Case Fans - Fractal R4

[majax]

I'm building my first PC ever and I'm confused with some issues regarding case fans.

I want to replace the 2 stock fans that come with the Fractal R4 case with Noctua NF-A14 fans. However, I have some questions:

1) My plan is to put 2 in the front as intake and one in the back as exhaust. Is this an efficient use of the fans? I will have a SSD and one or two hard drives. Thus, I'm wondering if the bottom intake fan will just be blowing into the bottom hard drive tray?

2) I don't know if I should plug them into a a Swiftech 8 way splitter and that to the motherboard or just to the R4 fan controller. Is one way recommended over the other?

3) What Noctua fans do I get and why: the NF-A14PWM or the NF-A14FLX?

Here's some of the key components I have already:
I5 3570k (not overclocked)
Fractal R4 case
Seasonic SS-660XP2 PSU
Asus Z77 Sabertooth motherboard
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW (not overclocked)
Hyper 212 EVO
SSD
one or two hard drives

 

[GeneO]

The fractal fans are pretty decent and quiet. Why don't you give them a shot first?

If I were to replace them, I would go with the PWM and splitter from the motherboard. The Asus fan control software is pretty decent. The PWM will automatically keep the rpm and the noise level very low most of the time. You can always use them on a 3 pin header but you can't usually control the speed of the 3 pin non-PWM fans on a PWM controlled 4-pin header.

I think you can remove one of the bays in the R4? Maybe remove one and put a Noctua there and use the fractal for the hard drive cage.

 

[majax]

The fractal fans are pretty decent and quiet. Why don't you give them a shot first?

If I were to replace them, I would go with the PWM and splitter from the motherboard. The Asus fan control software is pretty decent. The PWM will automatically keep the rpm and the noise level very low most of the time. You can always use them on a 3 pin header but you can't usually control the speed of the 3 pin non-PWM fans on a PWM controlled 4-pin header.

I think you can remove one of the bays in the R4? Maybe remove one and put a Noctua there and use the fractal for the hard drive cage.

OK, sounds like a plan. So, if I used the stock fans and bought one additional fan, I would still hook them all up to the splitter?

Is the splitter listed any good? I have no idea, I just read a couple of threads where people mentioned using them. Also, how would I control the fans once they were installed on the motherboard via the splitter? Would I use ASUS software or would I need to download some other software?

 

[GeneO]

Though I have never used one (but plan to buy one) - the splitter should be fine, though the cables look a little short.

The fans the case come with are not PWM, so you won't need it there. I believe you will have a CPU FAN and CPU FAN OPT on your motherboard. They are probably the only PWM controlled headers on the board so you will want to split off one of those. They both get the same PWM signal. They usually can take 1A (combined I think - see your MB manual) so if the fans you plan to run off these headers add up to less than 1A tops, you can use the Noctua splitter that comes with the Noctua fan. And Noctua fans don't draw much current. Otherwise you will want something like the swiftech splitter that gets its power from a PSU Molex connector instead of from the motherboard.

There is usually one other 4 pin Chassis fan header, but it is not PWM controlled, but voltage controlled. The PWM line on it is pulled up to +5V (100% {WM duty cycle), and the 12V header pin controls the speed by varying the voltage . Look in your manual at the chassis 4 pin header and if the 4th pin isn't labeled PWM, then it is as I say. The Swiftech splitter will not work with this header - they will always run full blast.

You could use Asus or other software to control the fans. I use Asus and it works fine. You could also not use software and control it through the BIOS, but the BIOS control is not as flexible in defining a fan curve.

 

[majax]

Is there anyway to set the fans to adjust themselves based on case temperature? Otherwise, how would someone like myself even know what to set them on (people without technical knowledge)?

Here's the three options that I see:

1) Control through R4 with 3 fan controller (FLX fans needed)
2) Control through motherboard & ASUS Software (PWM fans needed)
3) Control through splitter & BIOS (PWM fans needed)

 

[GeneO]

What do you mean by case temperature? There is no such well-defined thing.

You may need a PWM splitter for #2 as well - probably not with low amperage Noctua though - you can use the Noctua splitters. #2 is the quietest solution IMO.

Just finished an upgrade to 4 Noctua PWM fans on my 'puter. Nice and quiet at idle as well as load. Have split both the CPU and CPU OPT headers to give me 4 PWM controlled by CPU temperature (defined by the on-board Nuvoton chip).

 

[majax]

Sorry, I forgot to include that on #2. So, you did #2 or #3?

 

[GeneO]

#2. I have two NF-F12 PWM push/pull on the CPU off of the CPU FAN header, NF-A15 PWM (top intake) and NF-S12A PWM (rear exhaust) off of CPU FAN OPT. I also have a Corsair SP120 Quiet (case bottom intake) voltage controlled off of case fan and two front intake Fractal design 120 mm stepped down voltage off PSU intake from the front. All of the PWM and voltage controlled fans are controlled by ASUS Fan Xpert II software.

 

[GeneO]

Your welcome. And you should thank the other people who have helped you in the 5 (+ ?) other forums that you have posted this in.

 

[majax]

Sorry for the delay, been working a lot. Thanks for the help so far but I'm still not understanding a few things.

I have one NF-F12PWM for the CPU fan. However, if CPU_OPT will be controlled in the same way as the CPU_FAN header, isn't that a problem? I have the idea to do exactly what you did. However, wouldn't the CPU fan need to have a different configuration than the case fans?

I'm not sure what motherboard anyone has here so here is my fan header for the ASUS Z77 Sabertooth motherboard:

CHA_FAN1
CHA_FAN2
CHA_FAN3
CHA_FAN4
CPU_FAN
CPU_OPT

 

[RnRollie]

Should be in the MB manual, but most likely only CPU_FAN & CPU_OPT are PWM

Voltage fan headers are 3 Pins,, PWM fan headers are 4 pins

 

[majax]

Thanks for the information. I went ahead and got 3 FLX fans.