Silent Base 802 Fan Controller (3 pin) with PWM Fans?

[Dopefabulous]

Hello,

I might need the community’s input on my question as I am getting contradictory answers on Reddit and YouTube.

Question:
The Silent Base 802 has a fan speed switch on front of the case which changes the speed of fans connected to the fan controller (hub). Unfortunately the fan controller only has three pins connectors. The fan speed switch on front of the case itself has 4 settings (3- high speed, 2-medium speed, 1 - slow speed, and auto). Auto is set by the fan curve in bios which is possible because the fan controller has a pwm wire that needs to be connected to the MB pwm header. So my question is would pwm fans works as intended given that the fan controller only has three pin connectors? Thank you in advance!

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Yes. A PWM fan connected to a 3-pin header should behave just like a regular one, and its speed can still be controlled by varying the voltage supplied to it (which the microcontroller in the switch will do).

But, assuming your mainboard has the free connectors, why go through that switch?

 

[Dopefabulous]

Yes. A PWM fan connected to a 3-pin header should behave just like a regular one, and its speed can still be controlled by varying the voltage supplied to it (which the microcontroller in the switch will do).

But, assuming your mainboard has the free connectors, why go through that switch?

Thanks for the reply. I plan on running 7 fans (3x140mm front intake, 1x140mm bottom intake, 1x140mm rear exhaust, and 2x120mm aio top exhaust) and like the convenience of adjusting the fans speeds on the front case panel switch. Plus I don’t want to route fan cables to the motherboard for cable management purposes.

 

[emphy]

I am mildly surprised that a supposedly reputable brand has the cheek to include non-pwm fans (and controller) in such a premium case.

 

[Nobu]

Do the fan connectors on the controller have 3 pins? If so, then it may be sending pwm on one of the pins, and so a pwm fan will work just fine. I say this because the 3rd pin on a 3pin fan (the sense wire) is unused in hubs (except maybe for one fan) -- you can't take the rpm of three fans and combine them into one mb header after all...well it wouldn't be useful to anyway.

Otoh, they may have all three pins but only have two actually used--you would need to look at the pcb of the controller or whip out an o-scope to know for sure.

In any case, check the specs of the fans you get if you decide to get PWM fans. Some do not like being controlled via voltage, they usually mention it somewhere if that is the case. May need to look in the technical documentation, not just the product page.