I'd have posted this in another thread about this case but I'm on a rampage now having got everything installed in my new build and I'm anxious to power up and install Win 10, but I'm confused as to the PWM Fan Hub included in this case.  In the schematic below you're supplied w/ a labeled cable to connect the 4-pin on the hub to the motherboard CPU fan header (the universally PWM compliant header), so if you want PWM mode, you must connect it to the CPU fan header.  Some mobo models support PWM mode thru all headers, but I can't tell if that's the case with the MSI MPG Gaming Edge I'm using.  The manual states the CPU/Pump Fan header 'by default' is in PWM mode, and the Sys1 and Sys2 Fan headers are 'by default' in DC mode.  It says 'the fan header can be switched in the BIOS between PWM and DC mode, but it does not state all three fan headers support the PWM mode, so I'm guessing it's just the CPU fan header for PWM on this board.  

My goal:  to have is control over all 6 case fans I'm using so they aren't all on at full speed.   

Now if I connect the 4-pin from hub to CPU fan header, where am I supposed to connect the 4-pin CPU fans from the Noctua NH-D15? There are no other 4-pin connectors on the PWM hub to connect them to.   Confusing!  All the hub connectors are 3-pin.

Help!  And thanks all in advance can't be too complicated, but apparently I'm making it so!!

 

Addendum:  OK, I think I figured it out.  The CPU fan leads from the cooler go to Sys 1, which are DC mode by default, or exclusively.  Then the 4-pin from the hub goes to the mobo CPU fan header.  Yes?

 

Edited March 6, 20206 yr by Noel

I didnt bother to use it Noel. I plugged my fans into the supplied fan headers on my Asus board. In fact I stripped the hub out. 

 

But NO! No way would I connect  the D15 fans to it. Use the CPU fan header on the board and the CPU opt  fan header for your second fan

Using a fan hub for something as important as your CPU cooler is not something I would ever do. 

On a modern board all fans are likely to be PWM. Just go to the relevent section in the UEFI and you will see the options for each header and know straight away.

It should also tell you if the headers on your board are PWM in your motherboard manual.

 

The other point is that you could use Y splitter cables. I recall Noctua provide them with fans. Your hub to CPU fan header. And the D15 fans on a splitter to the boards CPU opt header.

But as I say, I stripped the hub out and binned it. My cable routings were better without it. Didnt see the point when I have plenty of PWM fan headers on the board.

🙂

Edited March 7, 20206 yr by martin-w

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

But NO! No way would I connect  the D15 fans to it. Use the CPU fan header on the board and the CPU opt  fan header for your second fan

Using a fan hub for something as important as your CPU cooler is not something I would ever do.

🙂

Thanks Martin as I ended my last comment w/ an Addendum, I couldn't see using something as convoluted as that on the CPU fans either, and figured out how to use the hub.  The hub has enough connectors for the 6 fan locations and it was a tidy way to route all of those fan leads to the back of the case, so all's well.  In order for PWM functionality to work on a per fan basis they must be 4-pin fans, and the Phantek fans I bought were all 3-pin.  So I am using MSI's smart fan utility in the BIOS, and while that dictates fan speed based on motherboard temp, it does it for all 6 additional fans having them run at the same speed, which is how it is supposed to work on this arrangement--the FAN 1 header on the hub sets the speed for all of the other case fans.  What would have been better and was my goal was to be able to set them individually, this way I could have been able to dial in that ideal balanced pressure.  I was able to drill a few holes and put the 3rd fan from the top down to under the upper drive cage having removed the lower cage so it's more balanced but negative-biased still.  I will probably end up removing the upper cage as well as soon as I copy some files from a data HDD.  Pretty cool the other SSD mounts on the Enthoo case ;o)  Unfortunately the board came w/o any jumper caps and also I'm not seeing a PC beeper/speaker so I don't think I heard any beep during POST. 

Powered up last night and was happy to discover an easy 4.8Ghz on 1.15v with using Intel Ext OC app's stress test (HT off) and highest temp was 56C so can't be unhappy with that.  I'm guessing there's a bit more headroom in this CPU but as stated early on my goal is as it has been w/ the trusty 3930K:  steer clear of the steep curve of diminishing returns that happens when you push the CPU too hard.   I'm STILL very happy w/ how P3D runs on the old box so it should be good cheer to see a 30% bump in thru put.   Looking just at Passmark single threaded perf the difference ought to be around 35% but that may not apply so well in P3D.  Just have to hang on til 3080Ti arrives and finish it off properly!

Edited March 7, 20206 yr by Noel

Don't know if your board is the same or not, But with Asus boards, you can control both 3 pin and 4 pin fans, on each header, with the UEFI or Fan Xpert. DC or PWM doesn't matter. 

