Fractal Design 7 fan management – avoids sending RPM data to the motherboard
Fractal Design 7 fan management – avoids sending RPM data to the motherboard
I received the Fractal Design 7XL with the built-in fan hub. The motherboard uses the ASRock Z690 PG Riptide. I updated the BIOS to the latest version. There are three fans—one exhaust and two fronts—each included with the case, connected via the hub controller. The controller is powered through SATA (confirmed, same daisy chain connects to a drive), and the PWM controller cable is attached to the CHA_FAN2 header (CHA_FAN3 also worked). The motherboard shows headers as N/A, while the CPU fan reports correctly. What might I be overlooking?
They didn’t handle the case fans properly. I switched to a PWM fan to verify, and you were correct—thank you. Now I’m curious about the speeds of the remaining fans when no PWM unit is connected. For a $250 case, I’ve felt let down by some of these shortcuts.
based on the fans you have, it reads the RPM signal and adjusts power to boost it by a certain percentage, ensuring all fans receive similar increases. variations in fan speeds will cause differences; for example, mixing 120mm and 140mm fans will result in noticeable changes.
140's operate slower than 120s, but when only 140's are present you can configure a speed curve in any fan management system. It will adjust all fan headers to set minimum and maximum speeds. If it runs on a hub, the first port, and outputs power to control fan speeds, those fans that don't send an RPM signal will receive the same voltage and their speed will change in sync with the first fan or other ports. For instance, a 140mm fan between 0 and 1200 RPM, a 120 fan between 0 and 3000 RPM—if it delivers 66% power to all hub fans, the 140 would spin at 800 RPM while the 120 runs at 2000 RPM, which could cause excessive noise.
if no RPM signal is sent it won’t mark it as available. The system won’t recognize it unless you enable AIO or use the pump header at 100%. AIO and pump default are typically 100%, though some boards vary. It’s common to group multiple panels onto one header for synchronization. I have all my 13 fans connected to a hub, which connects to just one fan port. Even if the port isn’t PWM or DC on the hub, it won’t display RPM in regular sensors or software—it will function independently since all ports are visible through a USB2 header. The software reads it directly from there.
It’s not nothing because they’re rotating. When the PWM fabric was connected, it didn’t sound like they were starting quickly, though it was difficult to say for sure.
they become noisy when spinning over 1200 rpm, and if you miss them, it means the speed is under 1000