Hardcano 13 and Bigwater fan speed

Hi,

Installed a Hardcano 13 as I got sick of reaching around the back of the machine to change the fan speed of the Bigwater cooler. It works, but does not seem to spin the fan up to max speed. It does change the speed and registers, but not as fast as with the PCI bracket. I have jumpered the PCI bracket connection.

Any idea's?

System spec's as per my sig.

 

Reply I got from the reseller who asked the distibuter

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Due to the resistance in the Hardcano 13 circuitry, the fan will only spins up to 90% of its top speed. This is actually a common tolerance for most fan controllers. It is not possible to reduce the resistance on the components to "0" to achieve 100% speed of the fan.

The Hardcano 13 will automatically adjust the fan speed to what it thinks is required in the case. Readings from the temperature probe will control the speed of the fan. If the customer wants the fan to spin faster, they could always put it closer to the CPU or any part of the system where it is hot.
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Sucks abit, I was hoping to have max speed from the front of the unit, as I just added a VGA block to the Bigwater and want to run the fan abit faster to keep temps down.

Hanging out for AquaBay radiator, but will need to was until next month for them to hit Australia.

As for the VGA block, the install was not as nice as the CPU block, nore as secure considering it only has 2 bolts.

I've also changed the water flow. Radiator -> CPU -> VGA -> Pump -> Temp Monitor -> Radiator

Running Dnetc (1 CPU on Hyerthreading) My water is 34c after 45 mins of running with fans manually at max

 

I have a pretty similar setup as yours:

Armor case
BigWater watercooling kit
GPU waterblock
Hardcano 13

The fans I use on the radiator and the front intake are identical (Thermaltake 120mm Smart Fan II). I can only get the radiator fan to spin up to 2300rpm while the front intake fan goes up to 2900rpm. Both are controlled by the Hardcano 13.

Firstly, you gotta remember that the radiator fan sits directly on top of radiator which means there's a major obstruction in airflow. This basically means that even if you are able to apply the same power to both fans, the intake fan will still spin faster due to less restriction in airflow.

Secondly, the intake fan that came with the Armor case doesn't spin as quickly as the radiator fan as the intake fan is a rollerbearing design, plus some power is wasted in feeding the LED lights. The original intake fan could only spin up to 1800rpm, I replaced it with the Smart Fan II and now it spins up to 2900rpm.

In any case, I have experimented with leaving the front intake fan on at full tilt for an hour, it doesn't make any difference to case, cpu or gpu temps. Having the radiator fan on at full tilt drops temperatures within 1-2 mins.

My temperatures typically read CPU: 33ºC / CASE: 21ºC at idle (fans at minimum) and CPU: 41ºC / CASE: 23ºC at full load (fans at full blast).

PS. I am also waiting for the AquaBay M2 radiator to be released, might even buy another water pump so that the graphic card has its own watercooling rig. Heaps of space available in the Armor case to mount another water pump.

 

Front Fan which came with the case (Blue LEDs) max 1260rpm
Bigwater Fan, (orange blades, no leds) 2112rpm

I bought 2 other fans to replace the external drive cage and the top, but got the size wrong. Bought 80mm instead of 90mm, so I strapped one inside (not at an exit point) to move air around and it spins to 2542rpm. Internal Air temp 24.3c with abit of ducted heating.

Where are you buying your thermaltake stuff from in .au? I'm getting it from http://www.pccasegear.com.au/

Do you have a Water Temp monitor?

nice unit, but it doesn't fit external for the display, so I removed one of the plastic drive holders and stuck it to the chasis, viewable through the window.

 

My mate is a PC parts retailer so I get everything through him, buying stuff at cost price does make things easier on the wallet

I've got 90mm ThermalTake SmartFan II fans for the rear drive cage/top fans and they spin up to max 3800rpm but at that speed it makes helluva racket (and that defeats the purpose of watercooling) so I just leave those at 2000rpm.

With the Armor case, with the front being meshed and the top vented, I don't think it requires the intake fan to be pushing big air. Like I said, my temps remain the same whether the intake fan is at max or min rpm. It might make a difference in summer but I don't see any difference now.

I don't have a water temp display but I guess water temp should be reading lower than CPU temps. I do have a thermistor fitted on the side of the GPU waterblock and it shows roughly 10ºC less than whatever the CPU temp is.

Personally, I think it's redundant to have too many fans in the Armor case if you've already got watercooling, I've tried turning every fan to maximum (except the radiator fan) and it makes so much noise it sounds like an airplane is about to take off, but it does nothing to reduce CPU temps. With only the radiator fan cranked to maximum and every other fan on minimum, CPU temps drop almost rightaway.

Conclusion: The single most important fan in the Armor case is the radiator fan. The other fans probably help a little in warm weather but not much. I usually leave every fan on minimum rpm unless I'm gaming or rendering stuff. When I am doing that, I just turn the radiator fan and PSU fan speeds up to around 2200rpm, that's usually sufficient to keep temperatures at bay.