Best RGB & PWM hub/controller for EK Vardar RGB fans

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sergiobnet

Aug 2, 2018
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Hi everyone,

I'm looking to run 9 EK RGB fans in my new case and need to find and RGB and PWM hub to control both function.

My motherboard does NOT have an RGB header either which does not help.

At this point it is looking like I need seperate hubs as I can't find one that does both.

Most controllers I can find are 8 RGB connections maximum and similar for PWM hubs also but I have found that deepcool and thermal take make 10 PWM hubs at least.

I'd prefer something that does both and has software control but most seem to be proprietary and not suitable for the EK Vardar RGB that use a standard 4 pin RGB header.

Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 
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First, I very much doubt you will find a single HUB to do both PWM fan control and LED control, especially if you are looking for some particular combination of features. It actually makes more sense to separate the two functions. NOTE that, like many such items, those EK Vardar RGB fans each have TWO separate cables coming out of them, each with a different 4-pin connector on its end - one for PWM fan, one for LED's.

Check out the Cooler Master RGB LED Controller. It is a separate box for this function only, designed for people with no RGB header on the mobo. It uses power from a PSU SATA power output and has four separate output ports for use with the current "standard" LED 4-pin wiring systems. Each port can be controlled separately...
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Paperdoc

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First, I very much doubt you will find a single HUB to do both PWM fan control and LED control, especially if you are looking for some particular combination of features. It actually makes more sense to separate the two functions. NOTE that, like many such items, those EK Vardar RGB fans each have TWO separate cables coming out of them, each with a different 4-pin connector on its end - one for PWM fan, one for LED's.

Check out the Cooler Master RGB LED Controller. It is a separate box for this function only, designed for people with no RGB header on the mobo. It uses power from a PSU SATA power output and has four separate output ports for use with the current "standard" LED 4-pin wiring systems. Each port can be controlled separately or in some co-ordinated display settings. Each can be used with LED Splitters to control more LED strips. I presume that you need to verify that the combined load on one port is within some limit, and the combined load on the entire Hub also meets some limit. But Cooler Master does not make those limits clear, and of course you'd need to know the current consumption for the LED's in each fan. For this purpose, Cooler Master sells separately a 1-to-3 splitter cable set that includes some gender-changer adapters so that you can connect up to 3 LED strips to a single Hub output port. With 3 or 4 of those you could set up groups of fans on the four Hub ports.

Here's a lonk to an EK spec set for those fans

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-vardar-evo-120er-rgb-500-2200-rpm

which shows each fan's LED's use 0.2 A (2.4 W), and the fan motor uses 0.18 A max (2.16 W).

That Hub comes also with a cable to connect to a mobo USB header, and you download and use their software tool to control the LED effects, of which there are many to choose.

For fan hubs, check out the Deepcool FH-10 or the Thermaltake Commander FP, both of which have ten output ports. But smaller ones with Splitters also could work for you, because those fans only use 0.18 A max, so you could connect up to 4 or 5 of them to a single mobo fan header or to a single Hub output port.
 
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sergiobnet

Aug 2, 2018
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That seems like a good solution, I had seen the Cooler Master controller but was under the impression that the 4 channel connectors were proprietary and not standard RGB connectors.

I guess I'll try and contact them and see if I can find out what the maximum power draw is for each channel and work out what splitters I need.
 
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blackhawk007

Jan 23, 2019
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Paperdoc

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The Corsair Commander Pro unit linked above can not do the job OP needs. It is designed for use with the more complex type of RGB lighting devices known as Addressable RGB or ADDR RGB or ARGB, which uses a 3-pin connection and a 5 VDC power line. OP is using fans containing the simpler plain RGB type of device which uses a 4-pin connection and a 12 VDC power feed. The Commander Pro has a lot of good features when you have ADDR RGB lighting; it just does not match what OP has in this thread.
 
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