Scythe KazeQ 3,5" Fan Controller

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 1:52 pm

Hi all!

After using and loving my 3,5" fan controller ( I hate bling, extra bs add-ons in fan controller ) for couple of years now, my only grievance has been that its voltages have been limited to 7~12v range. While most fans are effectively inaudiable at 7v, some fans like Slipstream Medium ( 1200 rpm ) is quiet enough for me below 7v.

Now it looks Scythe has released a fan controller that seems even better than my Akasa 3,5" FanControl Jr. Scythe kazeQ. 4 channels, each one up to 1.0 AMP. And each channel can be adjusted in ranges 5~12v. And no extra bling or such.

I had not found anything comprehensive from this controller except one more recent build in SPCR seemed utilize it. But I did not found any reviews etc or such. There still are those in us SPCR'ians who like to control things manually since we don't trust automatics ( this applies in camera functions and fan controls for me anyway )

Bit information and pictures.
http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/pc ... -Q-35.html

And looks is quite good and its affordable. Anyways I put it on order so I'll be giving back some detailed information once I've gotten it and how are my impressions.

It looks good. Really good. No BS, no bling, purely spartan utilitarian fan controller. I can't wait ^^

40974111 · Post by **40974111** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 3:30 pm

looks fantastic. I think I may sell my 5.25" kaze master and buy on of these. I'm sick of the kaze masters screen while I'm trying to sleep 2m away, and it will also get down my fans below 700rpm, which will be good. Thanks for the heads up on the item!

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:30 am

40974111 wrote:looks fantastic. I think I may sell my 5.25" kaze master and buy on of these. I'm sick of the kaze masters screen while I'm trying to sleep 2m away, and it will also get down my fans below 700rpm, which will be good. Thanks for the heads up on the item!

You're welcome. I am glad that I could have been some assistance. When you try to sleep, bright lights and such are really annoying, I know from experience.

kater · Post by **kater** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:35 pm

Simple and pretty. Love it. Will propably use it to replace the old and trusty Akasa Jr. KazeQ will fit the brushed P150 front much better. And let me play with more fans, if I need it.

kaange · Post by **kaange** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:02 pm

Can you report if it uses PWM to effect the voltage lowering?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:29 am

kaange wrote:Can you report if it uses PWM to effect the voltage lowering?

According Scythe pages PWM fans are... "incompatible" what probably means there is no PWM effect. Purely manual change. However I'll check that once I get unit on my hands for closer... inspection.

Edit:
I installed the KazeQ now. Each of the 4 fan housings are 3 pin in the unit. In extension cable you can use 4pin PWM fan but 4th pin place is empty.

With fan controller ( Nexus fan with extension cable modfied for RPM monitoring lowest fan speed with Nexus real silent in Solo is around 650-660 rpms, equaling 7v. With 800 RPM Slipstream minimum is 460 rpm +/- 50 which equals roughly 5v result according SPCR fan tests.

Now it seems that it does to down to 5v fan voltage. I am not sure why my nexus isn't near 460-500 rpm limit as it should be around that with 5v. It might be due with my DIY mod to get rpm monitoring.

Knobs are solid as entire kazeQ seems and feels very solidly build. The Molex power conector seems bit flimsy. Overall I am satisfied. I need to check with more fans but it seems fan range is that 5v to 12v +/-10%

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:14 pm

It appears that Kaze Q takes its power from the PSU rather than the motherboard. Am I right?

Do the fans shut down when the motherboard is shut down (either through power off or stand by)?

Uday

kater · Post by **kater** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:29 pm

Yes, it does. Personally I don't know of any front mounted controllers that take power from the motheroard. In many cases that would put too much stress on the lil' poor mobo headers.
See here - pwr and fan headers

And yes, the funs shut when you switch your PC off. There would need to be some kind of capacitor(s) to let the fans spin after the PC is shut down. Such as in some BeQuiet (and older Topower) PSUs - they had ECASO system that would spin the PSU fan and fans connected to the unit via dedicated headers to cool the case for some 2-3 mins after shutdown.

I believe a handy tinkerer with basic nollij of electroncis could rig sth like that up, if only for the hell of it

ctrler · Post by **ctrler** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:18 pm

Hi.
Does the cables supplied with the controller allow for motherboard rpm monitoring?
Thanks.

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:46 pm

ctrler wrote:Hi.
Does the cables supplied with the controller allow for motherboard rpm monitoring?

I don't see how it is possible for one fan header on the motherboard to monitor 4 fans. The review on the Scythe Europe web site says the following:

One thing that I would have liked to be implemented at this fan controller are green and red LEDs, because this fan controller does not have a display, so we can know which fan to fix/repair if it is stopped ( considering that the LED would turn red if something is wrong, like Iâ€™ve seen with a Zalman fan controller ).

ctrler · Post by **ctrler** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:04 pm

I didn't make myself clear. I'm sorry. I wanted to know if the cables had a pass-through so the rpm could be monitored on the motherboard. I would have to be a pass-through for every cable.
I'm asking this because I want to control my cpu fan and if the motherboard doesn't receive rpm info for the CPU fan header it will beep like crazy.

ctrler · Post by **ctrler** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:05 pm

Check a rpm pass-through here:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_fansplit/

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:07 am

The bottom pictures on this page of the review clearly show 3 wires going to the fans and 2 wires going to the power input socket. So, whatever RPM data comes into the fan controller is getting discarded. (Normally, the RPM data would get displayed by the fan controller, but that is apparently being elided in the interest of the users' sleep.)