3 ms·
How does is a set of dedicated pins vs routing everything through the USB bus better?
by spicybright 5y ago
How does is a set of dedicated pins vs routing everything through the USB bus better?
- KingMachiavelli 5y agoYou shouldn't pull more than ~1 to 2A from a motherboard fan header which means you can probably only have 1-2 fans per fan header. Also controlling the motherboard fan headers from the OS is always finicky (most BIOS are utter garbage anyway). This USB adapter pulls power directly from the PSU so it can have 5+ fans and can be more easily controlled from the OS. This specific one can also control some LED strips, etc. TBH it's not really necessary but people like to have it.
- rale00 5y agoI guess it depends on what fans you're running, but 1 A should be enough for at least 3 of the most commonly used ones. Noctua lists max input current for all their fans, and even the high speed industrial ones are only 0.18 A.
- timpattinson 5y agoI don't know of any PC fan which draws more than 0.2A, apart from server fans.
- tuatoru 5y agoStartup, stall and low-speed currents can be higher than rated becase there is less back-emf.
- tenebrisalietum 5y agoThe pins are not better and USB might be preferable because I'm betting onboard fan controllers are frequently intertwined with ACPI which even to this day continues to give issues for operating systems other than Windows. Speculation on my part though.
- simcop2387 5y agoI use one because I have two controllable fan headers on the mb and 6 fans to control. This lets me do a better job of managing the noise in the server while also letting me react to different temps in different areas (particularly hard drive temps)