TR Forums

Hey all!

So I finally started building my new rig.

So far, I just love the Corsair 600T. It's a brilliantly designed case in many ways--aside from the almost complete lack of documentation.

My questions are specific to the included fan controller. After some Googling, I found this guide by Corsair themselves. I also found this Youtube video on the topic.

Neither answers these questions:

1. Corsair's guide only covers the two 200mm fans and then ends by saying there are still two free connectors left for additional fans. The case comes with a pre-installed 120mm back exhaust fan. Do I hook that up to the fan controller as well?
2. Then there's the CPU fan. Do I hook that up to the fan controller as well? I'm guessing no... but that's just it. I'm guessing.
3. Perhaps most importantly, would you recommend using a manual fan controller at all?

Assuming you want the system to manage fan speeds, I suppose all fans should be connected to the motherboard.
Assuming you'd like to have some manual control over fan speed and, with that, noise level, you'd want them connected to the fan controller.

The way I understand it is that if you hook up all fans (three case fans and a CPU fan) to the fan controller, your motherboard loses all knowledge of fan performance. I assume this because the fan controller lets the user control fan speed with a dial and draws power from a molex connector that comes straight from the PSU. So it completely skips the motherboard. And it makes me wonder... is that a good thing? Feels like a "no" to me.

I have the 600T white case. So here is how I did assembled my system.

I hooked up the 120 mm, I hooked mine up to the case fan controller along with the two 200 mm.

Do not hook up the CPU fan to the fan controller. You want, and NEED, the motherboard to be able to control the CPU fan so it can adjust the speed depending on how hot the CPU is running. I would not even consider not hooking up the CPU to the motherboard.

As to the case fans. You can do it either way. The fan controller will give you manual control of the fans. This is the way I hooked my system up. I have never used the control other than the first couple of days testing the range of fan speeds. I have since left the fans at the lowest setting. Hooking the case fans to the motherboard will give it automatic fan speed control, if your motherboard is capable of that. Guess it depends on how you want the fans controlled.

My systems runs cool and I have not even had a reason to adjust the fan speed from the lowest setting. Considering how easy I found it to do my build in the 600T you could try it either way and change it if you find you want to try the other option. It would be simple to change from the fan controller to the motherboard and back.

Hoped this helped out.

Your Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard has excellent fan speed / system temperature controls in the UEFI/BIOS. It has several independent PWM (pulse width modulation) fan speed controllers. I'd be inclined to use the capabilities of the motherboard as much as possible. That way, your motherboard will speed up the fans when it needs more cooling and it will slow them down when it doesn't need them.

The case fans seem to use the 3-pin connector instead of the 4-pin PWM ones? So may be you can't control them via the motherboard headers?

3-pin variable-voltage fans work. They just cannot be controlled as precisely or across as great a range as PWM fans can.

Thank you all!

I bundled up all the case fan controller cables, zipped them with a zip tie and tucked them away in the top left of the case. Connected all fans to the motherboard. I'm quite pleased with the noise levels. But then I haven't tested what the system sounds like under full load yet. Might get noisy... but when playing games, I will be wearing a headset anyway, so I don't see how that should be a problem. I feel comfort in knowing that the system is taking care of managing fan speeds for me--automatically.