Fan control question

I have 2 questions that hopefully someone can help with. I'm currently looking to replace a couple of case fans with quieter models and would also like to get a fan controller to manually adjust the rotation speeds.

Firstly, regarding the fan controller:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=838521

Asides from the price I quite like the look of this, the temperature sensors would be very useful. The problem is can't find any measurements of the height of the dials on the front (i.e. how far from the front face plate they extend). Does anyone know these? It's quite important for me since there isn't a huge amount of clearance between my case door and the front of the 5.25" bays.

Secondly, this is probably a very silly question but what is the difference between regular and PWM fans?

I'm considering either these:

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...cat=885&page=1

or these:

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...cat=885&page=1

Which type would be best for use with a fan controller such as the one linked to above?

I think that if anywhere the solution to your first question can be found here

As for the second question, I think it means that they have built in speed regulation (through the fourth pin) like on a CPU power supply.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wikipedia

PWM is also used in efficient voltage regulators. By switching voltage to the load with the appropriate duty cycle, the output will approximate a voltage at the desired level. The switching noise is usually filtered with an inductor and a capacitor.

One method measures the output voltage. When it is lower than the desired voltage, it turns on the switch. When the output voltage is above the desired voltage, it turns off the switch.

Variable-speed fan controllers for computers usually use PWM, as it is far more efficient when compared to a potentiometer.

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I think that the first will work better, as they have either molex (old IDE HDD ect power) or 3-pinpower. I think that the fan controller has 3-pin fan connectors going to the fans, and Floppy power comming in. It seems to come with some PWM 4-pin adaptors for fans of the second type, but I am not sure how many.

here is a nice picture that I got of there website, and edited:D
http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l...r-5_25-PCB.jpg

Ah right, so basically the PWM fans would be a bit pointless since this controller uses 3 pin connectors on the pcb. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll get the 3 pin ones and save a couple of quid!

Incidentally the manafacturers website shows the whole products dimensions and I really wanted to know how far the dials stick out from the front bezel which it doesn't say. If anyone else wants to know I found a review that says it's about 12mm.

http://tech-reviews.co.uk/reviews/sc...an-controller/

The scythe Kaze master is brilliant, it can reduce the voltage down to almost 0 making it the most flexible fan controlled. I would go for some scythe Jyuni

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=468