Drin

Hey everyone!

I bought a fan controller roughly just over three weeks ago, to control the kazes (link) on my cooler. I did some light research and determined that the Kaze Master Ace 5.25 was a pretty decent controller, so I purchased it. The styling is what helped sell me on it (that and the fact that down here we have a very limited selection) and indeed it looks excellent.

However, performance wise I believe I'll probably need something more considering the fans that are coming. Or will I? That’s where I need your help!

Only realised soon after purchasing that it limits the maximum RPM on my kazes to roughly ~2650 RPM while having them hooked up. Not too big of a performance hit, and as I wanted a fan controller I’m obviously not aiming to run them at full blast 24/7. Having the option of running them at full speed is always nice however, so I was slightly annoyed at the limitation.


Recently I decided to take the plunge and purchased eight San Ace 1011's from CD (which should arrive soon hopefully). Now I'm really glad since they are awesome fans, and they were at a steal of a price, however I'm now faced with the dilemma of trying to control eight fans instead of two (six for the case, two for the cpu cooler).

Now I'm wondering, would it be safe to run eight of the San Ace 1011's from the Scythe controller? I realise that it would not display the RPM of each fan anymore (if at all) and that’s not a concern, but I was wondering if it was even possible, or more importantly if it would cause any short/long term damage? I'm going to assume no, however I'm a noob when it comes to fan controllers so I thought I'd ask! I would be hooking up two per channel.

Secondly, if this was actually possible the San Aces would have their maximum RPM limited by the scythe cooler as well right? I believe the 1011's take slightly less power looking at the stats, however it would seem that they are pretty similar. Once again I'm not sure, advice is appreciated!

Finally, if the Scythe is not up to the job, how would the Lamptron FC3 compare? According to the stats it can handle up to 30w per channel, and I imagine could handle the san aces (two per channel).

We do not get the sunbeam rheobus down here, so my options are limited to either of the two listed above. If the scythe is up to the task I would like to keep it, as I do prefer the look over the Lamptron and I already have it purchased. However, if its dangerous to hook up eight san aces to it I'll have to sell it, and pick up the Lamptron FC3 instead.

Cheers in advance, and +rep for any helpful replies!

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trogalicious

the san ace fans run at 6.24 W, so the scythe controller isn't likely to be able to handle all 8. It supports 12W per channel, so adding 2 fans per channel isn't going to be able to push them to their max.

The lamptron is a great controller and I don't see it not being able to push 2 san ace's per channel. It can handle 30W per channel on each of 4 channels. You would be able to run your fans at their expected max performance with the lamptron versus the scythe.

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Drin

thanks for the quick reply!

And I thought as much So it would limit the maximum RPM of each fan I hook up to 12w per channel on the scythe (would it be 6w per fan?) but not actually damage the controller/shorten its life span?

Great to hear good things about the lamptron! I wish I had done more research/asked around here, would have saved me trouble. It looks like I may have to sell the scythe, however if there is no damage I may just try out how it handles the san aces first.

cheers once again!

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trogalicious

No problem. I don't see any harm in running 2 fans in parallel per channel, but it will limit them. If nothing else, you should be able to part with the scythe on here pretty easily should you choose to sell it.

I don't think it would damage the scythe, but it can only provide X amount of wattage per channel and the fans are going to want X+1 to run at their max. Since the scythe is limited to the 12w per channel and the fans are going to try to pull 1w beyond that, I don't think it would hurt it.. just not be able to push them for what they are. For me, if I have a san ace/panaflo/delta, I'm going to want to be able to push it like it wants to be (and is designed to be) pushed.

Glad to have helped.

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Drin

As long as no damage is done then I'll gladly give it a try first, I'm assuming it will not damage the fans either.

And I do regret not picking up the Lamptron, but at least the scythe looks the part in a 690! Then again, so would the lamptron, it would just depend on personal preferences I suppose.

And the scythe is just over three weeks old, in mint condition, has all the original packaging (the sensors and even the sensor tape have not been used!) so I would have no problems selling it if I were in the US! I'm not sure if it would be easy to sell it within AUS on this site, but I guess I could always give it a shot first.

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DuckieHo

Your fan controller may overheat or burnout if you place more than 2 fans per channel.

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Drin

Will that be the same for the Lamptron as well? And how likely would it be to overheat/burn out? I do believe it would shorten its lifespan, but the odds of it overheating (to a point where physical damage is caused) would be low right?

thanks for the heads up and any further clarification

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gonX

It should cut it close. Fan controllers will by nature (unless they have a passthrough function) be unable to run a fan at its max speed. You have to consider that power-up wattage draw is generally higher than the average wattage draw, which means that it'll most likely draw a bit more than 12w per channel if you use splitters.

There's no reason not to try it, if you have the money.

*EDIT*

The Lamptron has a maximum wattage draw per channel of 30w, so you should be able to run around 4 fans per channel.

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Drin

Thanks for the advice so far everyone, now that I know which controller setup is best, I was wondering how one goes about connecting it all up?

I know you can use a 3pin Fan splitter as seen here to connect two fans to the one channel, something like this:

..........................................__> Fan #1
........................................./
FC cable -> fan splitter ->
.........................................\__> Fan #2

But is there another, more cheaper way? Believe it or not, no local pc stores I've been to sell splitters, and its not really economical to pay shipping costs to ship them inter-state.

Would it be possible to daisy-chain the fans instead, using these? For a total of two per channel, Something like:

FC cable -> 3pin to 4pin Adapter -> Fan
.................................................. ...\
.................................................. ....\ __> 3pin to 4pin Adapter -> Fan

Would this work? And if it does, how effective would it be?

I realise that it would take more cables than if I were to use splitters, however I have no splitters and a truck load of 3pin to 4pin adapters (something like 20+) lying around. So if I could use the second method I would, however I'm not sure it would work.

I could always test in a few days time, but if I know before hand that option #2 will not work, that gives me time to get some splitters shipped!

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trogalicious

Because the san aces only have the 3 pin connection (I think that's the only lead they have anyway) the best option I can think of would be the first link to the 3-pin splitter. If you were trying to set up the UK's, they have the 3pin to 4 pin included (again, I think..) and you could run the 3 pin from the FC to the fan, then daisy chain the second fan to the first via the 4pin connection.

...but I can't think of any way to do this any less expensive for the san aces.

best of luck either way though.

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