Noctua Presents NA-FH1 Eight-channel PWM Fan Hub

[Nihillim]

They REAL late to market with this one, even with the safety reason.

 

[Synthwave]

They only got to be that way be being a copy cat

But its a nice controller I guess.

Especially when they develop new plastics or bearings. Just being a copy cat won't ever propel you to the upper echelons (or arguably the top) of an industry.

Never once was disappointed in their products OR their support throughout the years. It's a very cool manufacturer, even in terms of company relations (they are helpful and want to solve problems, not cheapskate assholes like some other big brands I won't name here), so they have my trust.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Arctic making something like this

4-Pin PWM Fan Splitter Cable | ARCTIC

The 4-Pin PWM Fan Splitter Cable allows connection of up to four fans via a PWM signal | PWM Splitter Cable | 4-Pin PWM Splitter Cable

www.arctic.de

But I prefer PCB one myself

Yeh, that wasn't what i was looking for, and had something like that prior to my own cable. It forces you to bend the cable at the connector in tight places.

There is no cable slack either now since i made it for a specific fan size.

 

[freeagent]

Especially when they develop new plastics or bearings

Especially since that’s what they are known for right?

 

[trsttte]

Your PSU has SCP, and your motherboard PWM header only gets a signal feed.

If your PSU doesn't have SCP, spend the €34.90 on a PSU before you buy this!! (and yes, I know a €34.90 PSU is garbage, but it will almost certainly have SCP if it was made in this century and is capable of actually powering any modern PC)

Exactly what I was going to say, most of the features on this hub are either unnecessary or redundant, 35€ are much better spent towards a better PSU instead of something from the dumpster bin.

In any scenario where this hub could be usefull (garbage psu, garbage motherboard with few/low current headers) the high price of it would also be much better spent doing better choices for the original components.

 

[Synthwave]

Especially since that’s what they are known for right?

Yeah.

What they are known for are the following: top shelf quality, reliability, support, performance and extras with a price to match. Without gaymer LEDs and cringy design which would only appeal to 10-13-year-olds.


mod: How could I forget their actual website? One of the best there is regarding tech companies, it's a joy to work from or find something on it. I mean you can find absolutely everything well-documented there, going back to the dawn of time. Every cooler, fan, cable, kit, technology and whatever else is up for the grabs. The way EVERY manufacturer should operate their site, the only thing they could improve upon is getting their product images a transparent background. The other really nice one which comes to mind is Shuttle's.

 

[trsttte]

Just one NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM take 7W

6.6W (0.55A), it's common for motherboard to have headers that do 1A or even 2A on higher end boards. You also would not want to be anywhere near a pc with more than one of those fans at that speed.

a generic fan is rated for 0.2-0.3A usage

Usually less, 0.20A is upper end of the scale. For reference an Artic P12 uses 0.16A and a Noctua NF-A15 does 0.13A. Even the Phanteks T30 at a reasonable 2000rpm does just 0.13A (at 3000 is pushes to 0.36A but those are not really normal desktop fan speeds)

 

[dyonoctis]

Exactly what I was going to say, most of the features on this hub are either unnecessary or redundant, 35€ are much better spent towards a better PSU instead of something from the dumpster bin.

In any scenario where this hub could be usefull (garbage psu, garbage motherboard with few/low current headers) the high price of it would also be much better spent doing better choices for the original components.

Those features weren't only meant for PC operation. From Noctua themselves:

In terms of safety, unprotected fan hubs bear risks in cases of overcurrent or short-circuits on the output ports. In PC environments, there is usually no risk if the hub is powered through a motherboard fan header because most of these headers are protected with fuses. If, however, the hub is powered directly off the power supply through a S-ATA connector or via adaptors, overcurrent or short-circuits on the output ports can have dangerous consequences: Since the overcurrent protection of most PC power supplies is for the entire 12V rail, a lot of current will go through the fan hub and cables before this protection kicks in. For example, depending on the number of 12V rails, a typical 750W PC power supply may be able to provide 30-60A per 12V rail, so depending on the current draw of other components, a significant part of this would go to through the fan hub and the output port where the short-circuit or overcurrent has occurred. As typical fan cables and connectors are not designed to withstand such high currents, this can make the cables and connectors melt within seconds and may even cause sparks or flames.

