Are pwm fans needed for use with a fan controller (NZXT sentry 3 fan controller)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

Bryce Demar

Distinguished
Aug 28, 2013
205
0
18,690
Hello all, I am still new to cooling and had a few questions.
1. Are corsairs af120 and sp120 silent edition fans PWM and if not can I still control there speed on a fan controller like the one listed in the title.

2. (restated from title) Are pwm fans needed for use with a fan controller (NZXT sentry 3 fan controller)?

3. What exactly is a pwm fan other than it has a 4 pin fan cable.

4. When daisy chaining fans I have a total of 6 fans in a case (900d) and seeing as the sentry only has 5 fan heads I want to control both my push and pull fans on my cpu's radiatior via one channel are there any y splitters that I should watch out for that dont work fully?

 
Sort by date Sort by votes
B

Bryce Demar

Distinguished
Aug 28, 2013
205
0
18,690


On another thread I was told that I could use the fan controller for my radiator fans as long as I "placed the temperature sensor inside of the radiator? Which I don't quite understand how that can be done."

Update I chacked the amazon page again and found my primary answer.
http://gyazo.com/3ec173ca15950d7f634d6cce6761f3c9
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Toober123

Toober123

Reputable
Jul 13, 2015
50
0
4,630


Hi, would you care explain why I should not connect radiator fans to the fan controller? Because my next build is exactly that. I don't see any problem as long as I check my CPU and GPU temp on screen and adjust accordingly. I use 2 NOCTUA NF A14 and 1 NOCTUA NF F12, all are 3000 rpm, if i don't adjust the fans, it would be extremely noisy during idle.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tiny voices

tiny voices

Titan
Sep 6, 2012
34,175
5
99,965
You want the radiator fan to be connected to the CPU_FAN header. That way it speeds up as the CPU gets hotter. This is the proper way to do it.

No it would not be noisy during idle because the mothebroard would automatically slow the fans down because the CPU is not stressed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Toober123

Toober123

Reputable
Jul 13, 2015
50
0
4,630
Thanks for your clarification. Then my fan controller i bought would be for naught :((.
Would you recommend this way though: (all efforts are for aesthetic )
Plug the fans to CPU_FAN header, let it run at different idles, loads, games, while check for Fan's RPM and voltage. Mark down each numbers at each situation. Then connect the fans to the fan controller, and set different profiles accordingly. So later whenever i play games, ill change the fan setting to the profiled one, and do the same to any other activities.
I'm doing full custom loop for CPU and GPU, no other case fan.

Or best is to connect a bunch of LEDs instead of fans to the fan controllers :D

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tiny voices

tiny voices

Titan
Sep 6, 2012
34,175
5
99,965
That is alot of work to have one little wire not run across the motherboard. If you want, you can do that, but I wouldn't bother. It would be much safer and more reliable to connect the fans to the CPU_FAN header as intended.

What you need to buy is a HUB. This connectes to the CPU_FAN header and then has a bunch of ports for fans to connect. This was it regulates all the fans accordingly with the motherboard.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Toober123

Toober123

Reputable
Jul 13, 2015
50
0
4,630
I see, thank you for your suggestion!
Now that I have a useless the fan controller, I want to make it less useless by using it to control LEDs. Standards 5mm LED 12V comes with 2 pin (molex looking) female connection while the fan controller has 3 pin male. Can I just cut off the head of the 2 pin female, then solder 3-4 pin female and call it a day? I know there won't be any PWM, but in theory if the fan controller controls the voltage, it should control the LED as well?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom