Fan Controller Question

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supastar1568

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
470
Hey all,

i'm looking at getting a fan controller for my PC, specifically the Zalman MFC1.

Quick question though, is there a way to have these fan controllers hooked up to the motherboard as well to monitor say my CPU fan rpms.

For example, I know have a Zalman fanmate. The CPU fan hooks up to the controller, which hooks up to the motheboard. Therefore, I can adjusted my fan rpm via the controller, and also view the rpms in my BIOS.

I only see one 3 pin fan header on most fan controllers. Therefore, it looks like I'd hook the fan directly up to the controller, but then the controller doesnt have a second connector that I can run to the motherboard.

I know this can be done, but can someone explain how this works. I'm trying to look at the pics on newegg, and only see one fan header for each channel. Wheres the secondary output to connect to the motherboard???
 
I honestly don't think so... Unfortunately.

You might be able to split the rpm sensor line, but I'm not sure that works.

The zalman fan controller *requires* the third pin to sense whether the LED should be red or blue...
 
Basically you have to wire something up like the Fanmate 2...so you would have to make your own splitters with a one female and two male ends (one male end having three wires to controller, & I think the other should just have the yellow (rpm monitoring) wire that goes to the mobo) . Since the Fanmate uses the motherboard's power, it needs to have the 12V & GRND line as well. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I would think this would work. It may not want to read it though if its not sending power to the fan its monitoring. Could always test it out (if you have a soldering iron).
 
If you get the Zalman MFC-1 Plus B as I did, you will be able to control 2 fans that can do what you want to do while the other four will only be the regular 3-pin to 3-pin...

What I did for my build was to hook the first port to my CPU fan so I could control my HSF RPM and see it in the BIOS while the second one hooked up to the side fan on my Antec 900 to control intake to my GPU's and northbridge...The other 4 ports are used to control my two intake fans, the exhaust fan, and the 200mm fan on top.
 
Zalman MFC2 has such cable for one channel. (intended to be used for CPU fan)
Aerocool FP-01 has that for all three channels
 
sorry to hijack, but could you guys recommend me a good fanspeed controller that can handle at least 5 fans
Thanks
 
hmm, yeah, I have 6 case fans.

Maybe ill leave my CPU fan hooked up to the fan mate 2 inside my case, and the 6 fans will be hooked up to the zalman controller. This would be to prevent accidentally turning down the fan speed on my CPU, which would remain a constant anyway.
 
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