Talk:Computer fan control

Unnamed section
Some are mounted in 5.25" drive bay and has knobs or something that can adjust the speed?

Fan Speed Controllers
Ah. Made the big changes to the article, and forgot the hardware hacking manual fan speed controller. *smack*. Alright, adding time!

Branespace 18:17, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Alright, added fan speed controllers

Branespace 18:21, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

who wrote that crap? Asicmod (talk) 04:14, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Voltmodding? WHAT?! since when does +5v and +12v = 7v across a fan?

Popularity of PWM
The article says "The method by which the software physically controls the fan is usually PWM". I'm not sure that's right. I haven't seen any fans with four wires or any motherboards with four pin fan headers yet but, then, I haven't seen so many fans or motherboards (not above a dozen of each in the last 12 months).

Especially given the aural perception problem with PWM and its expense plus it being relatively new I suspect most of the fan control being done by software right now is by varying the voltage supplied to the fan, not PWM. --Nh5h (talk) 12:36, 21 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Intel has been including two PWM fan header on it's motherboards for years, such as the D975XBX ("Bad Axe"). Likewise, Intel's stock fan/heatsink assemblies also use PWM. 68.84.185.233 (talk) 00:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

What PWM Fan Noise ?
There is a problem with this sentence in the article:

"Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is a common method of throttling fans, but has a big disadvantage if used to silence fans."

Perhaps this theoretically true, but in practical desktop computer applications it is absolutely false and misleading. I now have 6 PWM high performance Delta fans. PWM makes these Delta beasts quiet enough for daily use. That is half the point of using PWM in the first place.

If others agree, I suggest that they change this text to something more accurate. Furthermore, the theoretical PWM noise issue should reference and put in some kind of practical context.

Possibly you could get around this by using a low pass filter on the onboard PWM, to provide clean power to the external PWM, but I'm not even sure if any/some/most external speed controls are PWM.* Asicmod (talk) 04:07, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
 * If you externally PWM an fan already being driven by the onboard PWM control circuit you could then cause audible (to human hearing range) harmonics due to the whole Nyquist thing. Since PWM usually is at a frequency above human hearing, if you double-modulated it you'd get harmonics/aliasing.  Perhaps that's what they're referring to?

How does software, which is digital, exert physical control?
"The method by which the software physically controls the fan" -- What does "physically" mean here? Software is not a physical component. That's why it's "soft". What other kinds of control are you trying to differentiate from? Does the fan also control the fan mentally? Emotionally? Financially? Why not just say "The method by which the software controls the fan"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.231.126.231 (talk) 05:47, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Voltmnodding +5V
Another method is decreasing the voltage to +5V by connecting the +12V rail of the fan to the +5V rail of the PSU. This doesn't have the disadvantages of the +7V-method, however this doesn't work with all fans, because some fans already stop at voltages above 5V. However, some fans still run at +5V and it is a common method, you can even buy adapters for this. On excample is this adapter, which connects two fans at +5V and 2 fans at +12V to a 4-pin Molex connector. --MrBurns (talk) 11:17, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Circuit diagram for adjusting speed with resistor
A diagram showing how this circuit works would be really useful. Dazalc (talk) 16:19, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

"This article principally describes" computer fans
Why? Fan control is an immense subject, involving everything from computers to cars, air conditioners, and industrial processes. --Test35965 (talk) 11:08, 10 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Just like that. Someone decided to invest his/her time to describe control of computer fans.  Why should it be a problem, as the lead section also clearly states that? &mdash; Dsimic (talk | contribs) 02:46, 13 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Suggest the article name be changed to something like "Fan control (personal computer)" or the like; it's an incredibly specialized tiny face of a potentially huge topic. Fifteen minutes with the Moeller "Upgrading and repairing" book would stiffen up the references here, but who has that kind of time? --Wtshymanski (talk) 20:42, 1 December 2014 (UTC)


 * That makes sense, though Fan control (personal computer) would indicate there's a disambiguation. Also, 99% of contemporary servers use pretty much the same fan technologies as in personal computers, so Computer fan control should be a better name.  Went ahead and WP:BOLDly renamed the article (though, I've managed to screw up the edit summary, sorry for that) –  hope you agree. &mdash; Dsimic (talk | contribs) 03:52, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Original_research
Most of this article lacks citations, and it appears that the material was written in absence of actual verifiable information - that's the definition of original research.--Test35965 (talk) 11:30, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

BLDC not PMDC motors
Computer and ICT equipment fan are not "essentially a bladed DC motor" but electronically controlled BLDC motor. Vary the voltage linearly may work, depending on the internal control electronic, but in general is not an appropriate control method for *all* fans.

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Software section misleading
The software section implies that third-party programs are first party, like the one for macOS. There are some other examples of this too, but I did not want to delete the whole section.Jjismynameforreal (talk) 23:48, 31 May 2017 (UTC)