How to speed control 9 fans?

R

rsq

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
246
The 9 fans are on 3 360 rads, and should all have the same speed.

I found many speed controllers, but all of them seem to have 5 channels, and not support a high output per channel.

Ideally, I would like the mainboard's CPU fan header to control the speed of all 9 fans.

If I can't find anything, I will make a custom PCB to do that (I'm good with electronics). I wanted to ask first if someone knows a trick for this use case?
 
Split some of the outputs. However, even with the same voltage or PWM signal, the fans aren't all going to run at the same speed. There is some unit to unit variation.
 
rsq said:
The 9 fans are on 3 360 rads, and should all have the same speed.

I found many speed controllers, but all of them seem to have 5 channels, and not support a high output per channel.

Ideally, I would like the mainboard's CPU fan header to control the speed of all 9 fans.

If I can't find anything, I will make a custom PCB to do that (I'm good with electronics). I wanted to ask first if someone knows a trick for this use case?
Click to expand...

Get a couple of Swiftech sata powered splitters.

Or NZXT Grid+ V2 and splitters.
 
The swiftech thing looks interesting.

it only feeds back the RPM info of one fan to the mainboard, but I think I can live with that.

The NZXT thing requires drivers, and ofcourse only windows drivers are available. Because the whole world uses windows obviously... W*nkers!
 
Most of the new Asus mobos have an add-in fan-extention card that allows custom control.
Asus quote :plug in up to three extra fans for a maximum of nine fans (including two CPU fans and seven case fans), each with independent control from either UEFI BIOS or AI Suite 3. Each fan can be up to 12W. It is ideal for water-cooled or extreme airflow under high-performance systems.
 
What about a PWM fan hub such as this?

SilverStone Technology CPF04 All Black 1-to-8 PWM Fan Hub

There are different ones that allow a different number of fans, but this will let you control up to 8 fans with one motherboard header.

You might be able to daisy chain a simple splitter onto one off the hub outputs in order to give you 9 outputs.

edit: Hers is a 10-port hub:
12V PC Host CPU Multiple PWM Fan Hub IDE D / SATA for 10-way 3/4Pin Cooling Fan

NOTE: Speed control is not supported on 3-pin fans with a PWM fan hub.

If you need a high output per channel controller, you can always look at Lamptron (1st PC Corp.)
1ST PC CORP. FC-FC8-B Controller, Panel-Newegg.com
 
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rsq said:
The swiftech thing looks interesting.

it only feeds back the RPM info of one fan to the mainboard, but I think I can live with that.

The NZXT thing requires drivers, and ofcourse only windows drivers are available. Because the whole world uses windows obviously... W*nkers!
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Swiftech module is cheap and simplistic. It'll get the job done and that's it
 
I use a sunbeam rheosmart 6 and run up to 9 fans off a channel. AP15s are very miserly so it's never been an issue.
 
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