fan controller

[AFMedic]

which one would be best?

manually controlling my fans?
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1001/bus-54/Sunbeam_4_Channel_Rheobus_-_Black.html

or having an led display of the temperature for the HDD, CPU, and VGA and having the fans auto turn on?
http://www.knightdiscounts.com/Computer/detail_blackpccasetempcontroller.htm

[chunkylover53]

I would love feedback as well, especially from The Wise Monkey (we need an "all hail" smiley for moments like this). Have you ever used on of these and are they worth it? My motherboard (P5KC) will control my CPU fan speed if I ask it to, but unfortunately it reads my CPU temp 10-12 degrees lower than CoreTemp (and I trust coretemp).

AFMedic, if you go with one of these please let me know how it works out for you. I have a few open bays available for one of these, and I'd like to try one out as long as I don't have to remove the CPU to install a probe.

[The Wise Monkey]

The problem with those LED displays is that the temperature isn't really accurate - its about +-5C, so its not that bad.

I personally have all my fans on automatic, but I play music all the time and live in London, so I'm not bothered by the noise... :D

If you want to run your computer as quietly as possible, then go for manual control. If it doesn't bother you that much with a little noise, then the automatic control is best.

[shyster]

Just out of curiosity how does living in London equate to not caring about noise?

I have been in big cities before and they are not that loud if you live in a decently insolated place. Are houses and apartments in London that crappy, that you can hear anything going on even through your walls?

And not to stray too far from the topic, but the cpu fan is set to automatic, as default unless you say otherwise correct? Just wondering because I would prefer it to do its own thing without me having to interfere.

[chunkylover53]

I have the P5KC, and the default fan setting is "on" which is full blast. I have a pretty quiet fan (Zalman 9700), but at full speed it runs 2,800+ RPM's, and in my home office with nothing else on that is loud.

If you use the Q-fan control in the P5KC, it has three settings: Optimal (adjusts with temperature), Performance (max fan speed) and Quiet (min fan speed). On optimal setting with minimal load, the fan runs at about 1,900 RPM and that is barely audible. I imagine quiet setting is dead silent.

The problem, as I mentioned earlier, is that the MOBO temp reading is 10-12 deg lower than the core temp reading. So if I stress the CPU, core temp could be in the 60's but the MOBO is still in the mid 40's thinking that the fan doesn't need to be adjusted.

[The Wise Monkey]

Shyster seems to not like England at all... ;)

I mean that I live on a busy street in a busy area, so there is always a lot of noise, no matter what the time. Plus there is a prison close by, so there are always loads of sirens. Basically, the noise from my computer is the least likely thing to keep me awake. :)

The fans are set to automatic by default in the BIOS, but you should be able to set them manually if you want. Chucky raises a good point though - you should always keep an eye on your CPU temp, even if it seems ok.

[shyster]

Well true I do not like England, but to be fair I do not like most countries. :p

The only good thing about America is the variety, the food, the people, the space. Other than that not too much is good here either.

Oh so your board was reading negative the actual value, I thought it was reading positive the actual value. Good to know since I will also be getting the same board. But for me personally a fully running fan will probably not bother me since I used to sleep with a stand up fan next to me.

[AFMedic]

i like England except they always put onions on my cheeseburgers and i had to pay 2 pence for each ketchup packet. anyways, i talked to my friend and he said i don't need a fan controller unless i am overclocking. with my setup, he said i don't need to overclock.

i have another question. i have the p5kc also. on the top right of the MB is pwr fan connection. i couldn't find what it was asking for so i connected my top 120mm fan to that one. my bottom 120mm fan on the bottom right and my rear fan to the rear connector. i had to connect my 200mm and side 120mm fan directly to the psu. is that okay to do? and frick i almost ruined my system at the beginning. i thought i had my arctic freezer in properly and i needed to get the MB back out of the case and i grabbed the fan for support and the fan came undone and i almost dropped the MB. i would have been so mad. the computer is all put together, but i don't have a wireless mouse. and frick IDE, i should have went with a sata DVD burner

[chunkylover53]

I don't have a great answer on the fans (Jamie has the same board and case, so maybe he can shed some light). The only thing I know that the two chassis fans connectors (CHA_FAN1 & 2) can be controlled with the internal Q-Fan control that I mentioned earlier. It will not control the PWR FAN connector.