Advice on a front display/fan controler

[bront]

I am looking for a front panel fan controller. Idealy, I'd like one that:

#1) Is Silver with Blue LED (I'm flexable to a point on this)

#2) Does not require any additional Tempurature Sensors to be installed (Not a big fan of doing this, though I will if needed). - Idealy, one that can use the onboard sensors of the motherboard for temps. I'm even willing to use one that does not have a display/sensor, though this seems like not a good idea.

#3) Can handle 3 fans, one of which only has a 4 pin connector. - Currently, my Zalman is on a fanmate, but I have that inside the case, something on the outside would be nice.

#4) Is reliable and functional. Idealy one that functions from the front of the case, and not just software.

#5) Idealy, is priced under $50, though if it's perfect, I can go over. Ignore this part for recomendations.

I've been searching, and I liked the Super Flower SF-610, but I can't find it anywhere. Beyond that, there are some debatable ones I'm just not sure if I like or not, so I'd like some recomendations.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bront]

Cool, that looks promising. The first one is not the right color.

Unforutnately, it doesn't control fans, only monitor them

I have the Zalman, and 2 Antec 120 MM fans (One with LEDs), so I need those to run appropriately. The fans run a little slow if I use the PSU temp sensor fan plug.

 

[bront]

I was looking at the Vantec ones, heard anything abou them?

This one, or there's another one that fits in a 3.5 bay.

Also, is there a potential problem with the motherboard if the CPU fan isn't plugged into that specific spot?

 

[bront]

Well, that's likely on hold till I can silence my server (AKA, the jet engine next to my desk).

It's the old 40 MM fans in the heatsinks that cause all the noise (well, that and the old 8 GB SCSI drive, but that's only when it's under use, so not much of an issue.). The case fans are not a big problem on that puppy.

FYI, it's a dual PIII 600s (with 512k L2 cache oddly), so it's those coolers. Having trouble finding a good price on replacement heatsinks, and not sure I can swap out the fan.

 

[bront]

Slot 1

(I got it for $200 a few years ago, was a steal)

 

[bront]

Not sure, they're the stupid enclosed heat sinks, so none of the fins are exposed except from the side, and they're far enough appart I'd need two fans

 

[bront]

Sweet, I'll try that when I get home.

I shut it off for a while. It was grating on my nerves, and I think heating the room more than I cared for. I think if I can clean it out and get the fans working a bit better, that might help in heat dispersion in the room.

BTW, when did you become my personal advice guy? :lol:

not that I'm complaining.

 

[bront]

I think this will work if I can't clean the fan. (and make it quiet).

I'll see if I can make them pasive coolers as well.

 

[bront]

I picked up a Vantec fan controler. Turns out it wasn't the one with the CCRTs, but it looks like it will do the job, and I don't need those. I'll check it out, and if it doesn't do what I wanted, I'll return it (I got it at the Tiger Direct outlet by my house).

As for the cooler, I'll see what I can do without removing them first. I remember putting the heatsink on my old Athlon 750, and that was a pain.

I think I still have that CPU and motherboard sitting around somewhere...

 

[bront]

Bah.

THe one I got was the 205, which turned my fan down from 1600 to 1350 RPM

I'm returning it. I'll probably shop around a bit and wait. Any other recomendations? A friend of mine likes the Hardcano 13, but I was hoping for silver

 

[bront]

1. Take out the P3 processor from its slot
2. Look for the two sunken notch between the black heatsink and the black plastic. It's on the top.
3. Use a flat head screw driver to slip into those notch and flip it to get the plastic separated from the heatsink
4. do that to all the other notch you can find (two above, two below from my memory)

That's how I used to clean the dust out of my Slot1 P3-500 Katmai.

Worked great. Cleaned out the dust, oiled the fan (I use a non-evaporating WD40 is oil that seems to work well and not attract any more dirt), and that helped a little bit. Still not sure what is exactly causing the realy annoying noise coming from that system though.

Edit: No, it's still them, and the 2 fans I recycled from the old case don't help either (they're pretty bad as well). I could probably use the Zalman mount to mount a 120 MM fan over the CPUs and just remove the shroud, and that should help, and then replace the 2 noisy 80MM fans with 1 less noisy fan.) Should drop the system at least 10 DB.

After that, it's HD whine . I should rebuild the system on a less noisy IDE drive.

 

[ChipDeath]

Get louder speakers :lol:

 

[doolittle]

Have you checked out the Aerocool Gatewatch @ case-mod, got one a while back and have used it in my game rig for the past few architecture generations.

It has 4 fan capacity w/ an auto-adjust feature, but it requires 2 x 5 1/4 bays (great for a full tower) and you have to wire up the sensors - but I am curious if it will detect the 4th fan temp sensor in place of the bundled ones...

Review over at systemcooling.com.

 

[bront]

I looked at those, and I read a few user reviews that were bad, and that scared me away.

Not all were bad, but 3 out of 10 had issues. Also, it could have issues if you use rail mounts.

I'm pondering it though... as it looks sweet, and I have 2 empty bays.

 

[doolittle]

yes, it has both a manual control option (it is what I use) and an auto-feature (have not used it yet). Guess I was just lucky, since it has worked for so long w/o any issues or problems...

 

[bront]

It won't control fans without an RPM monitor (I have one), and it has trouble fitting in cases that use mounting rails (I have one).

So that's a no-go.

I'm going either Vantec 301 (which has a full range, compaired to the 201), or I'm being swayed by the Hardcano, though that doesn't match my system, which bugs me.