Overkill fan controller

[Guarana [BAWLS]]

So, is it me, or does this strike anyone else as excessive?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-Speed-C...043958?hash=item3ad2481ab6:g:DD4AAOSwux5YKfez

Why would a simple 4 fan controller need a heat sink that is THAT large?

 

[doubletake]

It's probably just to simplify assembly by attaching 1 large sink to cover all the power delivery components instead of having 4 individual ones.

 

[Guarana [BAWLS]]

most fan controllers I see are in plastic coffins, let alone even having 'heat sinks'

 

[Deleted member 278999]

So, is it me, or does this strike anyone else as excessive?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-Speed-C...043958?hash=item3ad2481ab6:g:DD4AAOSwux5YKfez

Why would a simple 4 fan controller need a heat sink that is THAT large?

Could be for 24v industrial fans. Amps are usually higher which means more heat. Cool = longevity.

There are a lot of weird use cases for industrial applications that still happen to use generic fitment for obvious reasons. But you end up with weird situations and mishmashes of parts.

 

[Bandalo]

A good PWM-style controller should have no real need for a heatsink.

A crappy, old-school style controller that's basically just a voltage divider will need heatsinks for higher capacity fans, since it's dumping power into a resistor bank to control the voltage.

 

[Brian_B]

A good PWM-style controller should have no real need for a heatsink.

A crappy, old-school style controller that's basically just a voltage divider will need heatsinks for higher capacity fans, since it's dumping power into a resistor bank to control the voltage.

That's almost certainly what this is

 

[Deleted member 278999]

A good PWM-style controller should have no real need for a heatsink.

A crappy, old-school style controller that's basically just a voltage divider will need heatsinks for higher capacity fans, since it's dumping power into a resistor bank to control the voltage.

That's almost certainly what this is

Great points. Didn't think about that for some reason.

 

[Koween]

It probably uses not a voltage divider, but a transistor and that transistor basically needs to waste all the extra power that you don't need. If you were to connect four fans on a channel and turn it down to some 50%, that channel is still sucking 12V x amperage, the fans are getting half of that voltage. That may be well into a few watts teritorry which would burn the transistors or the pcb (or both). The Corsair 600t (and maybe some others) uses a controller like that but without the heatsink - mine burnt up in a couple of weeks, as I ran my fans at a very low speed and dissipation was high. I also had built a diy version of such a controller and the transistor, without the heatsink, burned my finger. Used a heatsink on it ever since...
The better ones use use pwm controls for 4pin fans or a buck converter for voltage control - those are much more efficient than simply wasting unnecessary power as heat.

 

[spine]

I doubt it's simply using resistors to control voltage (potentiometer) That's beyond old skool now, and probably breaks some safety guidelines in this format these days.

It's most likely simply due to it using low quality PWMs.

All PWMs give off heat, especially the more fans you add. I always add copper heatsinks into my fan controllers, because every single one I haven't done so to previously has died!