Introduction
I am looking for a standalone temperature control with a display and the ability to control at least 4 fans.
Motivation
I am running
2 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1G OC in SLI mode
on a
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
inside an
ATX Mid Antec P183 case.
The thing is that those 2 GFX cards are packed very closely together and one of them has a problem with cooling since it is getting as hot as 99?C. The solution to the cooling problem is to assist the by installing an additional fan which blows air almost directly onto the cards. Due to the Antec case this is possible. I also installed further additional fans to get more air flow while beeing more quiet than the original case fans.
So basically I want to control 4 fans, now. Two of which are excausing air and 2 of which are blowing air inside.
the outtakes:
- vertical airflow, ontop (upper section): Coolermaster 120mm
- horizontal airflow, back end, top (upper section): Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 120mm
- horizontal airflow, back end, bottom (lower section): PSU's Fan (Enermax MODU87+ 800W ATX 2.3)
vertical airflow, middle (upper section): Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 120mm
vertical airflow, bottom (lower section): Coolermaster 120mm
Due to the Antec's design the lower section (PSU and HDD, SSD, bottom Coolermaster) is fairly seperated (only a small gap) so I do consider upper and lower section seperated, cooling-wise.
The Kazes are operating at up to 0.6A which some regular controls cannot handle.
I want these fans to be automatically regulated based on actual temperatures.
I therefore installed temperature sensors on both GFX cards, on top of the CPU and on inside the lower section.
Attempts so far
Scythe Kaze Master 5.25"
I have tried the Scythe Kaze Master 5.25" fan controller. This basically worked but had some disadvantages:
- Manual cooling only (I once forgot to turn all fans to "gaming speeds", luckily my pc had a saftey shut down)
- Annoying warning beep which is at 75?C (unchangable) and does not stop unless temperature is below the alert range or set to off using by a permanent jumper setting.
- Display is sunken into the PC, as the PC is standing on the floor I will have to look down, an edge is hiding the upper half of the numbers on the display rendering it a pain to read.
AeroCool v12xt
I have also tried this humongous control (streches via 2x 5.25" slots).
I am currently using this somewhat automated control.
The display angle works for me and I can see fan speeds and temperatures and also set "alart temperatures".
However, this control only appears to know 2 operation modes. What I call "normal" mode and "alarm mode".
Normal mode will let me chose at which speed the fans should constantly run at.
Alarm mode is triggered by setting the alarm temperature (for each of the sensors). As soon as this mode is triggered it will start beeping (though not as loud and annoying as the Kaze will it stop beeping after a few seconds even though the alarm mode continues - quite nice, I like it) and it will turn up the fan related to the sensor. Sadly the fan speed will be full speed making it noisy as hell. Even worse: the component is question will be cooled down almost instantly releasing the alarm mode, decreasing the fan speed, letting the temperature rise again and causing another alarm state in less than 10 seconds. This on/off/on/off-game is played untill I eventually get annoyed due to constantly starting alarm mode beeps and loud fan noise - essentially forcing me to quit playing or janking up the "normal mode" fan speeds.
Also the display focuses on fan speeds (huge speed meter for that and little one for temperature). This display also only shows one fan speed and one temperature at a time and appears to be an only fancy looking but rather ineffitient display.
What I want
I would like to find a temperature control which displays the all temperatures and fan speeds, similar to the Kaze Master while allowing my to actually view the figures (meaning with respect to my viewing angle - from atop).
So there should be a seperate display which I want to install in either one or two of my free 5.25" slots.
The display should be illuminated because it is usually dark in here. (The Antec has a door to hide the bright light, so that's cool
)This device should be standalone, meaning I do not want to have to boot an OS for it to work, it should work on its own.
The device should be configureable in terms of default fan speeds, critical temperatures and alert notifications of what ever kind.
The device should automatically adjust fan speeds according to sensor readings. I am thinking of interpolating default speed and max speed with normal temperature and critical temperature.
It should not get cought in an On/Off-loop like the AeroCool.
What I do not want
A device which only informs the PC (i.e. mCubed T-Balancer [haven't tried it yet though]).
A device that requires me to manually adjust when I actually want to play.
I will tolerate a device which only shows one set of Temp and Fan Speed at a time (like the Aerocool) but I'd rather have all values at a glimpse without pushing buttons.
Further thoughts
I am thinking of using my Arduino Duemilanove, attaching the temp sensors (should be quite easy) and a display.
This would give me the possibility to customize as much as I want (esp. in regards of regulating the temperatures [using different interpolation approaches and curves]) while being sufficiently affordable.
Sadly, so far I am missing a decent display (should fit into one or at max two 5.25" slots) and ofcourse the program (which I believe I can write).
Questions
- Do you know of any device that would fit my expectations?
- Do you have a suggestion for that Arduino display?
- Do you know of a similar Arduino project?
- Do you have further suggestions/ideas/comments/questions?
Help is apprechiated, thanks for reading!
SC