best fan controller

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:33 pm

i've read a few OLD review on this site, and all of them seemed to have a bunch of negative stuff to say, so i was wondering....

what are some peoples opinions, what is the best fan controller around right now?

i just need 2 or 3 fans controlled, and they'll basically mostly be on 5V.

any fan controller that stands out? or should i just pop a few fanmate to the back of the case....?

pangit · Post by **pangit** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:12 pm

If you just want basic manual control and not PWM temp based control, just go for a couple of fanmates. Or the Sunbeam Rheobus which is an excellent cheap analogue controller.

feddup · Post by **feddup** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:12 pm

The sunbeam is simple elgant and cheap.

http://www.jab-tech.com/Sunbeam-5-1-4-R ... -2530.html

an alternative for a 3.5 bay

http://www.jab-tech.com/3.5-Rheobus-13w ... -1640.html

The automatic controllers all seem to have some "issue".

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:08 am

oh, ok, thanks for the advice!

I'll just wait to see how loud my rig sounds when it arrives, with the 2 stock antec fans set to 6V by running them in series (i actually had to look that one up in my physics book, can't believe it

), and depending on how bad it is, i'll get the rheobus together with a couple yate loons.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:11 am

You might want to look at this fan controller. Hard to beat for the price.....you can set the base speed of three fans, and using three temp probes, cause the fans to go full speed at a certain (adjustable) temp. Nice price also. The fans get a 12v burst at start-up, to start spinning.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:21 am

can you turn fans completely off with the rheobus?

basically i need 3 settings: 5/6V, 12V & Off.

can the rheobus do this all on one switch? i know some controllers have on/off switches, and 6v-12v modulators, but you can't actually turn off the 6-12

DG · Post by DG » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:47 am

I recommend this one: http://www.jab-tech.com/Sunbeam-5-1-4-R ... -2530.html
It has full 0v-12v on each switch, at 0v it's off.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:58 am

thanks DG, ordering 3 today

feddup · Post by **feddup** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:44 am

I'm no silence expert but SPCR has affected my purchase decisions more positively then any other web source. I searched for years for the perfect controller and finally settled on the Sunbeam rheobus. I recently installed three of them and was impressed with their quality and heavy duty build. Definitely gets best bang per $ award. Fits perfectly behind the SLK3000B's door as well. It seems that all "automatic" solutions have issues. This solution seems rock solid, pretty and cheap. hard to beat. Total flexability on fan speeds depending on needs at the moment.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:37 am

feddup wrote:an alternative for a 3.5 bay
http://www.jab-tech.com/3.5-Rheobus-13w ... -1640.html

I made the mistake of buying two of these (they were cheap, and I have two systems). They use pulse width modulation. Caused serious clicking noises in my fans. There are some similar models (Nexus??) with inductor-capacitor filtering that should fix the problem and aren't much more expensive. But I have no experience with those. Anybody??

feddup · Post by **feddup** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:51 am

People's Pcs are as individual as they are. I should have mentioned that the Sunbeam works perfectly, so far, with the Globe 120mm (another SPCR recommendation) I got from Silencio. I thought the Sunbeams changed voltage and didn't use PWM. Anyway they work sweet with the globes but I can't speak about other fans.

pangit · Post by **pangit** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:42 pm

Just to clarify, the Sunbeam one is an analogue voltage controller (hence it's popularity). The one Felger refers to is a different one that uses PWM.

Another thumbs up here from a Sunbeam Rheobus owner for the past 3 years.

In fact I've been experimenting with Speedfan to control my fans automatically but I've got fed up with the constant noise changes, which is more intrusive than a constant noise at a fixed speed. So I'm plugging my fans back into my trusty Rheobus where I can control them myself!

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:23 pm

How is monitoring rpm speed accomplished with the Sunbeam Rheobus?

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:37 am

Well it's not the cheapest (in fact it might be the most expensive), but you did ask for the best (IMHO):

mCubed T-Balancer

pangit · Post by **pangit** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:10 pm

JVM wrote:How is monitoring rpm speed accomplished with the Sunbeam Rheobus?

It's not. There is none. It's just an analogue controller with manual voltage controllers.

You would have to run the RPM wire to a separate header plugged into the mobo if you want to do this.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:33 am

pangit wrote:
JVM wrote:How is monitoring rpm speed accomplished with the Sunbeam Rheobus?
It's not. There is none. It's just an analogue controller with manual voltage controllers.

You would have to run the RPM wire to a separate header plugged into the mobo if you want to do this.

Not sure I understand that. How would you connect to both Sunbeam and MB?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:40 pm

JVM wrote:Not sure I understand that. How would you connect to both Sunbeam and MB?

The way the Spire (single or dual) controller does. Requires special wiring, which is provided with the Spire. The Spire fan wiring can be used, unchanged, with the Sunbeam rheobus (I have both). The cardboard that comes with the retail bubblepack has the wiring connections shown on it.

best fan controller

best fan controller

Sunbeam!

SPCR newbie

Re: Sunbeam!

individual