Automated Fan Controllers

86 5.0L

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
7,085
So heres my diliema, I got a P180 with the stock 3 Antec Tri-Speeds(WOW, quieter then I thought) I am hoping to OC abit and game hard with my system:

FX-55 San Diego
Asus A8N-SLI DELUXE
nVidia 7900 GS
2GB of DDR-500
2x500GB HDDs
Seasonic M12 600W

Now I hope to accomplish the following, under normal usage the fans will be at low-mid speeds and with some intensive games ramp-up the fan speed, automatically. I was looking at this one:

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_3726.html

but only has the 3-pin type connections, thus the P180 fans wont work, any others out there?
 
I am pretty sure you can just convert the molex fans down to 3 pin connectors. I dont think there is a specific reason other than to make it a PITA for the tricool fans to use molex connectors over fan connectors.

Another option is to just get some Yate-Loons or something (new fans), either D12SL or D12ML. The SL are easy to find and are about 5$ a pop. The ML are slightly more powerful, slightly louder, and are a bit harder to find though I am pretty sure www.petrastechshop.com carries them...and it is a great place to deal with.
 
I might go with the loons, in the future though, but I still need a good, automatic fan controller
 
Arcygenical said:
Sunbeam Theta springs to mind.

thats the one that uses a PCI cover right? I guess thats whats going in my case ;)
 
Hopefully you haven't already ordered the Sunbeam. That thing is a piece of crap. I tried using it and never could get it to work right. I ended up sending it back for a refund in less than a week. The T-Balancer on the other hand is the best damn fan controller I've ever used. I'm using it currently and love it. It's a little pricey but I think well worth it.
 
Sideroxylon said:
Hopefully you haven't already ordered the Sunbeam. That thing is a piece of crap. I tried using it and never could get it to work right. I ended up sending it back for a refund in less than a week. The T-Balancer on the other hand is the best damn fan controller I've ever used. I'm using it currently and love it. It's a little pricey but I think well worth it.

mind showing a pic? I cant for the life of me figure out how it mounts
 
86 5.0L said:
mind showing a pic? I cant for the life of me figure out how it mounts

Sorry no pic of mine right now. I just used some velcro tape and put it on the side of my optical drive cage. They supply mounting hardware for a pci slot or 3.5" bay. Here's a
LINK to their site with a couple pics of the diff mounting options. You can put it just about anywhere.
 
I just want to reiterate that the Mcubed T-Balancer is the best fan controller on the market right now. I've used no less than 8 different controllers over the years and this is by far the best one I've used. Not really sure why it's not more popular here in the states. Probably has something to do with the lack of marketing and availability here. Well worth the effort of getting one shipped over here though.
 
well then i see i was right with my first choice :p know to find one in the U.S.
 
I had no luck finding one in the US. I ended up getting mine from KustomPCS. I think the total was around $100 to my door. A bit pricey, but like I said, I think well worth it. Especially considering how much I've spent over the years on fan controllers that weren't exactly what I wanted.

Hehe, I must sound like I work for Mcubed or something. I assure you I do not. Just trying to share a quality product with my fellow [H]'ers.
 
OblivionLord said:
$100 or 2 fan controlers for $60 big debate there


Not sure what your trying to say there? Yes there are plenty of cheaper fan controllers out there. But none as good as the T-Balancer that I know of.
 
The T-Balancer was reviewed by many sites in America many times when it came out in the end of 04. The only reviews I could find of it are of the Dec 04 model which has since then been replaced. I can find stores in Europe that sell them a dime a dozen but, only 1 or 2 in America. The Website that hosts the product has driver updates in Xp and soon Linux which shows to be a promising product however it's nearly been forgotten in US.

The company has been around for over 2 years. That's ample time to establish yourself to release your product around the world like they did in the past. Whatever happened that they are mainly offering it in Europe... I don't know.

I would much perfer to get the T-Balancer but, I'm not about to pay $100 for it expecially when it only controls just 4 fans. There are other soltions that could be had for much less like replacing the 4 fans with better quality fans as a start. Even if you went big as $20 per fan then thats still cheaper.
 
Sideroxylon said:
I just want to reiterate that the Mcubed T-Balancer is the best fan controller on the market right now. I've used no less than 8 different controllers over the years and this is by far the best one I've used. Not really sure why it's not more popular here in the states. Probably has something to do with the lack of marketing and availability here. Well worth the effort of getting one shipped over here though.


Does the t-balancer allow 0-12V adjustment on the fan especially high power one like Sanyo Denkis? And if so, does it makes a humming electric noise when at low volt? I had one of these auto fan controller and it had this problem. Although I love the looks of it, the noise is very annoying.
 
syne_24 said:
Does the t-balancer allow 0-12V adjustment on the fan especially high power one like Sanyo Denkis? And if so, does it makes a humming electric noise when at low volt? I had one of these auto fan controller and it had this problem. Although I love the looks of it, the noise is very annoying.

Most fan controllers control the speed of a fan by varying a resistance and therefore varying the voltage that goes to the fan. The mCubed T-Balancer accomplishes its control in a much better way. Using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), the T-Balancer is able to take a fan from full speed to completely off, something difficult to find in a voltage-varying controller.

Pulse Width Modulation is a way of digitally encoding analog signal levels. The PWM controller on the T-Balancer will vary the duty cycle of the pulsed 12 volt outputs. You can actually see this pulsing in an LED fan when you set fan outputs to 1 or 2%. The LED’s will slowly blink. Not enough power to overcome the starting current of the fan motor, but still enough to flash the LED’s. Below is a representation of the duty cycle involved with PWM. As you can see, the longer the on-time, the faster the fan will run or the brighter the light will be.

also check out the videos from here :)

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/22/mcubed/
 
syne_24 said:
Does the t-balancer allow 0-12V adjustment on the fan especially high power one like Sanyo Denkis? And if so, does it makes a humming electric noise when at low volt? I had one of these auto fan controller and it had this problem. Although I love the looks of it, the noise is very annoying.

Yeah you can adjust each fan channel from 0-12v. Even though it only has 4 fan channels you can run multiple fans on each channel. It makes no humming noises that I can hear. This thing can power water pumps if you want it to so I don't think it will have any problem with any type of fan you can throw at it.
 
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