What fan controllers will fit in P182 ?

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:34 pm

I'm looking for some sort of control over the fans in my 182, so there are two questions :
1 - which 5.25 fan controllers will fit behind the door of the case ?
2 - which 5.25 fan controllers will fit in the case without drilling holes and other modifications, i mean using the antec's rails mounting system ?

Some candidates are :

Scythe Kama Meter - http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/0 ... etail.html

Zalman ZM-MFC1 - http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... 1&code=017

Thanks

elpibe10 · Post by **elpibe10** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:21 pm

I'm using the Zalman ZM-MFC2 in my P182. Fits without any modification and is about 1/2 inch away from the closed door.

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:10 am

How did you connect the rails to it ? using only one screw ?

MasterWerk · Post by **MasterWerk** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:30 am

one screw will work. just tighten the screw down (not too much, though) and slide it right in. it'll hold in place just fine.

on a related note, I'm pissed i didn't know about the mc2. bought the mc1 and two days later, saw the sexier new version.

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:38 am

Well I dont even have the choise, all the stores here sell only the first version

The Kama Meter is sold here for +- same price, looks much better.

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:17 pm

Why do people insist on front panel fan controllers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999046

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:47 pm

Some fan controllers have a monitor function for RPM and temperature sensors.

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:54 pm

crispyfish wrote:Why do people insist on front panel fan controllers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999046

Because sometimes u cant have adequate cooling for a hot rig that is also silent in HOT weather ( i'm talking ~30 room ambiet ) so one chooses to be silent and hot and can turn a knob to get some air when doing intensive tasks, like playing STALKER

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:05 am

partyzan wrote:
crispyfish wrote:Why do people insist on front panel fan controllers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999046
Because sometimes u cant have adequate cooling for a hot rig that is also silent in HOT weather ( i'm talking ~30 room ambiet ) so one chooses to be silent and hot and can turn a knob to get some air when doing intensive tasks, like playing STALKER

I agree.

ivier · Post by **ivier** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:01 am

elpibe10 wrote:I'm using the Zalman ZM-MFC2 in my P182. Fits without any modification and is about 1/2 inch away from the closed door.

The rpm range in ZM-MFC2 seems to be from 1000 to 5940. Do you think it's useful range? The lower limit is set quite high, I think.

tehownt · Post by **tehownt** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:03 am

I have the Zalman controller, and the only negative points I could find were:
- You have absolutely no idea what speed your fans are at if you aren't using a software such as speedfan to tell you so.
- The metallic sides of the controller, where you screw the rails on, aren't very rigid and can easily allow the controller to slide out of the bay... (You might want to strech them out a bit before installing it)
- Also, you can have 2 fans running at 5V instead of 12V, but you'd have to be willing to strip the fans wire to do so, so as to screw them into the controller, which is a bit ugly, and could have been easily avoided.

elpibe10 · Post by **elpibe10** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:28 am

ivier wrote:
elpibe10 wrote:I'm using the Zalman ZM-MFC2 in my P182. Fits without any modification and is about 1/2 inch away from the closed door.
The rpm range in ZM-MFC2 seems to be from 1000 to 5940. Do you think it's useful range? The lower limit is set quite high, I think.

The product description is incorrect. It can actually go lower than 1000 rpm.

zistu · Post by **zistu** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:49 am

From what I understand (manual, Zalman Q&A) the fans ban be set to 1000 RPM min with the settings, but when the machine is running you can lower the RPM below the 1000 RPM.

Or in other words, their settings won't let you store a value lower than 1000 RPM in memory for a specific fan. One reason they (Zalman) gave for this is because they tested the product and had fans that did not start up when set to a value lower than 1000rpm.

I've yet to see someone who owns the product confirm this though, so I could be completely wrong too.

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:24 am

partyzan wrote:
crispyfish wrote:Why do people insist on front panel fan controllers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811999046
Because sometimes u cant have adequate cooling for a hot rig that is also silent in HOT weather ( i'm talking ~30 room ambiet ) so one chooses to be silent and hot and can turn a knob to get some air when doing intensive tasks, like playing STALKER

Well, that makes sense.

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:21 pm

crispyfish wrote: Well, that makes sense.

Or it's time to go water cooling on this baby

elpibe10 · Post by **elpibe10** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:33 pm

zistu wrote:From what I understand (manual, Zalman Q&A) the fans ban be set to 1000 RPM min with the settings, but when the machine is running you can lower the RPM below the 1000 RPM.

Or in other words, their settings won't let you store a value lower than 1000 RPM in memory for a specific fan. One reason they (Zalman) gave for this is because they tested the product and had fans that did not start up when set to a value lower than 1000rpm.

I've yet to see someone who owns the product confirm this though, so I could be completely wrong too.

I am using it and can confirm that it is able to reduce a fan's speed to less than 1000 rpm.

My Scythe Minebea (low speed version) has been adjusted to 960 rpm from the stock 1,100 rpm.

Asus PC Probe II reports the fan's speed as between 930 to 980 rpm.

I believe what the manual and product description is trying to say is that it doesn't work with fans that have a stock speed of less than 1,000 rpm (eg. those 800 rpm fans like Scythe S-Flex D or Noctua 800rpm version). I've tried connecting the Noctua 800rpm fan and the ZM-MFC2 reports an incorrect number.

partyzan · Post by **partyzan** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:49 am

elpibe10 wrote:
zistu wrote:From what I understand (manual, Zalman Q&A) the fans ban be set to 1000 RPM min with the settings, but when the machine is running you can lower the RPM below the 1000 RPM.

Or in other words, their settings won't let you store a value lower than 1000 RPM in memory for a specific fan. One reason they (Zalman) gave for this is because they tested the product and had fans that did not start up when set to a value lower than 1000rpm.

I've yet to see someone who owns the product confirm this though, so I could be completely wrong too.
I am using it and can confirm that it is able to reduce a fan's speed to less than 1000 rpm.

My Scythe Minebea (low speed version) has been adjusted to 960 rpm from the stock 1,100 rpm.

Asus PC Probe II reports the fan's speed as between 930 to 980 rpm.

I believe what the manual and product description is trying to say is that it doesn't work with fans that have a stock speed of less than 1,000 rpm (eg. those 800 rpm fans like Scythe S-Flex D or Noctua 800rpm version). I've tried connecting the Noctua 800rpm fan and the ZM-MFC2 reports an incorrect number.

How is the minebeas noise vs performance ? i'm thinking to buy a couple of the low speed ones to control with the Kama Meter.

elpibe10 · Post by **elpibe10** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:46 am

partyzan wrote:How is the minebeas noise vs performance ? i'm thinking to buy a couple of the low speed ones to control with the Kama Meter.

I've only tried the low speed 1,100rpm version and it is noticeably quieter than the S-Flex 'E'. Airflow seems to be quite similar.

Compared to the Noctua, both the Minebea and S-Flex sound smoother.

zistu · Post by **zistu** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:43 am

elpibe10 wrote:I am using it and can confirm that it is able to reduce a fan's speed to less than 1000 rpm.

Thanks for clearing that up, I'm considering to use a few of these myself in some new builds. One wish I have for these devices is a connector to the PWR mainboard pins. Instead of "just" an alarm when a fan fails or a temperature goes too high, the controller could close that circuit and make the machine shut down (maybe a 1 second signal first, then a 5 second signal n minutes later in case the machine is frozen and cannot be shut down gracefully.