To rule out that anything like this can happen, the NA-FH1 features protection circuitries on both the S-ATA power input and the 4-pin input (in case it is used in non-PC environments or connected to a PC power supply using an adaptor cable). Thanks to resettable polyfuses, the NA-FH1 will simply shut down in case of overcurrent or short-circuits, protecting the connected fans and surrounding components. Once the overcurrent or short-circuit event is no longer present, the NA-FH1 will automatically re-establish the protection circuit and resume normal operation.

NA-FH1 technical backgrounds (noctua.at)
There's already a thousand of cheap fan hub out there that are taking care of 99% of a PC user need, in any case Noctua would have had a hard time to bring anything of tangible value against the competition. It's a niche product at a niche price

 

[ymdhis]

Your PSU has SCP, and your motherboard PWM header only gets a signal feed.

If your PSU doesn't have SCP, spend the €34.90 on a PSU before you buy this!! (and yes, I know a €34.90 PSU is garbage, but it will almost certainly have SCP if it was made in this century and is capable of actually powering any modern PC)

My last motherboard had all but one of its PWM fan headers blown after six years of tinkering with different fan hubs, controllers, and splitters.
Granted, I was trying to moderate the speed of several voltage controlled fans. By the time I had enough and changed to an all-pwm fan setup, only one of the board headers still worked. It could also have been a motherboard issue, that board wasn't as high quality as I expected it to be.

So yeah, while this is expensive, it's not that dumb. The old 5.25 slot manual fan controller I had (zm-mfc1 I think), used to cost about the same, and a quick check at the material prices showed that it would've cost me the same if I built one myself (the price for the PCB, components, connectors, cables).

As for the connection leds, a speed controlled fan doesn't either run or not. It's possible it gets power but you set it to a speed too low for it to start. I suppose the connection led could be helpful then. My old zm-mfc1 had them too.

If you want to go cheap you can just get a Akasa Flexa FP5. I think it cost me less than €10 or so, but it only powers 4 fans and it isn't a hub but 4 cables tied to a fan input and a molex input.

 

[maxfly]

Magnets.

My splitty9s only have screws, velcro with semi sticky tape, sniff. I want magnets.

 

[franky27]

Here's some tech pr0n for you my friend (from the product's page):
View attachment 295110

The advantage of easy-to-use Aliexpress's HUB.

 

[AsRock]

so 7w fan is max if your using 8 ?.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Oh dear god, what's the Australian price going to be for this, probably $200.

 

[sLowEnd]

It'd be interesting to see Noctua's talking points scrutinized in a review, compared with fan hubs from other companies, like Deepcool's FH-10 or Arctic's Case Fan Hub.

 

[HBSound]

Is there a way to use this unit to control all 8 fans at different RPMs independently?

I would imagine you need software to identify the item. But how is it controlled?

 

[chrcoluk]

I am curious why even need a hub, I only have a mid range board and it still has loads of fan headers.

 

[Synthwave]

I am curious why even need a hub, I only have a mid range board and it still has loads of fan headers.

And how many of those are for PWM case/radiator fans?

 

[HBSound]

I am curious why even need a hub, I only have a mid range board and it still has loads of fan headers.

In my current setup, I use the Corsiar Fan Pro hubs. I like them. Because I use quiet a few fans in the system. The Corsiar softar/hubs give me some amazing control. The control, the ability to control the RPM of ecah fan indivudally. The Corsair softaware is pretty nice with all the different avenyes to control fan speed based on any temp you so desire. In the new system the plan is to use few of them to run the system.

I do see my motherboard does have support for fans - see below. The new bequiet pro 140 fans have 6V. From my understanidng, I was told when a fan starts up with the system the voltage can spike. So if that is the case, I can technically only add six fans in the new system. Right now I plan on using six 140 in the front for push pull. Three 140 in the top of the case, and one 140mm in the back of the case. So that is 10-140 fans.

