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Confused by my PMW fan hub

Vinchucca

Hey, 

 

So I decided to upgrade my rig with a PMW fan hub to hook up all my fans and to hopefully run them more quietly than was currently the situation. 

 

So I bought this fan hub: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B077PK9Q7B/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

I hooked up the hub to the CPU_FAN header on my MSI Z370I PRO GAMING mobo (which I verified in the manual has PMW functionality). Then I hooked up the CPU fan to the white header on the hub (marked CPU-5) and finally connected my case fans to pins 0-2 on the hub. 

 

The result? All fans blast 100% all the time even though there should be a "smart ramp-up curve" set in the BIOS. Also I am not getting any rpm readouts on any of the fans. 

 

What am I doing wrong? 

 

Thank you so much for any pointers you can provide. 

 

Cheers! 

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I dont get it why you bought a fan hub?  The motherboard should have enough fan headers so with a few splitters you can run as many fans as you like, but also control them separately.

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What fans are you using?

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Plug a fan directly into that header and see if it still goes to 100%.

 

Looks like a crappy fan hub. Get something from a reputable brand or at least one with reviews that confirm it actually works.

 

PS: it's pwm, not pmw

 

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You will get rpm from CPU fan anyway. The header only reads one rpm. I don't know why they bothered to have 4 pins for all headers, rest would have been fine with pins 1,2 and 4.

 

Try hub with fewer fans. Maybe with CPU first and then adding fans if they work fine. Hub might have some issues with too many fans.

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3 hours ago, MkaiL said:

Plug a fan directly into that header and see if it still goes to 100%.

 

Looks like a crappy fan hub. Get something from a reputable brand or at least one with reviews that confirm it actually works.

 

PS: it's pwm, not pmw

 

Hey thanks for the reply.

 

If I plug the CPU fan directly into the header I get an rpm readout and it's speed fluctuates between 500 - 900rpm. So I think the mobo header is fine.

Might be a faulty/crappy hub. I figured a simple printplate with a few fan headers shouldn't cost that much but maybe I was wrong.

 

Any brands/types you can recommend?

 

Gr

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15 minutes ago, Vinchucca said:

Any brands/types you can recommend?

The Silverstone CPF04 looks like a good and cheap option. I have no personal experience with it though, I personally use the phanteks hub that came with my evolv case (the phanteks hub won't work for you though since it's for 3 pin fans)

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5 minutes ago, MkaiL said:

The Silverstone CPF04 looks like a good and cheap option. I have no personal experience with it though, I personally use the phanteks hub that came with my evolv case (the phanteks hub won't work for you though since it's for 3 pin fans)

I am using 3pin fans though (corsair AF120's)

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Well... You should've mentioned that earlier. The fan hub you have is meant for 4 pin pwm fans, that's why 3 pin fans run full speed on it. It's basically a splitter with seperate power from the psu. 

 

What you need is a fan hub like I have. The phanteks pwm hub is meant for 3 pin fans. What it does is convert the pwm signal into the correct voltage for the 3 pin fans.

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2 minutes ago, MkaiL said:

Well... You should've mentioned that earlier. The fan hub you have is meant for 4 pin pwm fans, that's why 3 pin fans run full speed on it. It's basically a splitter with seperate power from the psu. 

 

What you need is a fan hub like I have. The phanteks pwm hub is meant for 3 pin fans. What it does is convert the pwm signal into the correct voltage for the 3 pin fans.

Aha! See I am kinda new to this and I felt like I was missing something obvious xD

 

Thanks for helping me troubleshoot.

 

So this McGuffin right here should work fine for what I intend to do? https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/Phanteks-PWM-Fan-Hub/381546749310?hash=item58d5f55d7e:g:-vcAAOSwFNZWwfpF

 

Also btw: awesome build in your autograph 

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46 minutes ago, Vinchucca said:

So this McGuffin right here should work fine for what I intend to do? https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/Phanteks-PWM-Fan-Hub/381546749310?hash=item58d5f55d7e:g:-vcAAOSwFNZWwfpF

Yes that's the one. This should give you pwm control over your regular 3 pin fans. Don't forget to put a fan on the white header for an rpm signal.