Yeah I wish case manufacturers wouldn't do that, leave out the speaker. I built a system for someone recently and that was the same, Phanteks case and no speaker. So I bought a bag full on Amazon, dirt cheap. 

I will have to dig deeper I haven't yet it may be possible thru the UEFI or their fan utility.  In the end this is not a significant issue anyways because while the sum total of the output of the intake fans is lower than the output fans there is going to be some turbulence, especially from dual Noctua 140mm, and this will slow air egress some I would think.   I bet it's pretty close to balanced in fact I will do the incense drift test near some cracks and away from fans to see.

12 hours ago, Noel said:

I will have to dig deeper I haven't yet it may be possible thru the UEFI or their fan utility.  

 

I think most boards are the same now. Fan Xpert on Asus boards is actually pretty good. I control all my fans that way. Haven't even bothered with a custom profile, the Asus standard profile works great, totally silent until under a reasonable load. 

 

12 hours ago, Noel said:

 I will do the incense drift test near some cracks and away from fans to see.

 

And your PC will no doubt smell lovely! 😁

I took a chance w/ MSI this time as they had significantly lower bad reviews and higher good reviews than the popular in the FS world ASUS boards.  The 'n' is pretty big so probably means something.   I've always used ASUS boards and they've been good.  The one in the old box died of a bum BIOS chip after 3y and I sent it back to ASUS for repair and voila the new one performed the same o/c-wise and I got another 3+y out of the box as a result, for about $125 if I recall, and it still runs well.  Which was great because this let me avoid a whole new install, God forbid:  OMG I forgot what a royal pain to install everything I had in my P3D 3.4 build!   Most of it is just downloading 64-bit versions but holy cow this is a many day procedure!  

I'm in so deep w/ P3D now, despite the fact it is in many ways putting lipstick on a pig, but the knowledge in how to run and operate it w/ the various add-ons my sense is it's going to be awhile before the new MSFS can compete w/ the whole package that P3D w/ 3rd party add-ons offer.  I won't even buy/load MSFS2 until it has a slew of aircraft support plus a utility like FSCaptain or has something like it built in.  I never fly anywhere w/o using FSC as I find it overall boring w/o a sufficient performance goal to reach.

3 hours ago, Noel said:

it's going to be awhile before the new MSFS can compete w/ the whole package that P3D w/ 3rd party add-ons offer.  I won't even buy/load MSFS2 until it has a slew of aircraft support plus a utility like FSCaptain or has something like it built in.  I never fly anywhere w/o using FSC as I find it overall boring w/o a sufficient performance goal to reach.

 

I think it might surprise you Noel. Scenery wise its looking like no add-on's required. Looks like decent quality aircraft will come with it, a rather lovely TBM a nice business jet. Big stuff too. I think the third party aircraft devs are probably hard at work as we speak, as they are already in the loop. Don't think it will be long after the release that the third party aircraft arrive. It looks so stunning that I doubt many will be able to resist diving in.

Doesn't mean we have to abandon our old sims though, we can have both on our systems and enjoy both.. 

Edited March 8, 20206 yr by martin-w

I'll resist for a while for sure I've got too much knowledge and investment in everything already.  I am the luddite when it comes to change and geez, I could have kept using P3D 3.4 for years w/o complaints.   Wanting to nail down a new build I decided to install 4.5 and my sense was at some point all of the support for P3D, the ORBX stuff, PMDG, Majestic, the lovely Flight1 GTN750 in the incredible Phenom 300--it's all tied together for me w/ FSCaptain which I use every single flight.  It will take awhile to reach this level of maturity even though the base package for MSFS looks fabulous what we have is already--real good.  So no, no hurry to leave P3D.  This being said, with the 2TB and 2TB NVme drives installed in the build we'll be good for anything going forward.  Presumably MSFS streams scenery in so won't need massive storage but I can use it for a bunch of other things and it's so cheap these days for storage.   $239 for 2TB NVme.   For contrast, my first PC was a Pentium 60Mhz and in that build which was circa '92 I splurged for a Maxtor 120Mb HDD and it was around $140 if I recall.

And then there's Microsoft.  God help me.   There are some nice improvements in Win 10 over Win 7, but OMG, what a bunch of very nice stuff was just left out, proven things, little things, but nice to have and no reason to lose.  I see them crop up as I am familiarizing myself with it.  When it comes down to core attributes, they're often hardly touched.  But the GUI, and little things all thru it, are just a major setback IMO.  I'm undoubtedly missing some things as it's new but still.  I love how well my Mac Book Pro works in all ways, and I was a diehard Windows user most of my computing life starting with 3.1.  So as for MSFS, we'll see just how it all works when we get there.  Sure looks great from what we see so far.

Edited March 8, 20206 yr by Noel