Help on connecting 7 Noctua fans to a NZXT Sentry 3 Controller.

[PhantomDiclonius]

Hello, I wish to make a build with 7 noctua rpm 3000 fans to assure maximum cooling performance. However, I understand that this would result in loud fan noises which is why I would like to connect them to a fan controller. I don't really care about dealing with loud fan noise when I'm gaming or doing content creation, but I would like my computer to be as quiet as possible when I'm using my microphone in tasks such as podcasts. My problem however are the pin connectors. From my understanding, the Noctua fans that I'm looking at have a 4-pin connection while the NZXT Sentry 3 controller has a 3-pin connection. In addition to this, I want to have 7 fans while the Sentry only has 5 connectors. This would mean that I would have to buy a 4pinx3pin cable splitter right? Would either of these two cables work? I would like to find a "y" cable spliter where I can connect at least two fans to a single connector on the fan controller.

http://www.amazon.com/Phobya-4-Pin-Molex-Connector-Conn...
http://www.microcenter.com/product/341752/Akasa_PWM_3-w...

Here is a link to my planned build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XKs7rH

 

Also, is the NZXT Sentry 3 generally better than the NZXT Sentry LX?

Thank you for your time.

[SSL]

From what I understand, the industrial Noctuas do not like to be connected to resistance-based voltage controllers - e.g. like any 3-pin controller on the market. You'll need to connect them to your motherboard (which should provide TRUE voltage regulation) or use motherboard PWM.

 

As far as connecting the fans, Noctua sells a standalone splitter kit. Make sure to get the 4-pin version.

[Hunched]

I'd find a way to connect them all to your motherboard and just use SpeedFan

[SSL]

Also, Asus should have pretty good fan control in bios; worth checking for since you are planning on an asus mb.

[PhantomDiclonius]

Thank you for your feedback everyone. I'll check out the Speedfan software since it sounds ideal for setting up before podcasts. Although regarding controlling fans in the bios, is it normally not possible to change the fan settings after I've tweaked them in the bios once I've already booted into Windows? For example, if I booted into bios and put the fan speed to 3000 rpm for maximum cooling when gaming and then if I wanted to record a small podcast and lower my fan rpm to reduce fan noise, would I have to restart my computer and boot back into the bios and lower the rpm, or is there a simpler way with the bios method?

[SSL]

2 minutes ago, PhantomDiclonius said:

Thank you for your feedback everyone. I'll check out the Speedfan software since it sounds ideal for setting up before podcasts. Although regarding controlling fans in the bios, is it normally not possible to change the fan settings after I've tweaked them in the bios once I've already booted into Windows? For example, if I booted into bios and put the fan speed to 3000 rpm for maximum cooling when gaming and then if I wanted to record a small podcast and lower my fan rpm to reduce fan noise, would I have to restart my computer and boot back into the bios and lower the rpm, or is there a simpler way with the bios method?

 

Generally the best approach is to set a fan curve (which I believe can be done in-bios with Asus). I would imagine that Asus also provides software for controlling fans, OC, etc while booted into Windows.

[PhantomDiclonius]

Oh ok, I'll have to read and learn what a fan curve is. I assume Asus's software would probably function better than Speedfan though?

[SSL]

1 minute ago, PhantomDiclonius said:

Oh ok, I'll have to read and learn what a fan curve is. I assume Asus's software would probably function better than Speedfan though?

 

Asus is quite well regarded in terms of fan control.

 

A fan curve is just a custom relationship between RPM and temperature.  So you can tell the fan how fast to spin based on the temperature of some component - usually motherboard temp sensors. Asus may offer additional features like temp targets, hysteresis, multiple profiles, etc.

[PhantomDiclonius]

I just checked the Asus z170 Deluxe webpage and it does in fact have fan controlling software called Fan Xpert 3. I'll do some research on this software right now, from the looks of it, I probably won't have to buy a NXZT fan controller after all. Thank you again for your feedback everyone.