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2 hours ago, MkaiL said:

Yes that's the one. This should give you pwm control over your regular 3 pin fans. Don't forget to put a fan on the white header for an rpm signal.

Sorry to bother everyone again but just to be 100% sure

 

I am trying to hook up:

-1x 4pin CPU fan

-3x  3pin casefan

All from the same single PWM header on the mobo

 

You can confirm this Phanteks hub will do that?

 

Reason I am asking is I only see 1x 4pin connection in the pictures on that hub which I think is needed for the PWM input signal coming from the mobo. So can I use the white 3pin header to power my 4pin CPU fan (and still have control over the speed)?

 

The only other fan header I have on my mobo is SYS_FAN but turn out that's one of those "fake" 4pin header with no PWM so that won't work :(

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Yes, 4 pin fans still work on 3 pin headers. The fan will just be voltage controlled instead. It's still technically pwm controlled and converted into voltage through the hub. 

 

What you also can do is get a pwm fan splitter in addition. Just a simple cable that splits into 2x 4pin headers. This way you can plug in the cpu fan into one header and the phanteks hub into the other.

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23 hours ago, Vinchucca said:

Sorry to bother everyone again but just to be 100% sure

 

I am trying to hook up:

-1x 4pin CPU fan

-3x  3pin casefan

All from the same single PWM header on the mobo

 

You can confirm this Phanteks hub will do that?

 

Reason I am asking is I only see 1x 4pin connection in the pictures on that hub which I think is needed for the PWM input signal coming from the mobo. So can I use the white 3pin header to power my 4pin CPU fan (and still have control over the speed)?

 

The only other fan header I have on my mobo is SYS_FAN but turn out that's one of those "fake" 4pin header with no PWM so that won't work :(

That won't work. You can't mix PWM and 3pin controlling. You can have either one. If you want PWM control, every fan will receive 12V and control is done with PWM. If you use 3pin or DC control, fans get the amount of voltage corresponding 1st fans rpm %.

 

In short, you can't PWM control 3pin fans. You need to have PWM fans to control them with PWM.

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4 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

That won't work. You can't mix PWM and 3pin controlling. You can have either one. If you want PWM control, every fan will receive 12V and control is done with PWM. If you use 3pin or DC control, fans get the amount of voltage corresponding 1st fans rpm %.

In short, you can't PWM control 3pin fans. You need to have PWM fans to control them with PWM.

@Vinchucca was planning to use the Phanteks pwm hub which converts the signal to dc. It won't be 4pin pwm but it'll work for controlling all the fans connected. 

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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Correct I don't want pwm control necessarily. Just some way of slowing down the fans when I am doing light computer work (checking mails, browsing web,...) and ramping them up when I play games. DC should be fine for doing that. 

 

Anyway I ordered the hub and will report back when I installed it (probably next weekend).

 

Cheers! 

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Ok so hub installed and yay it works! :D

I get a readout of the fan speed again (well 1 fan, the CPU fan, but that's the most important one so I am OK with that) and more importantly the noise level has gone done tremendously. 

 

My review of the Phanteks hub itself though is a bit different. It comes with the shortest cables I have ever seen. I mean this is an ITX build and I still had trouble routing the cables between the hub and where they needed to go. Also even though this is a Phanteks Evolv ITX TG and there are promotional pictures out there showing the hub screwed to the inside of the frame, it won't fit like that. Lastly, this is a cheap piece of plastic and a little printplate...this should not cost 20+ euro >:(

 

Having said that I am happy how it turned out and I thank everybody here, especially MkaiL, for helping a newbie figuring this out.

 

Cheers!

IMG_20180216_204137.jpg

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