Fan Hub vs Fan Controller

[Hieb]

I'm looking into getting a new case and decking it out with be quiet fans (140mm silent wings for exhaust and bottom intake, and pure wings [static pressure] for front intake). My motherboard only has 3 fan headers so I'm wondering whether I should get a fan hub like NZXT's Grid or if I should get a fan controller to put in the 5.25 bay since I'm fine just pressing a button to toggle between low, med and high speed.

 

Problem is it seems fan controllers are designed with PWM in mind (sliders rather than snap to low/med/high) so I'm not really sure if that's the best move... the be quiet fans are 3-pins so I think I would need adapters to use most fan controllers, and there might be issues where the controller is trying to set certain speeds the fan can't go at.

 

So... should I just use a hub to connect them all to my motherboard, or is there a simple switch fan controller I can get similar to the ones pre-installed on Fractal Design cases (I really like the low/med/high toggle).

[Jeremykin]

Personally, I like control over what my case is doing. At times however, Its convenient to just have sensors do it for me (like through a motherboard).

The NZXT sentry line is really good for this. I like it because I can choose what speeds to set my fans, and also because it has a mode where it adjusts the speeds according to sensors placed throughout the case. Really convenient. It is both that you described in one. NZXT SENTRY LX I think it's called.

If not, you can't go wrong with just having your mobo set the speeds because you can always control them through the bios and os.

Good luck!

[Hieb]

Sentry will work with 3-pin fans though? How does that work with the sliders, since I thought 3-pin fans are limited to operating at three (or fewer) speeds based on certain voltages, rather than dynamically changing like PWM

[LogicalDrm]

You will fast find out that having sliders isn't for PWM. Its really rare still to find good PWM fan controller. Sliders act as general voltage controls for fine tuning fans to certain speeds. They aren't really for switching between profiles like low (5V), med (7V) and high (12V).