motherboard. Otherwise, you might be wise to look for a fan-controller.

But in all cases (including the CM 830 and "pun again,") -- follow the KISS principle.
 

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
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You'd be crazy to not give the Abit fan control a shot. Try it first.

9 fans? What the....
 

Bluefront

Golden Member
Apr 20, 2002
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This sounds like "I have the most fans. Therefore, my computer is bigger, faster, and much cooler". :D

Seriously......reconsider the number of needed fans. Usually this many fans just cause turbulence and more noise, and rarely make things cooler.