From what you know - what do you suggest?

The board has the following: See below.

Fan and Cooling related
1 x 4-pin CPU Fan header(s)
1 x 4-pin CPU OPT Fan header(s)
6 x 4-pin Chassis Fan header(s)
1 x VRM heatsink Fan header
1 x Chipset Fan header

Now I am using the BeQuiet 140 Pro fan:

 

[Chrispy_]

I am curious why even need a hub, I only have a mid range board and it still has loads of fan headers.

IMO most good quality midrange boards (we're not talking ridiculous $1000 flagships here) have 3 PWM fan headers for case fans, fully controllable with custom fan curves in the BIOS, and offer a minimum of two dedicated headers for the CPU (CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT). If you're lucky, you'll sometimes get a dedicated pump header too, but most of the more affordable options will just have a pump setting for CPU_OPT rather than including a dedicated pump header.

3 PWM fan headers is enough, with daisy-chainable fans - I tend to need two headers, one for the intake fans and one for the exhaust fans. It's the bare minimum for a budget build using cheapo PWM fans though - since you basically need to use a fan hub, or stick to 1x exhaust fan and 2x intake fan.

 

[HBSound]

IMO most good quality midrange boards (we're not talking ridiculous $1000 flagships here) have 3 PWM fan headers for case fans, fully controllable with custom fan curves in the BIOS, and offer a minimum of two dedicated headers for the CPU (CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT). If you're lucky, you'll sometimes get a dedicated pump header too, but most of the more affordable options will just have a pump setting for CPU_OPT rather than including a dedicated pump header.

3 PWM fan headers is enough, with daisy-chainable fans - I tend to need two headers, one for the intake fans and one for the exhaust fans. It's the bare minimum for a budget build using cheapo PWM fans though - since you basically need to use a fan hub, or stick to 1x exhaust fan and 2x intake fan.

As of now, my plan is to use a total of ten 140mm fans - six in the front for push-pull, three in the top, and one in the back of the case. However, the Asus WRX 80 Pro motherboard doesn't have any pump connection. Therefore, I need to find a way to control external pumps. Even with just two external EKWB DDC 4.2 PWM Compact pumps, I need to hook them up and control the PWM. The pumps require a power draw of 20W, which I think I can provide by connecting them to the PSU via SATA power. The motherboard controls the pumps' speed, and the CPU connections and PWM are shared. So, the PWM value for one output is the same for the other.

Is this correct?

If this is the case, I what software can I use to control the PWM speeds, in windows?


Technical Specifications:
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 90 x 62 x 38mm
- Motor: Electronically commuted ball bearing motor
- Rated voltage: 12V DC
- Power consumption: 20W
- Maximum head pressure: up to 5.2m
- Maximum flow rate: up to 1000L/h
- Maximum liquid temperature: 60°C
- Materials: Stainless steel, PPS-GF40, EPDM O-rings, Aluminium oxide, hard coal
- Power connector: SATA power and 4-Pin PWM FAN connector for PWM / RPM readout
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 90 x 62 x 38mm
- Motor: Electronically commuted ball bearing motor
- Rated voltage: 12V DC
- Power consumption: 20W
- Maximum head pressure: up to 5.2m
- Maximum flow rate: up to 1000L/h
- Maximum liquid temperature: 60°C
- Materials: Stainless steel, PPS-GF40, EPDM O-rings, Aluminium oxide, hard coal
- Power connector: SATA power and 4-Pin PWM FAN connector for PWM / RPM readout

 

[chrcoluk]

In my current setup, I use the Corsiar Fan Pro hubs. I like them. Because I use quiet a few fans in the system. The Corsiar softar/hubs give me some amazing control. The control, the ability to control the RPM of ecah fan indivudally. The Corsair softaware is pretty nice with all the different avenyes to control fan speed based on any temp you so desire. In the new system the plan is to use few of them to run the system.

