How to make fans spin faster when hard drives get hotter?

[John Danger]

How do you make your hard drive fans spin faster when  your hard drives get hotter?

 

Basically a way to have them spin slowly and quiet when hard drives are not working but then if they are working a lot and generating a lot of heat, spinning much faster.

 

Is there some kind of controller unit that you need to buy or does the motherboard bios usually have settings for this?

 

Basically monitoring the hard drive temp and if it exceeds a certain temp, make fan spin faster and if temp drops below a certain point make fans spin slower.

 

Also, I assume you also need some kind of power splitter to support so many fans as well right?

 

Thanks.

 

[Hoopster]

12 minutes ago, John Danger said:

How do you make your hard drive fans spin faster when  your hard drives get hotter?

Check out the System AutoFan plugin.  Look for the installation URL in the linked post.  Your BIOS likely also has some type of fan control.

 

If your motherboard has IPMI (as mine does), a better option is the IPMI plugin. 

 

Here are my Front Fan1 settings from the IPMI plugin (50% while HDD temps remain under 35 C then increasing as temps rise up to 100% fan speed at 45 C):

 

CPU fans and other case fans have similar controls based on either CPU or HDD temps.

Edited November 29, 2022 by Hoopster

[John Danger]

22 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Check out the System AutoFan plugin.  Look for the installation URL in the linked post.  Your BIOS likely also has some type of fan control.

 

If your motherboard has IPMI (as mine does), a better option is the IPMI plugin. 

 

Here are my Front Fan1 settings from the IPMI plugin (50% while HDD temps remain under 35 C then increasing as temps rise up to 100% fan speed at 45 C):

 

CPU fans and other case fans have similar controls based on either CPU or HDD temps.

 

 

In order to do this, you would need to use a port on your motherboard dedicated to a fan correct? It will not work on the fans with the older molex power connection right?

 

 

 

[Hoopster]

20 hours ago, John Danger said:

It will not work on the fans with the older molex power connection right?

Right.  Fan control for PWM fans (4-pin) is dependent on them being plugged into motherboard fan headers.  Fan speed control won't work with Molex.

 

I don't know how fans would work with the adapter shown in the second picture.  I doubt 5 fans plugged into the same motherboard fan header can be controlled independently unless there is some kind of control circuit built into that adapter.   If you want them all triggered by the same temperature sensor perhaps that is not a problem.

 

My CPU cooler has two Noctua fans and they are plugged into the same motherboard CPU fan header by a Noctua Y cable.  That works because I want them to have the same speed settings based on temp.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Hoopster

[ConnerVT]

A fan plugged/wired to a Molex connector is already running at 100%.