[Kckbxr259]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to buy some fans for my water cooling build but I am also trying to keep the cost down as well. Do the fans have to be the PWM type or is there another safe way to control the fans?. What is the cheapest option as well?

[trents]

What fans do you have? Is this a custom water system or a kit? How can we answer your question with the little bit of information you gave us?

[Kckbxr259]

Originally Posted by trents

What fans do you have? Is this a custom water system or a kit? How can we answer your question with the little bit of information you gave us?

My post explains all apart from it is going to be a custom fit. Please read slower next time.

PS. I wish to be able to control fan speeds.

[trents]

All is says is that it's a "water cooled build" I took "build" to refer to the whole system.

But to answer your question, I would not think the fans have to be PWM. I can't imagine why that would prevent the cooling system from working and besides, PWM fans seem to be hard to find when they aren't a part of a kit.

There are various kinds of fan speed controller products available. Some fit in drive bays. Some mount on the expansion slot firewall at the back of the case. Some just lay inside the case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n%20controller

[Kckbxr259]

Originally Posted by trents

All is says is that it's a "water cooled build" I took "build" to refer to the whole system.

But to answer your question, I would not think the fans have to be PWM. I can't imagine why that would prevent the cooling system from working and besides, PWM fans seem to be hard to find when they aren't a part of a kit.

There are various kinds of fan speed controller products available. Some fit in drive bays. Some mount on the expansion slot firewall at the back of the case. Some just lay inside the case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n%20controller

Sorry you are correct when you refer to word "Build" I should of quoted "New water cooling build". The cooling fans I wish to purchase is for a water cooling radiator and I wish to be able to control the fan speeds.

[trents]

The one piece of advice I'd give about purchasing an aftermarket fan speed controller is to get one that is rated for considerably more watts than the fans you will be controlling. My experience is that otherwise the controller's rheostat dies from the heat after not too long.

I've used a drive bay type made by Sunbeam and was quite pleased with it. Some come with digital readouts for rpm and case temps and such as that if you want to spend more money and get the frills.

[Kckbxr259]

Originally Posted by trents

The one piece of advice I'd give about purchasing an aftermarket fan speed controller is to get one that is rated for considerably more watts than the fans you will be controlling. My experience is that otherwise the controller's rheostat dies from the heat after not too long.

I've used a drive bay type made by Sunbeam and was quite pleased with it. Some come with digital readouts for rpm and case temps and such as that if you want to spend more money and get the frills.

Thanks for your reply I'll bear in mind what you said.

[Knufire]

If you want cheap, quality fans, can't beat Yate Loons.

[Kckbxr259]

Originally Posted by Knufire

If you want cheap, quality fans, can't beat Yate Loons.

Ok i'll look into those. I have the i7 920 and would be very interested in your over clock settings and cooling setup.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
i7-920 3.2 ghz | Eco Cool It | His 4870HD | Asus x58 P6t SE | Corsair 12GB DOMINATOR-GT DDR3-PC3-16000 (2000MHz) + Corsair Airflow | 750GB Samsung OEM | X POWER 700w | CoolerMaster Storm Enforcer | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express |

[txus.palacios]

Originally Posted by Kckbxr259

Ok i'll look into those. I have the i7 920 and would be very interested in your over clock settings and cooling setup.[/COLOR]

Don't do this. I'm still to find a CPU that clocks exactly like another one. Ask for tips, because if you try to fit the CPU OC settings of another CPU into your one, it's like fitting a square peg in a round hole. Won't work. Just my two cents.

And, for the fans, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, YL D12SH-12 fans will do a nice job. Make sure they're genuine YL and not a counterfeit YL.

If you want more performance, there are the Scythe Gentle Typhoon (made by Nidec). These are of much better quality. I would recommend for silence the AP-15s, or, any of the "black" high RPM fans, since they can be modded to use PWM quite easily (just solder a wire on a pad). These are recommended for high FPI radiators, because of all the nice pressure and CFM they have.

If what you want is silence, check the NoiseBlockers. The PL-1 or PL-2 are very silent fans, that can work pretty good with low FPI radiators.

