Are Fan controllers needed?

[tranforpew13]

ve been tempted to get one of those snazzy looking touch panel fan controllers ive been seeing .. do you think fan controllers are needed? the motherboard seems to do a good job of controlling them ..

If i do go with one, do the fans you wish to control have to be plugged into the controller or does the controller plug into the motherboard somewhere? .

 

[EarthDog]

Needed? That depends on many things...if things are working while plugged into the motherboard, there isn't a "need". But many want a ' snazzy looking touch panel'.

The fans plug into the controller. The controller plugs into power, not the motherboard. YOu will then exclusively use the controller, not the motherboard when you have one.

 

[Bill Dimwit]

I second what earthdog says. More often then not you don't need a controller. They come in handy when you have fans that draw more power then what you mother board can handle or when you run out of fan ports on your board.

There are some higher end controllers that can self control the fans base on temps or a signal form the motherboard. But that is not typical for most controllers.

 

[Brando]

this is all you need. i have one and it works great. the only thing is all my case fans are identical. you might need more than one if you have different types of fans at different speeds in your case but since you'll usually have at least 1 or 2 free pwm headers left you could just use those for the odd fans and put the majority identical ones on this pwm hub.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999309

 

[Bill Dimwit]

interesting product

 

[Brando]

it works great. no reason to hear your computer at idle.