Kastang
Spot-on advice...I've never bought a controller (I think they take up a 5.25" bay, unless built-in) -
Do you set the temperature and the fan takes care? Or is it purely monitoring the processor temp (via some Mbd monitor routine?) ...and you have to set the fan speed. In other words - do I have to keep checking, or will it automaticaly speed up as necessary?
Fan technophobes:
I bought a 12v 120mm Dia fan and it works ok, taking about 1/3rd the current they claim....but what's the third (yellow) wire for?
The supply is red+, black- (or strictly 0v) and I powered it from a 12v battery, just to check the current consumption.
...It's a Nildec and searching their website has revealed these fans will operate over a minimum 2:1 voltage ratio (so a linear regulator should be OK for dropping fan-speed, well I was going to PWM)...and this third wire is a tachometer output - presumably to monitor that the fan is still going!
...By counting the pulses it would be possible to determine the fan-speed, although this is not important - only the sound/noise is really at issue....v. heat reduction of course.
I've noticed some other fans with this third-wire, so maybe some field-testing is needed!
I note that some new 600w PSU's have a fan over-run feature (when you power down with the mains still present!), the idea being that this reduces processor temperature (and other bits like HDD's) by giving them a further blast....doesn't say how long, but I guess 5mins would be a great help for increasing MTBF/reliability. Cars continue to cool the rad after stopping, so why not PC's?