Re: Fan control question

["Tom Metro-12" <user=71@nabble.blu.org>]

 David Kramer wrote: 
> I'm using an Antec P180B case.  Two shockers for me were that (1) it 
> doesn't have a speaker. Huh!!?!? and (2) the 3 120mm fans have the 
> 4-pin Molex connectors... 

Yeah, surprising. I guess they're trying to obsolete the speaker, which 
these days is pretty much only used for beep error codes from the BIOS. 

The Antec Sonata (I and II) cases I've been using also use the 4-pin 
power connectors for the chassis fans. I guess I wasn't concerned with 
that as the motherboards I've used, although they have chassis fan 
connections, I don't think they've included temperature controllers, so 
for noise control I've just used the 7V power taps from the Antec power 
supply. 


> They do have separate switches for three speed settings, 
> which is cool. 

Nice. 


> But having the fan speed determined by temperature seems 
> like a much better idea to me. 

Yes, if it is a good controller. Many of them are too simple and just 
run the fan at one of two or three fixed speeds, resulting in noisier 
operation. 


> I'm pretty sure I've seen adapters to convert 4-pin Molex to the 3-pin 
> or 4-pin motherboard fan connectors. 

Maybe. Definitely adapters are available to go the other way. 


> The motherboard can't control fans without sensors.  right? 

Well, the temperature controller doesn't directly care about the fan 
speed. The sensor that closes the loop is of course the temperature 
sensor (unless it is a more sophisticated controller that also tries to 
directly regulate speed). 

The more likely problem you'll have is a BIOS that sets off an alarm or 
refuses to boot due to a "fan failure" when it fails to sense fan 
rotation. You might be able to disable these in the BIOS settings. 


> ...I'll probably have to replace at least one of the fans... 

That'd be the simplest thing to do. 

  -Tom 

-- 
Tom Metro 
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA 
"Enterprise solutions through open source." 
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/

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