NZXT Phantom 530 Fan Controller Help

Caveman_Dave · Jul 13, 2015

I'm looking to maybe buy this case, but one thing may prevent me from getting it.

Would the fan hub included be strong enough to run the pump of a Kraken X61 and 4 Noctua iPPC NF-A14 fans for push/pull? I know the wattage and amperage of the fans as well as the maximum wattage of the fan hub, but I cannot find anything about the maximum amperage of the hub or the wattage and amperage of the X61's pump.
Considering each fan uses 0.18A and 2.16W, there SHOULD be enough headroom for the pump.
(As an aside, I'm aware that the pump is normally connected to the CPU fan header, but unless that header could run all 4 fans as well, which is unlikely, I'm not interested in that. I like everything in one place and I could probably devise a way to attach the hub to the CPU fan header. Or if that's something that's possible and a viable solution right out of the box, let me know!)

If it's not possible to run everything off of the connector, I guess I'll have to make some compromises.
Thanks if you can help!

Darkbreeze · Jul 13, 2015

It should easily handle it. There are plenty of examples of similar configurations, however, depending on your motherboard model it would be more advisable to simply run the pump and fans off the motherboard headers and control them either automatically by thermal sensor values or with a manual configuration via the bios options. If your motherboard doesn't have enough headers you can easily add fan splitters which work perfectly fine for about six bucks each, doubling the number of available fan headers. I recommend avoiding fan controllers that come integrated into cases as they're usually much lower quality than aftermarket versions and less reliable than using the motherboard headers. This includes the case fans as well.

Caveman_Dave · Jul 13, 2015

Darkbreeze :

I've got a Lamptron FC-FC2-B which can handle 45W per channel, but it's a little frustrating. The reason I wanted to use the included controller was so that I could either hook it up to the CPU header or just control it with the 3-speed switch.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

It's really not recommended to use the integrated fan hubs for water cooling pumps. Running directly off the motherboard CPU fan header is a better choice. Again, what is the motherboard model?

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

Thinking about the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0.
Couldn't find anything about the wattage and amperage on those headers, but I found a bunch of dissenting opinions about how many fans were safe.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

I wouldn't use more than a single fan on any integrated fan hub header, per header. As far as motherboard headers, I've never run across a motherboard made by Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI or ASRock, or even ECS or Biostar, that couldn't manage two fans per header and I use 3 pin and 4 pin PWM fan splitters religiously in order to maintain control of the cooling system within the bios on boards that lack sufficient quantity of headers, which for most enthusiast builds using cases with five or more locations, plus water cooling requirements, is a lot of them.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

Is this an entirely new build or do you already have some of the hardware?

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

Hopefully my next build.
Don't have anything yet. Still saving up.
But I'm in the intense research phase where I finalize parts.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

Any idea what your full budget is going to be? Being an AMD guy myself, and I'm sure you've heard this numerous times but I'm going to say it again since it's plain truth, you'd be much better off going with an Intel build unless the budget directly dictates that you cannot afford to do so. The performance difference in almost all areas is enough to warrant a slight to moderately more expensive investment or a change of priority in regard to supporting hardware.

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

Go team red!

NZXT Phantom 530
(A bunch of case fans)
NZXT Kraken X61
(Fan controller)
LG GH24NSB0
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0
AMD FX-8370
G.Skill Ares 16GB 2133 MHz
(I wanted the 8 gig Sapphire Vapor-X 290X, but that's gone now)
EVGA SuperNOVA 850

That's the basic plan. If they say anything about the new CPUs, I'll wait until those are released so the price drops. But other than that, this should come into existence relatively soon. Almost done the research.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

Well, if AMD is your hard fast plan, I definitely wouldn't spend the extra money for the 8370. I have yet to find an FX-8320 that can't be overclocked, easily, to the same speeds as the 8370 or 8350. The Pro 2.0 board you have selected should be adequate to do so and the cooler should be sufficient as well. So long as you also have half decent case cooling, it should be no problem and would shave about 50 bucks off the price of the build. Even an 8350 would be a better choice with it's 4Ghz stock clock. They're all the same chip anyhow, the 8350 and 8370 simply have a factory overclock versus the 8320.

You don't want to try the 2133mhz memory with the FX chips either. On very high end boards it may run, but mostly it's problematic and even AMD recommends not using higher than 1866mhz modules. Definitely try to stick with 2 x 8GB modules rather than 4 x 4GB if possible as the memory controller responds much better when using two modules versus four. Less voltage and stress on the memory controller.

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

I haven't fared well in the silicon lottery. My strategy is to buy the chips that could make the overclock in hopes that they do better than the other chips I've had over the years. As far as the memory situation goes, thank you for your help. I had heard of the issues with 2133, but never actually had that directly addressed.

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

These days it more likely to be limited by the motherboard than the cpu. You can of course get a bad chip, but I've installed the FX-8320 in maybe thirty or so builds, and only one chip was unable to reach 4.5Ghz stable with a good board and adequate cooling.

But if you feel better with the 8370 that's your call. To me, it makes more sense to go with this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $319.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-14 01:20 EDT-0400

Than this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8370 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($187.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $316.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-14 01:19 EDT-0400

When there is a clear difference in performance. (There's no 8370 in those benchmarks, but the 8350 scores almost identical to the 8370 in every benchmarked comparison I've seen, as the 8370 does.)

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/test-of-cpu-for-gaming-30-cpus-compared.200132/

Even an i3 whips the FX chips in the majority of titles, using much less power, even when a monster overclock is applied:

http://www.techspot.com/review/943-best-value-desktop-cpu/page6.html

I've been using AMD chips almost singularly since the K6 days, with a few exceptions, and can without any doubt say my next personal build will be using an Intel platform. I'm tired of all my client builds seriously outperforming my own rig.

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

Thanks, man.
Will think about it.
<sidenote>
You mentioned building systems for a hobby/(maybe) a living. How do I set that up? Building rigs is something I'm really passionate about and would love to do for a living (which seems impossible to me) or even just a hobby that can support my habit. Do I need a website or should I just post flyers around the campus? Start with friends who tell friends who tell friends, etc? I was addicted after the first one and I've been looking for excuses to build computers ever since. If that kind of business is a trade secret, gotcha. If not, college campuses seem like a good door, I just need a way to get my foot in that door.
</sidenote>
Thanks!

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

For me, I've been building them in some form or another since the early 386's or even longer. I really got into it by word of mouth and business cards and it spread from there. I have to pretty much turn some work away now because I also do professional auto repair and residential remodeling. Build a few very good units for a couple of clients, take pictures of the build process and begin creating a portfolio with the build logs.

I don't know what else to say. Once folks know you do it, have business cards ready to hand out. Sometimes it explodes from there. There's no real secret and you don't get rich doing it. I also do small business consulting for their system builds, maintenance, diagostics and some limited networking as well for those clients. A little bit of everything, but mostly builds and software configurations.

Caveman_Dave · Jul 14, 2015

Solid.
Thanks a lot!

Darkbreeze · Jul 14, 2015

Surely. No sweat.

NZXT Phantom 530 Fan Controller Help

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