Tri-Cool Fans on a controller panel?

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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Lubb
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:11 am
Location: IL-USA

Tri-Cool Fans on a controller panel?

Post by Lubb » Thu Sep 01, 2005 11:20 am

I ordered a case/cooling setup for an existing PC I have. I ordered a Zalman ZM-MFC1 controller panel to easily adjust fan speeds, but the case I ended up going with is the Antec P180 with the included Tri-Cool fans. I don't have any other fans to use. I don't need silence, just "quieter than generic 80mm's at full-blast". Is this tri-switch business just a two-way resistor thing built into the fan? I am guessing if I leave the fan at its highest setting, then it would operate just like a regular fan when connected to a channel on the Zalman panel.
----
Also I see discussions of PCM noise from fans throttled to low speeds.
Most of the posts seem to concern software that adjusts the mobo's fan header voltage, and that most mobos use PCM. Is the Zalman panel (ZM-MFC1) a PCM or a voltage regulator?

BrianE
Posts: 667
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:39 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Post by BrianE » Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:18 pm

You mean PWM?

I dont' know what's in the Tri-Cool controller, but I would leave it set on full if you hook it up to the Zalman controller, otherwise you'll be reducing the voltage twice.

Lubb
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:11 am
Location: IL-USA

Post by Lubb » Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:45 pm

Umm, yea, that's what I said, PWM. You hard a hearin or somethin?
Anyhow--it all arrived today and I got it together.
P180 case is generally nice, a couple things I'd change though, but as far as the fans go--I thought they had both 4-pin and mini-3-pin plugs on them, so you could hook the fans up either way. They don't, they just have the 4-pin, so I only have the videocard fan on the Zalman panel now. The (zalman also) videocard fan/sink makes hardly any noise at full blast, it's hardly anything turned down a bit.
....
Will have to look into getting other fans, I guess. I know I could wire the existing ones up to some kind of adaptor or whatever, but I'm wondering if there are fans that would be quieter. Them orange ones I've seen around. . . .

Dane
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2005 11:49 am
Location: Solihull / Bath / Kent - England

Post by Dane » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:48 am

Here's your daddy:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-Pin-zu-3-Pin-Ad ... dZViewItem

This guys a great seller and you can get three of them for less than a new fan.

No rpm monitoring, but who cares - just use your ears

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