How do Case installed Fan controllers work?

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Primordial Genesis

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So I've decided to bite the bullet and get an NZXT Phantom Full tower, which features a 5 way Fan controller integrated into the case: http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/34-phantom

1. How many fans can be hooked onto the fan controller?
2. What amount of pins do I need on the fans for them to work on the controller?
3. Are the standard case fans in the NZXT Phantom able to work with the fan controller?
4. Do the fans i want to control still plug into the motherboard?
5. Where does the fan controller plug into? The PSU via Molex?


Cheers,

Primordial Genesis.
 
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Someone else can probably give you a better answer, but at least with the fan controller in my case, it has some fan connections (I think it's 3 pin), where the controller uses voltage to control the fans; higher voltage = higher fan speed and I can control it between 3 different settings using a switch on the front. But, unlike 4 pin fans connected to the motherboard, the BIOS will have NO control over these fans. Also, I believe there are some fans that need a certain minimum voltage to run, and any lower than that and the fan won't spin. You can look up the specifics of all you stuff on the product site. Any fan should work. I believe it is Molex, but it's been a while since I had to touch it so I'm not positive
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mc962

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Someone else can probably give you a better answer, but at least with the fan controller in my case, it has some fan connections (I think it's 3 pin), where the controller uses voltage to control the fans; higher voltage = higher fan speed and I can control it between 3 different settings using a switch on the front. But, unlike 4 pin fans connected to the motherboard, the BIOS will have NO control over these fans. Also, I believe there are some fans that need a certain minimum voltage to run, and any lower than that and the fan won't spin. You can look up the specifics of all you stuff on the product site. Any fan should work. I believe it is Molex, but it's been a while since I had to touch it so I'm not positive
 
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Primordial Genesis

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So the fans themselves plug into the controller not the motherboard?
 
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mc962

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Depends on what you want to do with them. A 4 pin fan when connected to the motherboard can be controlled by software (and I believe 3 pin has some limited voltage control this way as well).

Any number pin fan should be controllable by a fan controller, but it's only by voltage and you only get the settings that the controller gives you (mine has 3 settings)

Software (like BIOS software) can control it depending on need relating to cpu heat i believe, while voltage is more of a fixed minimum setting. But the fan controller, at least the way I view it, is for when you dont have enough fan headers on the board but still want some control over case fans, so you would use the fan controller
 
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Primordial Genesis

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So if I wanted to control the fans from the fan controller only, they plug into the controller itself? (sorry if it's such an amateur question, I've never even seen a case wit ha fan controller in person let alone have any experience building one)
 
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mc962

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Fans plugged into the fan controller will be controlled by the fan controller, that's the only thing that it's plugged into after all. And the fan controller gets plugged into the psu if I remember right, I think with a molex
 
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Primordial Genesis

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Ah that means I can just buy like a H81 Mobo with 1 fan header since all my fans will go into my Controller :)
 
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