Do I really need a FAN HUB?

[Kranolf]

Hey guys!

So I recently made a new PC build and I am wondering if I do really need a fan hub, as my motherboard only has 2x CHA_FAN headers (one is in a really bad place). 

 

So my build is:

 

-3x 120mm AER RGB fans 

-Kraken x62 (has 2x140mm fan, and a fan splitter with actually 2 spots left, so I could plug something in here but not sure if it's okay)

-Asus strix z370-F motherboard

-p400 TG case

 

Could anyone help me with this?

 

Thanks!

[SharinganSensei]

no body "needs" a hub unless you cant draw enough power in which case i suggest checking the many solutions on the forum

but to say that you need it?
im probably gonna go with if its easier for you and you have a couple dollars to spare then go for it

[Kranolf]

Just now, SharinganSensei said:

no body "needs" a hub unless you cant draw enough power in which case i suggest checking the many solutions on the forum

but to say that you need it?
im probably gonna go with if its easier for you and you have a couple dollars to spare then go for it

What u mean by not drawing enough power?

[Senzelian]

Use the fan splitter.

 

You should be able to plug up to three fans in one motherboard header with a splitter without getting any problems.

[Kranolf]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

Use the fan splitter.

 

You should be able to plug up to three fans in one motherboard header with a splitter without getting any problems.

So just plug it in the splitter, along with the rad fans? Is that okay?

 

That way I won't be able to monitor/set their speed in BIOS right?

 

[Senzelian]

3 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

So just plug it in the splitter, along with the rad fans? Is that okay?

 

That way I won't be able to monitor/set their speed in BIOS right?

 

The idea behind the splitter is that you can connect up to 4 fans to the AIO. Two on each side of the radiator. But you can of course use them for other fans aswell.

 

I don't know how the Kraken works exactly, but if you control them with your BIOS, you would control them all simultaneously.

 

So if you adust one to 100%, all the others would go to 100% aswell.

 

And if that doesn't work for whatever reason you can still get a normal fan splitter. Those are really cheap.

[Kranolf]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

The idea behind the splitter is that you can connect up to 4 fans to the AIO. Two on each side of the radiator. But you can of course use them for other fans aswell.

 

I don't know how the Kraken works exactly, but if you control them with your BIOS, you would control them all simultaneously.

 

So if you adust one to 100%, all the others would go to 100% aswell.

 

And if that doesn't work for whatever reason you can still get a normal fan splitter. Those are really cheap.

Yea I know!

 

Well, as I know the CPU FAN for Kraken should be set to 100% that way there's no grinding noise. If all the fans are spinning at 100% that would be a little loud, wouldn't it?

 

Thanks a lot for your quick answers!

[Senzelian]

3 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Yea I know!

 

Well, as I know the CPU FAN for Kraken should be set to 100% that way there's no grinding noise. If all the fans are spinning at 100% that would be a little loud, wouldn't it?

 

Thanks a lot for your quick answers!

You shouldn't set the CPU FAN to 100% - yes, because it would be so loud!

The pump should connect to a seperate FAN connector or a pump connector and set to a moderate speed. Maybe 30-40%.

The fans of the AIO should be connected to the CPU header, so they ramp up and down with the rise and fall of the CPU temps.

 

The rest of the fans can be connected however you like. All you want is some airflow in your case - not a tornado

[Kranolf]

1 minute ago, Senzelian said:

You shouldn't set the CPU FAN to 100%.

The pump should connect to a seperate FAN connector or a pump connector and set to a moderate speed. Maybe 30-40%.

The fans of the AIO should be connected to the CPU header, so they ramp up and down with the rise and fall of the CPU temps.

 

The rest of the fans can be connected however you like. All you want is some airflow in your case - not a tornado

 

Oh yea you're right. I'm dumb. The AIO is connected to the CPU_FAN, and there's a splitter behind with 4 slots (2 are free only, since 2 are the rad fans). But basically they all get the power from the CPU_FAN right?

 

So bad I can't insert all 3 of my AER fans in one place..

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, Kranolf said:

 

Oh yea you're right. I'm dumb. The AIO is connected to the CPU_FAN, and there's a splitter behind with 4 slots (2 are free only, since 2 are the rad fans). But basically they all get the power from the CPU_FAN right?

 

So bad I can't insert all 3 of my AER fans in one place..

I assume so.

Again, I haven't looked at the NZXT AIOs yet  

[Kranolf]

15 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

I assume so.

Again, I haven't looked at the NZXT AIOs yet  

Alright mate, thank you anyways!

[SpaceGhostC2C]

59 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

So just plug it in the splitter, along with the rad fans? Is that okay?

 

That way I won't be able to monitor/set their speed in BIOS right?

 

Exactly. They will all be controlled by the AIO, so the fans you plug there will run at the same % as the radiator fans.

 

34 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Oh yea you're right. I'm dumb. The AIO is connected to the CPU_FAN, and there's a splitter behind with 4 slots (2 are free only, since 2 are the rad fans). But basically they all get the power from the CPU_FAN right?

