control fan speed

[gab961111.59]

control fan speed

I want to control the fan speed on my chassis. I tried many fan controllers but its only for the cpu and other fans.

 

[GuyNwah]

What fan do you want to control that cannot be controlled by an aftermarket fan controller?

 

[gab961111.59]

The fan on the top of my new tower.

 

[DonSwingKing]

It will only work with fans connected with the motherboard via 3 pin connector i guess. If your fans are connected to your power supply, they always run with the same voltage.

 

[prometheus34572]

It will only work with fans connected with the motherboard via 3 pin connector i guess. If your fans are connected to your power supply, they always run with the same voltage.

He has fan controllers though, plugging the fan in one of those should enable him to control fan speed no problem. So I dont understand why its not working for him.

 

[DonSwingKing]

He has fan controllers though, plugging the fan in one of those should enable him to control fan speed no problem. So I dont understand why its not working for him.

I assumed with fan controllers he meant software?

 

[prometheus34572]

I assumed with fan controllers he meant software?

Ahh now that clears it up much better, my bad man. Looks like me and Guy N'wah were confused there, we thought he had actually bought a aftermarket fan controller that you just slap onto your case to plug in all your fans there enabling you to control/monitor fan speeds. I guess he was talking about software fan controllers and in that case yeah he wont be able to control the other fans not connected to the motherboard as they are connected to the power supply like you said.

So TC. For you to be able to control your other fans not connected to your motherboard, you will need to buy fan controllers that you put in your case. Something like this basically
http://www.nzxt.com/new/images/_upload/product_gallery/IMG_4810.jpg

Before you buy any fan controllers though, you should check for free fan headers on your motherboard you can plug that top fan in. You will be able to control its speed with software doing that.

But yeah hope that clears things up.

 

[prometheus34572]

-quoted myself accidentally- ignore

 

[gab961111.59]

Thank you all, ill try to connect it to the motherboard.
yes it was a software.

 

[GuyNwah]

How is the fan wired? It will have red and black wires; red, black, and yellow; or red, black, yellow, and blue (or black, yellow, green, and blue).

Red and black is "power only". Fans like this are for applications where they are always on, usually wired into the power supply. Hooking one up to a motherboard fan header may not give you control of the fan, because it has no tachometer wire.

The yellow (sometimes white) wire goes to the tachometer. Case fans that are meant to be plugged into a motherboard fan controller are usually this style. This style allows the fan driver to sense and adjust the fan speed.

The blue wire is for PWM. When this kind of fan is connected to a matching 4-pin header, the fan driver can make rapid, fine adjustments of the fan speed. This is the usual style for CPU fans.

Bottom line, if you have a 3-wire fan, plug it into the motherboard. If you have a 2-wire fan, there's no use trying to control it from a software controller. Get a 3-wire fan instead.

 

[Corylea.723]

Moving this to Community, where it belongs.