Rheostat at work

All i've gotta say is that i'm damn pleased to have made the rheostat. I can fully control my fans now, as loud and powerful as I want or as low power/silent as I want. It works great! Also, it is a breeze to put together. To build your own, have a look-see here: http://www.virtual-hideout.net/guides/

Here's a screenie for you guys, running a delta 12EHE (80mm, 80cfm)
at different speeds:

http://photos.onebigvillage.com/pubimage.asp?id_=298663

I'll get my hands on a digicam inside 2 days, get you some pics of my setup here:)

Sweet... looks like it lowered your cpu temps...hope to see those pics soon, as I am pondering w/ the idea of building one myself :D

I recommend it to the extreme. You can't get better than this... :)

I never got that good temps before...I run at 3500rpm or close to that normally, it is pretty quiet and still cools extremely well. With the old fan, I had 3x as much noise and 1/2 the performance. The focused flow makes a huge difference imho.

I want to build somethin like this but cant decide if i should buy it or make it. A rheobus is more expensive to buy than id like so id probly have to make it. I also like the idea of the baybus and would prefer to make one of those. The only thing is i have never really done any soldering and know VERY little about electricity and wiring. My dad has some experience with these things but not much. Think i should just buy it?

i am just gonna buy the one from pcmods as soon as i find a place that has the 80cfm delta's in stock..i am trying to decide what ones to get if i cant find the delta's. prolly the 50cfm sunons

It is the easiest thing to build. All you gotta know how to do is drill and measure :) The soldering is no problem, here's what you need to make your own:

1. Drill and drill bits
2. A bay cover to which the rheostats will be mounted.
3. depending on fan size, 3x 25W rheostats (50ohm for high speed deltas, 25 ohm for everything else). You can plug in as many fans as you want on one of these babies, they won't burn out.
4. Soldering iron, solder, solder paste and a newspaper on top of which to work.
5. a fanbus to make wiring simpler (check out the link I posted, they have a good guide to making one).
6. 5m of red and 5m of black wire (you don't need this much, but better have too much than too little).
7. an extra 4pin molex extension.

Here's how I made mine:

First, i bought all the stuff I needed and made the fanbus and attached all of my fans to the fanbus. Then I measured out and drilled the holes for the rheostats. Next, I attached the rheostats to the bay cover. Then, I prepared the 4pin molex by splicing a 10cm piece of wire to the positive (yellow) 12V line. I attached a red wire going from the center pin of each rheostat to the next. this will power them. Next, I attached the wire coming from the modded 4pin molex to the center terminal of the rightmost rheostat. Then, from here all you need to do is figure out which wire goes to which knob (your preference on what knob controls what fan(s)). This is done by powering up the computer and touching the wire to the rheostat power out pins. When you got the right wire in the right place, solder it on. Repeat for all fans. There ya go :)

Basically, this is just an explanation based on the virtual hideout guide, so have a look-see at their guide. They have the wiring and everything complete. It is a very easy assembly, plus you learn how to solder etc. while you're doing it if you don't already know. Happy building :)

Looks easy enough for any one to do........ I think I will make my brother make me one:D What did it cost ya and can you get the parts at radio shack?

I can't answer either one of those questions for ya, I live in Japan. It is pretty cheap to make though. A very rough estimate would be probably around $20-25 for a 3 rheostat control + fanbus (includes all parts used, not the soldering equipment though).

i just ordered the one from pcmods it was 45. i am NOT good at soldering i dont even think that i can spell it. i figure that is one thing that i wll leave to someone that knows how to do it!

I'm not good at soldering either...It was like the 3rd time I ever did it. It is so simple and easy (you gotta solder about 7 times total) that you can't go wrong really...

Icon says it all. :cool:

How much power can each channel handle?

I got 3x 25W, so I can hook up a total of 75W. I needed something bigger than 10W for the delta 12HHE (80mm, 80cfm), and the next size was 25W. I thought, what the heck, good to have room for expansion. Anyways, I can hook up all my case fans on 1 rheostat and 2 (if I wish) delta 12HHEs on the another one. Right now I've only got 1 delta, don't see a need for a second one.

Cool! i made the temperature controlled unit on that site. I made 2 of them running 3 fans surfin the web its nice and quiet when i kick in mohaa the fans whine up automatically:D

do you think that i can make one for the 3 1/2 bays? nobody ever does and i have a useless one besides the floppy drive! the one that i bought from pcmods is awsome, but i still have 2 fans left the 120mm panaflo and the 80mm panaflo