Fan coupling. Good idea?

0

021411

n00b
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
54
Well my setup is hitting the 6-fan mark. I have 2 intakes, 1 exhaust, 1 fan on CPU heatsink, 1 fan on NB heatsink and 1 on the SB heatsink. I'm thinking about joining some of them together so I can condense and get a 4-channel controller instead of a 6.

2 intake fans: Ch. 1

NB and SB fan: Ch. 2
Chipsets also have passive cooling. HR-05 for the NB and Swifttech MCX159 for the SB. Fans are for extra assistance so I thought about joining the two.

CPU fan: Ch. 3

Exhaust fan: Ch. 4

Does this sound like a good idea or am I way off?
 
Can't you plug some of them directly into the motherboard? My Gigabyte GA965P-DS3 motherboard has 4 fan headers on it, two of which are speed controlled by the motherboard. I would set the CPU fan and the exhaust fan to be motherboard controlled.

The other thing, for the northbridge and southbridge fans you can run them at a constant speed. Likewise for the intake fans. just set it so it is not loud. Don't need a separate fan controller. Trying to save you some money here and some wiring aggravation too.
 
I think I can only control the CPU fan with the motherboard. I wanted to basically tailor everything to my liking (sound) and my cooling needs.
 
Let me take a closer look at the board. It's still in the anti static bag.
 
Okay, found all three. Had to look pretty good. My eyes are getting bad. :mad:

I guess I'll hook up the CPU heatsink fan, NB fan and exhaust fan to the board. I'll run the two intakes and SB fan with a controller. I guess that should work.
 
why don't you use the headers for NB+SB+CPU?

i wouldn't want to roast anything because i forgot to turn the speed up.
 
I'd suggest running the intake fans at full all the time - i.e. no controller , just straight power connect. If those fans are noisy, get quieter ones. You'd be better off maintaining positive pressure in the case than fiddling with intake.
 
Michael Daly said:
I'd suggest running the intake fans at full all the time - i.e. no controller , just straight power connect. If those fans are noisy, get quieter ones. You'd be better off maintaining positive pressure in the case than fiddling with intake.
Click to expand...

I have 2 Vantec Stealth 92's coming in.
 
As long as you don't exceed the wattage rating for any given channel you can add as many fans as you like.

In my rig I have 8 80mm Evercool fans on channel 1, 4 on channel 2, and 6 on channel 3.

I'm well inside the wattage rating on each channel with my Vantec cheapo fan controller. Been running fine like this for over a year.
 
spine said:
As long as you don't exceed the wattage rating for any given channel you can add as many fans as you like.

In my rig I have 8 80mm Evercool fans on channel 1, 4 on channel 2, and 6 on channel 3.

I'm well inside the wattage rating on each channel with my Vantec cheapo fan controller. Been running fine like this for over a year.
Click to expand...

By channels, do you mean the 12v rail? Thanks for the reply, by the way- it's beginning to clear up the fuzzy, grey blur that is my mind.
 
Michael Daly said:
I'd suggest running the intake fans at full all the time - i.e. no controller , just straight power connect. If those fans are noisy, get quieter ones. You'd be better off maintaining positive pressure in the case than fiddling with intake.
Click to expand...

negative pressure isn't necessarily a bad thing.
 
spine said:
As long as you don't exceed the wattage rating for any given channel you can add as many fans as you like.

In my rig I have 8 80mm Evercool fans on channel 1, 4 on channel 2, and 6 on channel 3.

I'm well inside the wattage rating on each channel with my Vantec cheapo fan controller. Been running fine like this for over a year.
Click to expand...

here's the answer :) I haven't gotten a fan controller myself yet but of the ones I've seen, a lot of them do 20w per channel, which is actually a fair amount. considering yate loons are 12v x 0.3a = 3.6w each.
 
Mansize_tissue said:
Surely, isn't it better to maintain a higher pressure inside the case causing the warm air to exit the case?
Click to expand...

You want lower pressure in the case, not higher pressure. Compressing a fixed volume of gas raises its temperature, and a drop in pressure causes cooling. Not much mind you but at least pointed in the right direction. If there is a pressure differential the air inside the case should be slightly lower pressure than the outside.
 
wdn said:
You want lower pressure in the case, not higher pressure. Compressing a fixed volume of gas raises its temperature, and a drop in pressure causes cooling.
Click to expand...

If you can measure the temperature difference due to this pressure difference, you have far too much time and money on your hands.

Positive pressure will keep dust out of the case. That alone makes it worthwhile. Positive pressure also means that you're getting enough air to evacuate. Negative pressure means you are working harder than you need to to keep the case cool.
 
In terms of dust, all a positive pressure means is simply that dust will only come in through the intake fans. If dust is a really a concern then you'd want this along with a dust filter on your intake fans.

Negative/positive pressure: It doesn't really matter. Personally I like to have a slightly negative pressure to ensure at least a small amount of air is dragged past hard drives and the like. With positive pressure, you'd have no air going past them unless you specifically have a fan to do so.
 
spine said:
If dust is a really a concern then you'd want this along with a dust filter on your intake fans.
Click to expand...

An intake filter I take as a given. I guess I should be explicit though - not all cases have them.

With positive pressure, you'd have no air going past them unless you specifically have a fan to do so.
Click to expand...

Many modern cases provide HD cages where the intake fans blow. Drives above those spots are potentially a problem wrt heat. I'm going to monitor the heat in that spot on my recently built machine (if I can find the proper &%&%# connectors for the temperature measuring gadget I bought) and may add another small fan there if required.
 
The temperature of a fixed volume of gas is directly proportional to pressure. That is Amonton's law of gases. Set up a slight pressure drop inside the case when the fans go on full, and it lowers the temperature. Temperature is the effect of lowered pressure, and temperature is easy to measure. If you are pressurizing a case enough to make a difference, you are also raising the temperature enough to make a difference.
 
Mansize_tissue said:
The pressure will never be great enough to affect the temperature, since the case isn't air-tight.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The pressure increase only maintains outward flow but will not likely amount to a meaningful increase in temperature. Given that the temps measured in my computer fluctuate by a couple of degrees C every few seconds, any pressure related temperature changes are lost in the noise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top