Software Fan Controller

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:06 pm

Can anyone suggest a device that can control fan speed via software?

For example, most motherboards have a couple of fan headers that allow speed control via appropriate software (speedfan). But, what if I want more? Having knobs and manually controlling the speed seems insane to me. Placing temp sensors around seems pretty crazy too.

The motherboard/cpu/gpu already have temp sensors that can be read. I have a computer here that can convert that temp reading into an appropriate fan speed... but my mobo only has 2 measly fan headers that can be controlled.

I suspect if I was handy with a soldering iron it wouldn't be hard to make. All that is needed is a software controllable voltage regulator and a serial interface.... but I am a software engineer not a hardware engineer.

Any ideas? Or am I missing something obvious here? As a secondary question, are any motherboard brands particularly good at having lots of controllable fan headers? This is something that isn't often mentioned in reviews!

Thanks!

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue May 05, 2009 11:07 pm

There are really only one candidate for what you are looking for: the mCubed T-Balancer. There are two different models, depending on how many fans you need to control: BigNG and MiniNG. More information can be found at http://www.t-balancer.com/.

Redzo · Post by **Redzo** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:45 am

SpeedFan is name you are looking for. You can find list of motherboards that are particularly good when it comes to controlling fans with it. And it's free too.
jessekopelman: Threadmaker wanted a software solution and you are suggesting hardware one...? Why ?

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Wed May 06, 2009 3:24 am

Redzo: I mentioned SpeedFan in my post. I want an add-on that can be controlled by SpeedFan (or something like it). Ideally without replacing my motherboard!

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

jessekopelman: Hmmm, that looks like it might do it. Actually it seems to do far more than I want, but also that. Thanks!

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:09 am

Ok having read some more about mCubed, yep this is pretty much exactly what I was asking for. Its seriously over priced given the cost of the components, but given my lack of hardware skills...

Thanks for the help!

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:04 pm

Yes, it's expensive. Too expensive to be worth it for my purposes, but I wouldn't say it is overpriced. Can't really be overpriced when you are the only solution on the market . . . I suppose there is room for debate over whether profits would increase through increased sales at reduced cost, but that is beside the point. What I've found is that adding refinement/complexity to fan control suffers from seriously diminishing returns. Over time I've started to see why people like MikeC have remained old school in their love of fixed speed cooling solutions. What I'm trying to say is that fan control is a very useful thing, but continuous real time optimization, maybe not so much.

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:56 pm

Yep agreed... all our lives would be considerably easier if motherboards had enough speed-controllable fan headers, or even better, fans were silent!

EDIT: FWIW this is what I had in mind: http://www.pcdimmer.de/ This page (click the 'english' button) has circuit diagrams and instructions for making a light dimmer that is controlled via USB. It uses approximately 10 euros worth of components, and is pretty much exactly what I need (albeit the wrong voltage, but that should be easy to fix).