Fan control & Temperature sensing

[balroggie]

Hello. I am building a PC from the ground up which will look like this:

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Socket 939
CPU fan Arctic Cool Freezer 64 Pro with Heatsink
MotherBoard Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce
Case Fans (2x) ZALMAN FB123 Mountable Case fans
Memory (2x) OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) 184 PIN SDRAM DDR 400 (PC3200)
Video Cards (2x) XFX GeForce 6800 GS 256MB PCIe SLI 485MHz
GPU Coolers (2x) ACCELERO X1 GPU Cooler
Hard Drive (2x) WD Raptor 74GB 10kRPM WD740GD
HD Enclosure (2x) SilenX Luxurae Hard Drive cooler/enclosure (for Raptors)
Hard Drive (3x) Samsung SpinPoint 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0
Case Nexus Breeze Quiet Case w/500 Watt PSU
Temp Monitor/
fan controller Thermaltake Hardcano 13 Fan controller/Card reader

The last PC I built was a few years ago, Pentium 2.53 GHz w/ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, Asus Motherboard (forget the exact type), and standard Antec black tower case w/2 fans.

At the time of install I didn't care much about the fans. I wasn't going to overclock and I just plugged them into the Asus motherboard default slots. Now things are different. For starters I want quiet (my present case is quite noisy). I also want cool and some serious control over the fans (hence the Thermaltake controller). Here however is my dilemna... The Thermaltake will allow control of just 4 fans and 4 temp sensors. In my ideal setup I would like to control 7 fans and get input from 8 temp sensors.

Ideal:
1 fan control/1 temp sensor for CPU
1 fan control/1 temp sensor for motherboard
2 fan controls/2 temp sensors for video cards
1 fan control/2 temp sensors for Raptors (they get hot in the Luxurae cases)
1 fan control/1 temp sensor for the case fan and ambient interior temp
1 fan control/1 or 2 temp sensors for the memory

Due to 5 & 1/4 slot space considerations I can't use two Thermaltakes (4 slots total... 2 taken up by the Raptors in their Luxurae cooler/quieters, 1 by the Thermaltake, 1 by the DVD writer = 4) so I figured I could use the temp sensors on the motherboard and supplement with software monitoring. The Thermaltake should control:

CPU fan and sensor
Motherboard fan and sensor
2 x video card fans and sensors

This leaves the two Raptors, the memory, and the ambient case for the built in temp controls on the motherboard. Time to display my ignorance... :D I have read through the documentation on the motherboard and it appears it is capable of monitoring the board, the cpu, and the hard drive. I am already monitoring the board, and the cpu with the Thermaltake so this doesn't work - I don't need to monitor it twice. What I would *like* to do is simply get some temperature sensors, plug them into the motherboard somehow along with the extra fans, and monitor/control them through software. I have also looked into PCI slot solutions and here the ranks thin considerably with many bad reviews/lack of availability (Zephyrus & Sunbeam Theta TP-101). I would really like advice on this as I have never attempted doing so much fan control. I have every intention of overclocking this beastie so fan control/temp monitoring will be most important. This is particularly true since I am going for quiet which means insulation which means heat. I do not want to do a liquid solution as these suffer from basically the same issues plus sport gigantic devices that do things like only cool the cpu and board or one video card. Any advice appreciated. I will say that I have looked at other controllers (like the Ultra Fan commander which does 7 fans but this only has 3 temp sensors) but haven't found anything really perfect yet. I love the look of the Thermaltake I just wish it allowed control of 8 fans/sensors.

I just need a way to control fans and monitor temperatures through the motherboard that isn't *always* the CPU & Board itself.

thanks!!!!

[alf0nzo]

sorry to bother you as I'm not answering your question, but i'll be building a computer for my buddy, and I was wondering how much this setup will cost you?

[Whyzman]

Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

This one will do 6:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/06/15/fighting_fan_noise_pollution/page17.html

[balroggie]

sorry to bother you as I'm not answering your question, but i'll be building a computer for my buddy, and I was wondering how much this setup will cost you?

Well I changed my setup a little bit but the system I described above is about $3300 with everything. The actual system I have now differs somewhat from this list... below are the stats for the new system with where I purchased everything and the prices. Note: I did a good deal of research on the prices so I am pretty sure as of this writing that they are the best out there but this could certainly change and very quickly!

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Socket 939
Newegg.com $458.00 (I decided the 4800 was not worth the extra $200 particularly as I can just overclock a little and get the same result - Newegg has the 4800 for $630)

CPU fan Arctic Cool Freezer 64 Pro with Heatsink
(Directron.com - $29.00)

MotherBoard Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce
(Xpcgear.com - $189.99 MUCH better than Newegg who wanted $224.00!)

Case Fans (2x) ZALMAN FB123 Mountable Case fans
(Jab-tech.com - $5.99 each)

Memory OCZ (2x1GB) Platinum Edition 184 PIN SDRAM DDR 500 (PC4000)
(Newegg.com - $280.98 - note the memory I had listed previously was $199.00 from newegg but Windows XP (32bit) has issues with more than 3 gigs of memory so I am only doing 2 GB and since that meant I had extra money I went with the fastest memory possible).