They all get power from the pump, which in turn gets power either form its connector to the PSU, if it has one, or the CPU_FAN header, if it doesn't. Either way, the pump in the AIO's waterblock manages the power for the fans attached to it (the advice about 100% CPU_FAN is just to make sure the pump itself is receiving full power at all times, but if it has a separate PSU connector then it doesn't even matter, it's just a dummy plug to report positive rpms o the motherboard and avoid "no fan" errors). How fast the fans connected to the pump run is managed through the AIO's fan curves, probably set through NZXT software. So, by connecting 2 additional fans to the AIO pump, they won't run at 100% all the time, they will just run at the same % as the two radiator fans, according to the AIO's fan curve.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Also, more generally, you can connect a splitter to any of your fan headers to connect multiple fans to it, you don't need a full-featured fan hub for that. Just don't go crazy daisy-chaining splitters until you have 12 fans connected to a single header  

[Kranolf]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Exactly. They will all be controlled by the AIO, so the fans you plug there will run at the same % as the radiator fans.

 

They all get power from the pump, which in turn gets power either form its connector to the PSU, if it has one, or the CPU_FAN header, if it doesn't. Either way, the pump in the AIO's waterblock manages the power for the fans attached to it (the advice about 100% CPU_FAN is just to make sure the pump itself is receiving full power at all times, but if it has a separate PSU connector then it doesn't even matter, it's just a dummy plug to report positive rpms o the motherboard and avoid "no fan" errors). How fast the fans connected to the pump run is managed through the AIO's fan curves, probably set through NZXT software. So, by connecting 2 additional fans to the AIO pump, they won't run at 100% all the time, they will just run at the same % as the two radiator fans, according to the AIO's fan curve.

Yea it has a SATA cable actually too, which I had to connect. I don't really understand what you mean by this plug to report. I just know that when I turn my PC on (only did a few times to check bios a day or two ago, gonna install windows later on tonight) there's a not too loud, but hearable grinding noise. I saw people having much louder noise, and even I got told, to set it to 100% to make this noise disappear.

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Also, more generally, you can connect a splitter to any of your fan headers to connect multiple fans to it, you don't need a full-featured fan hub for that. Just don't go crazy daisy-chaining splitters until you have 12 fans connected to a single header  

Oh, I thought hub and splitter are the same things. I'll just buy a splitter then haha.

[Kranolf]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Also, more generally, you can connect a splitter to any of your fan headers to connect multiple fans to it, you don't need a full-featured fan hub for that. Just don't go crazy daisy-chaining splitters until you have 12 fans connected to a single header  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-To-5-4-Pin-Molex-TX4-PWM-CPU-Cooling-Fan-Splitter-Adapter-Braided-Power-Cable/122740102332?epid=14006575967&hash=item1c93e154bc:g:ekAAAOSwZcZZ1g9b

 

Was thinking to get something like this. Is it okay to get it from ebay though? Can this thing burn my mobo if any malfunction happens worst case scenario?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

44 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Oh, I thought hub and splitter are the same things. I'll just buy a splitter then haha.

Some hubs have their connector to the power supply and other fancy features  The PSU connection is important, though, as it means it can handle more fans than a typical motherboard fan header

 

35 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Was thinking to get something like this. Is it okay to get it from ebay though?

Yeah, it won't make much difference. It's just a cable.

 

35 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Can this thing burn my mobo if any malfunction happens worst case scenario?

There are only two dangerous points of failure when it come to cable:

1) bad connectors that don't fit well, leading to arcing between the two pieces, leading to heat, molten plastic, etc. This is far more common with molex 4-pin connectors, but I've seen some Sata power horror stories as well.

2) too thin wires or passing more current through the cable than it's rated for. The wires would then get too hot, and more or less the same problems as above.

Try to get a max current rating for the hub, if available, and especially look at the max current rating of the fan header (typically 1 amp, may be higher for some CPU_FAN headers). Then check the power draw of the fans you intend to plug to this hub, and make sure that the sum is below the header's rating (typical 120mm fans are in the 0.2-0.3 amps range, but I don't know this model specifically).

[Kranolf]

3 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Some hubs have their connector to the power supply and other fancy features  The PSU connection is important, though, as it means it can handle more fans than a typical motherboard fan header

 

Yeah, it won't make much difference. It's just a cable.

 

There are only two dangerous points of failure when it come to cable:

1) bad connectors that don't fit well, leading to arcing between the two pieces, leading to heat, molten plastic, etc. This is far more common with molex 4-pin connectors, but I've seen some Sata power horror stories as well.

2) too thin wires or passing more current through the cable than it's rated for. The wires would then get too hot, and more or less the same problems as above.

Try to get a max current rating for the hub, if available, and especially look at the max current rating of the fan header (typically 1 amp, may be higher for some CPU_FAN headers). Then check the power draw of the fans you intend to plug to this hub, and make sure that the sum is below the header's rating (typical 120mm fans are in the 0.2-0.3 amps range, but I don't know this model specifically).

Thank you very much for the detailed answer.

 

Overall, would you recommend buying this splitter I linked or I should go for something with higher quality?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

41 minutes ago, Kranolf said:

Thank you very much for the detailed answer.

 

Overall, would you recommend buying this splitter I linked or I should go for something with higher quality?

Oh, I'd definitely say go for it, but you are talking to the man who bought his phone from China  Just be ready for long delivery times if you are in the US, but I wouldn't worry about the product itself at all.

[Kranolf]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Oh, I'd definitely say go for it, but you are talking to the man who bought his phone from China  Just be ready for long delivery times if you are in the US, but I wouldn't worry about the product itself at all.

Oh hahah  nothing wrong with the phone from China as long as its not some crappy fake iphone lol.

 

I’m from the EU btw, already got used to the 3-4 week delivery times. I guess I can survive without this until then