If you want "best of the best", you should start looking at the 38mm thickness "big" fans. These are serious stuff, made by serious fan manufacturers (Delta, Nidec, Sunon, Sanyo-Denki...). These are for sure the best fans you can get. The cons, are that these fans are screamers at stock. They run at very high RPMs (3000+, some even 6000+), and of course, throw a lot of noise. But these fans usually have a variant of the model with PWM control. These fans, (except the Sanyo-Denki, which uses 16kHz, and can be controlled by bing's dual 555 PWM controller), can be controlled without a problem by your motherboard and, for example, SpeedFan, directly from Windows. These fans allow for a quiet operation with a pretty decent airflow and pressure most of the time, and a bunch of pressure and flow with the price of intolerable noise when required (f.ex., benching). They are not usually available on retailers, and you have to hunt them on eBay, but these are without a doubt your best bet. These are for high FPI fans like HWLabs' Black Ice GTX series (+20fpi).

This is my point of view on fans. Hope it helped!

[Davidleebjr]

2 Coolermaster Blue LED Fans = Case Intake/Exhaust
4 Yate Loon High Speed Fans = Rad Push/Pulls
2 White LED Corsair Fans = Front Intake came with the Carbide 500r Case

Fans I'm running

4 Yate Loons on my Rad > http://www.frozencpu.com/products/61...dpDL&mv_pc=204

2 Coolermaster LED Blue as Case Fans..

The yates are next to silent when they're turned down to about 800rpm and still move a ton of air of course they can sound like turbine engines and push the shingles off the roof when they're cranked up to 2200 rpms.. Best fans i've ever had!

The cooler masters are great for case fans... asthetic value is nice and they are quiet.

2 Corsair white LED fans .... Only because corsair sent them with the case and i haven't jammed a third party fan into the proprietary fan header corsair thought was a great idea for the carbide 500r ** the 1 and only bitch i've ever had about a corsair product**

[Kckbxr259]

This looks like very good value for the money...
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_...m-Red-LED.html



-----------------------------
i7-920 3.2 ghz | Eco Cool It | His 4870HD | Asus x58 P6t SE | Corsair 12GB DOMINATOR-GT DDR3-PC3-16000 (2000MHz) + Corsair Airflow | 750GB Samsung OEM | X POWER 700w | CoolerMaster Storm Enforcer | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme |

[txus.palacios]

Originally Posted by Davidleebjr

2 Coolermaster Blue LED Fans = Case Intake/Exhaust
4 Yate Loon High Speed Fans = Rad Push/Pulls
2 White LED Corsair Fans = Front Intake came with the Carbide 500r Case

Fans I'm running

4 Yate Loons on my Rad > http://www.frozencpu.com/products/61...dpDL&mv_pc=204

2 Coolermaster LED Blue as Case Fans..

The yates are next to silent when they're turned down to about 800rpm and still move a ton of air of course they can sound like turbine engines and push the shingles off the roof when they're cranked up to 2200 rpms.. Best fans i've ever had!

The cooler masters are great for case fans... asthetic value is nice and they are quiet.

2 Corsair white LED fans .... Only because corsair sent them with the case and i haven't jammed a third party fan into the proprietary fan header corsair thought was a great idea for the carbide 500r ** the 1 and only bitch i've ever had about a corsair product**

Corsair using a propietary fan header? Could you post a pic?

[Davidleebjr]

Hi Txus,

Here's a macro shot of the fan header that ships with the Corsair Carbide 500r. Three fans come with the case a 200mm and (2) 120mm White Led Case fans..

They are attached to a 3 position speed switch and a LED on/off switch hardwired into the front case panel

rumor has it 3 pin fans can be shaved down to fit into this plug but I haven't done it yet.

[txus.palacios]

Originally Posted by Davidleebjr

Hi Txus,

Here's a macro shot of the fan header that ships with the Corsair Carbide 500r. Three fans come with the case a 200mm and (2) 120mm White Led Case fans..

They are attached to a 3 position speed switch and a LED on/off switch hardwired into the front case panel

rumor has it 3 pin fans can be shaved down to fit into this plug but I haven't done it yet.

Wow, I've never seen something like that. That connector goes to the fan controller then?

[Davidleebjr]

Yes Txus,

Here's the thread over at corsair where it has at least three of us 500r owners jacked..

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?p=571062

Granted, slicing off the ridges on a regular 3 pin fanout, you can force a standard fan into the header but this header is specifically wired on the case panel for low/med/high fan speeds and a seperate button that will simply turn off the fans LED lights but keep the fans running.

Although I could mod this... last thing i want to do is hack up the front of my carbide case. Anyone with wiring alternatives i'm awaiting to hear from?

The problem lies in i don't exactly know how the Led Light off/on wire figures into the whole picture of re-wiring a regular fan.



Anyone who can help me hack these wires to wire in blue UV's i'm appreciative..