Video Cards (2x) eVGA GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCIe SLI
(Newegg.com - $434 each. This is a change. The 6800 GS ones I had listed were also from Newegg.com @ $199.00 each. I really wanted better video and SLI was a requirement for me - some argue SLI/Crossfire don't matter - whatever... the concept is cool! Both the 6800 and 7800 are SLI capable though.)

GPU Coolers (2x) NV Silencer 5 Rev.3
(SVC.com - $29.95 each. The ACCELERO X1 isn't available... anywhere. It also does NOT blow the air out the back of your case which is a deal breaker for me.)

Hard Drive (2x) WD Raptor 74GB 10kRPM WD740GD
(Newegg.com $150 each)

HD Enclosure (2x) SilenX Luxurae Hard Drive cooler/enclosure (for Raptors)
(DO NOT USE THESE!!! They will heat up your hard drives massively especially for faster running ones like the WD Raptor!) I decided to use 1xCool Drive 6 and a Cool drive lite (this actually solved my fan control problem as the 6 controls 4 fans and has 4 temp probes - Directron.com has the cooldrive lite at $33.99 and Jabtech.com has the cooldrive 6 at $39.95.

Hard Drive (3x) Samsung SpinPoint 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0
Newegg.com $97.00 each

Case Nexus Breeze Quiet Case w/500 Watt PSU
Eastluna.com has these with the 500 watt PSU for $185.00 - much cheaper than silentpc.com

Temp Monitor/
fan controller Thermaltake Hardcano 13 Fan controller/Card reader
Directron.com $58.99 (this is hard to find)

Added up everything above comes to $2806.78 not including shipping. Please note that I have added in lots of extras to make the PC both cool and quiet (these are usually mutually exclusive), fan controllers, special case, hard drive cooling, GPU cooling, etc. If you have a cheap airy case and don't care about noise you could go much cheaper. Go with the stock cooling (noisy) and you just went cheaper still. If you don't care about super video (i.e. 7800 GTX) or SLI isn't a requirement go with one card and shave an additional $434 off the price. Here is a drastically scaled down version that still rocks.

PC Case - somewhere $40
Power Supply (make it nice for expandability) Cooler Master Real Power 550 Watt $118.99 from newegg.com
Motherboard Asus A8n32-SLI (SLI or not this board rocks -$189.99 from Xpcgear.com)
Memory (what I listed before works just fine) OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) 184 PIN SDRAM DDR 400 (PC3200) - $199.00 from Newegg (gives you 2 gbs of ram)
CPU - AMD 4400 $430.00 from Newegg.com
Video - If SLI or Crossfire isn't a requirement get the ATI x1900 (avoid the Asus MVP board w/Crossfire as its buggy as hell). If you want SLI go for Nvidia cards - 1 now and get one later $434 for a single 7800 GTX newegg.com

Case + Power Sup + Mobo + Memory + CPU + Video = $1221.99 and it's a rock solid system! :) Got more dough? Get the faster memory I listed for $80 more. Still more? Get another video card for $434.00 and 2 WD rators for $300 set up as RAID 0. That's $2035.99 for a truly rocking system.

Good luck!

[Whyzman]

The number of fans is not necessarily as important as the size of the fans. 120mm fans can turn slower than the 80mms and match their air volume. The lesser RPMs are what you need to achieve less noise...

What size fans were you planning on using?

[balroggie]

The number of fans is not necessarily as important as the size of the fans. 120mm fans can turn slower than the 80mms and match their air volume. The lesser RPMs are what you need to achieve less noise...

What size fans were you planning on using?

I am using Zalman 92mm fans (2 mountable fans) and the Nexus breeze case comes with one 120mm in the base and another 120mm in the power supply. The cooldrive and cooldrive lite each have smaller fans and the Nv Silencers do too (unsure of size).

The solution if it can be called that I am using is this:

Thermaltake Hardcano 13 will control the CPU, PSU, lower Case, and Memory fan (Zalman 92 I will mount). The cooldrive 6 will control both hard drive fans (these are built in) and the 2 GPU fans on the Nv Silencers. That's 8 fans and 7 temp sensors. The final Zalman will be controlled by the mobo and I will mount it along with the last temp sensor blowing over the Northbridge space permitting (we'll see).

[Lau]

This is kind of an old thread... balroggie did you ever get the config you wanted?

I just noticed one thing that's off. Tell me if I'm wrong.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Socket 939
MotherBoard: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce
The mobo is said to be for Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64... What's happening?

Last question: what is SLI?

[balroggie]

>This is kind of an old thread... balroggie did you ever get the config you >wanted?

Yes.

>I just noticed one thing that's off. Tell me if I'm wrong.

>CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core Socket 939
>MotherBoard: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce
>The mobo is said to be for Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64... What's happening?

The Athlon 64 FX is simply a more advanced version in the Athlon series. The real important stat isn't listed and that is the mobo must be compatible with a AMD socket 939 chip - which it is.

>Last question: what is SLI?

'Scalable Link Interface'. This is a patented NVidia technology (the ATI flavor is called 'Crossfire') that allows for 2 video cards to operate at the same time on the same motherboard. The cards do communicate with one another and share the load for processing complex graphics (i.e. games for the most part).