How to control fans

[Kitsune4]

Hey, so for a while now I've been wondering how to control my fans in my PC. I have a NZXT H440 case and my current setup is as follows;

2 NZXT stock fans on top

2 Noctua F-A14 FLX fans on the front

1 Noctua NF-P14S-1200 on the back (exhaust) 

 

I have these all plugged into the little 3 pin hub on the back of the case, with the Noctua fans on the low power adapters. Surely though there's a better way?

I know my motherboard (Asus Z97-A) has 6 4-pin PWM headers but my fans are 3 pin.

[genexis_x]

You can connect to the motherboard and control fan speed by changing the voltage.

[treeroy]

I would get a fan controller, it slots into one of the front slots on your case, and then you can manually set the speeds whenever you like.

 

e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/a3o/Akasa-AK-FC-08KV2-AK-FC-08BKV2-FC-Six-Fan-Controller/B0098WEQ6U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1489565190&sr=8-3&keywords=fan+controller

[Kitsune4]

19 minutes ago, treeroy said:

I would get a fan controller, it slots into one of the front slots on your case, and then you can manually set the speeds whenever you like.

 

e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/a3o/Akasa-AK-FC-08KV2-AK-FC-08BKV2-FC-Six-Fan-Controller/B0098WEQ6U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1489565190&sr=8-3&keywords=fan+controller

I had thought about that but then my case doesn't have any front slots lol. 

It's very minimalistic.

 

59 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

You can connect to the motherboard and control fan speed by changing the voltage.

So, it's okay to put a 3 pin fan into a 4-pin header and then control via DC voltage? 

[LogicalDrm]

Asus boards have excellent fan control with Fan Xpert. You can connect all fans to mobo. From BIOS select headers to use DC control instead of PWM. Then you can adjust curves within BIOS or with Windows software.

 

E: I don't know if Asus software can use other temp sensors than just CPU. Speedfan is the only other option and that can use any mobo sensor or GPU temp.

[treeroy]

7 minutes ago, Kitsune4 said:

I had thought about that but then my case doesn't have any front slots lol. 

It's very minimalistic.

 

So, it's okay to put a 3 pin fan into a 4-pin header and then control via DC voltage? 

Hm, well I mean if you can get all the cables to go outside the PC then you could have it sit on your desk or on top of the PC. There may be external fan controllers though I'm not familiar with any.

[Kitsune4]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Asus boards have excellent fan control with Fan Xpert. You can connect all fans to mobo. From BIOS select headers to use DC control instead of PWM. Then you can adjust curves within BIOS or with Windows software.

 

E: I don't know if Asus software can use other temp sensors than just CPU. Speedfan is the only other option and that can use any mobo sensor or GPU temp.

Yeah, I saw that in the BIOS, looks really fancy.

My CPU fan is plugged into the motherboard and I can control it alright.

So, I can plug the fans directly into the motherboard even though they're only 3-pin? 

[LogicalDrm]

4 minutes ago, Kitsune4 said:

Yeah, I saw that in the BIOS, looks really fancy.

My CPU fan is plugged into the motherboard and I can control it alright.

So, I can plug the fans directly into the motherboard even though they're only 3-pin? 

Yes, but you need to tell mobo to use DC control. Some mobos, like mine, recognize it automatically. But if you have setting for control mode, you have to set it right.

[Kitsune4]

48 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Yes, but you need to tell mobo to use DC control. Some mobos, like mine, recognize it automatically. But if you have setting for control mode, you have to set it right.

Okay, great, thanks. I must try that

[Kitsune4]

Woah, so I just connected my fans to the motherboard (although as there's only 4 headers, one of the stock fans is running off the hub) and configured them using the QFan utility in the BIOS (also changed to DC mode). 

What a difference! My PC is much much quieter now, not completely silent but still, the difference is night and day!  

 

Thanks!

 

Although, now when I turn on my PC all the fans run at max speed before reducing them to an acceptable level. I assume this is normal..

Edited March 17, 2017 by Kitsune4

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, Kitsune4 said:

Although, now when I turn on my PC all the fans run at max speed before reducing them to an acceptable level. I assume this is normal..

 

Yeah, well. Running full speed means mobo is testing that they work. If you would be using software, it would mean software isn't loaded yet. Which is how I can tell if MSI Afterburner or Speedfan are running or not.

 

[Kitsune4]

16 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

 

Yeah, well. Running full speed means mobo is testing that they work. If you would be using software, it would mean software isn't loaded yet. Which is how I can tell if MSI Afterburner or Speedfan are running or not.

 

One odd issue I have is that one of the fans isn't appearing in either Speedfan or HWMonitor. In HWMonitor it shows the CPU, Chassis #1, Chassis #2 and Chassis #4 and in Speedfan it shows Aux3 fan as having 0RPM, but I know this isn't true as it appears perfectly in the BIOS

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