Fan controller?

[Arctucas]

Greetings to all,

I just joined after lurking for the last few weeks, wanted to say this is one of the best forums that I am subscribed to.

Anyway, my question is; could someone recommend a fan controller? I am looking for one that will fit a 5.25 drive bay and can control at least six fans (two 92mm, three 120mm, and one 250mm) with silver faceplate. Fan RPM is a necessity, temperature probes would be nice, but not required. If possible, please provide link to manufacturers website.

Sincerest regards.

 

[dBTelos]

You may want to try two 5.25" or 3.5" fan controllers instead of one that can control 6 fans.

 

[Jeff7]

Zalman 6 channel fan controller

Only thing - 2 channels just toggle between 5V and 12V. The other 4 are dial controlled.

Or of course, there's DigiDoc 5+.

Up to 8 fans, and 8 temperature sensors

 

[zagood]

When you say you want a controller with RPM monitoring, that means you're looking for something with a display, right?

MacPower DigiDoc 5 - hard to find in the US, only in black and white, but the only one I can think of that's case mounted with display, and can handle 8 channels. 12w per channel.

Sunbeam Theta - PCI card, 8 channels, software controls fan speeds and monitoring. 10w per channel.
http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=3196

-z

EDIT: nice find Jeff!

 

[Arctucas]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Zalman 6 channel fan controller

Only thing - 2 channels just toggle between 5V and 12V. The other 4 are dial controlled.

Or of course, there's DigiDoc 5+.

Up to 8 fans, and 8 temperature sensors

Thanks for the links. It looks like the DigiDoc is only a monitor and the Zalman is only a controller, i guess I could use both.

 

[JEDIYoda]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813999251

I use the zalman fan controller on both my PC`s.....
Its very well built and functional. Well worth the money.

Of course there are fan controllers that don`t cost as much and do the samw work!!

I just like the looks and functionality of the zalman!!

 

[zagood]

Originally posted by: Arctucas

Thanks for the links. It looks like the DigiDoc is only a monitor and the Zalman is only a controller, i guess I could use both.

The DigiDoc is a controller also. It's digital, so I'm sure it's a pain, but yes, it controls fans as well.

-z

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: zagood

Originally posted by: Arctucas

Thanks for the links. It looks like the DigiDoc is only a monitor and the Zalman is only a controller, i guess I could use both.

The DigiDoc is a controller also. It's digital, so I'm sure it's a pain, but yes, it controls fans as well.

-z

From what I gather from the manual, it looks like it has on/off functionality only, but that that functionality can be thermally controlled, as in you'd set a temperature where the fan turns on. I don't know if it can do gradual changes in fan speed.
I used to own the DigiDoc5, but I just never really used all of its functionality, and the mass of wires grew to be a bit of a pain, since I'd like to tinker with the PC's guts a bit too often.

 

[Arctucas]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to find an integrated contoller/monitor, anyone else have any suggestions? Googleing isn't much help, so I am relying on input from those of you who have much more experience than I. Perhaps someone knows where I could get a custom made unit?

 

[zagood]

Check out the Sunbeam Theta that I linked earlier, software controlled PCI card (plugs into the USB header though) so you won't have to worry about color of the case or anything.

Originally posted by: Jeff7
From what I gather from the manual, it looks like it has on/off functionality only, but that that functionality can be thermally controlled, as in you'd set a temperature where the fan turns on. I don't know if it can do gradual changes in fan speed.
I used to own the DigiDoc5, but I just never really used all of its functionality, and the mass of wires grew to be a bit of a pain, since I'd like to tinker with the PC's guts a bit too often.

Pretty much any controller/monitor is going to have a mess of wires if you're not careful with the setup. Nature of the beast.

I haven't owned the DigiDoc, so I can say from personal experience, but yeah as far as I can tell there isn't an easy way to manually adjust fan speeds. Still, the thermal management setting should work really well.

-z

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Another vote for the sunbeam theta, will have one in my "ultimate air-cooling" system as soon as it and a few other pieces finally get here.

 

[pkme2]

3.5" Bay fan controller
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/cafp35bk.html