I do see my motherboard does have support for fans - see below. The new bequiet pro 140 fans have 6V. From my understanidng, I was told when a fan starts up with the system the voltage can spike. So if that is the case, I can technically only add six fans in the new system. Right now I plan on using six 140 in the front for push pull. Three 140 in the top of the case, and one 140mm in the back of the case. So that is 10-140 fans.

From what you know - what do you suggest?

The board has the following: See below.

Fan and Cooling related
1 x 4-pin CPU Fan header(s)
1 x 4-pin CPU OPT Fan header(s)
6 x 4-pin Chassis Fan header(s)
1 x VRM heatsink Fan header
1 x Chipset Fan header

Now I am using the BeQuiet 140 Pro fan:

View attachment 314035




View attachment 314034

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[claes]

As of now, my plan is to use a total of ten 140mm fans - six in the front for push-pull, three in the top, and one in the back of the case. However, the Asus WRX 80 Pro motherboard doesn't have any pump connection. Therefore, I need to find a way to control external pumps. Even with just two external EKWB DDC 4.2 PWM Compact pumps, I need to hook them up and control the PWM. The pumps require a power draw of 20W, which I think I can provide by connecting them to the PSU via SATA power. The motherboard controls the pumps' speed, and the CPU connections and PWM are shared. So, the PWM value for one output is the same for the other.

Is this correct?

If this is the case, I what software can I use to control the PWM speeds, in windows?


Technical Specifications:
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 90 x 62 x 38mm
- Motor: Electronically commuted ball bearing motor
- Rated voltage: 12V DC
- Power consumption: 20W
- Maximum head pressure: up to 5.2m
- Maximum flow rate: up to 1000L/h
- Maximum liquid temperature: 60°C
- Materials: Stainless steel, PPS-GF40, EPDM O-rings, Aluminium oxide, hard coal
- Power connector: SATA power and 4-Pin PWM FAN connector for PWM / RPM readout
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 90 x 62 x 38mm
- Motor: Electronically commuted ball bearing motor
- Rated voltage: 12V DC
- Power consumption: 20W
- Maximum head pressure: up to 5.2m
- Maximum flow rate: up to 1000L/h
- Maximum liquid temperature: 60°C
- Materials: Stainless steel, PPS-GF40, EPDM O-rings, Aluminium oxide, hard coal
- Power connector: SATA power and 4-Pin PWM FAN connector for PWM / RPM readout

You’re probably going to want to look into aquacomputer stuff

Überwachung und Steuerung

Überwachung und Steuerung

shop.aquacomputer.de

 

[HBSound]

You’re probably going to want to look into aquacomputer stuff

Überwachung und Steuerung

Überwachung und Steuerung

shop.aquacomputer.de

Thank you.

I have searched their website in the past long and hard.

Thank you so much!!!

 

[chrcoluk]

Ironic, I had a noctua fan start failing, I think the bearing.

So I replaced both front intake fans (other was already disconnected ages ago), used two unused enermax I had laying around with the old fan design which I think gives better airflow, one DC, one PWM.

The one I replaced is DC so kept the noctua DC extension cable in place on the board, but then had to look where to connect the other fan, I looked at the manual and seems this board is generous, it has 7x PWM. However 2 are under the heatsink poorly placed by the board designers, I had to remove my DC P4600 to access an unused one, I swapped in another fan there though using a noctua extension cable so I can keep that cable plugged in for the life of the board because of how hard the header was to access. The new fan was then put in the easier one where I swapped out the other one from (used on side intake).

Currently now have 5 fans running including CPU. So only the two hard to access headers left now.

Also given the bios bugs I have encountered with fan curve stuff, I do think that these hubs having their own fan controls is a nice feature.

I have two fractal silent series R2 fans not used now, one needs cleaning, not sure if they work 100% though. But my exhaust fan is the new design and it needs to spin very high to get good air flow, so plan on buying a fractal silent series R3 to replace it when they back in stock. I might also replace the noctua CPU fan as it has the new inferior blade design. One of the R2's I will test on the side intake at some point, to see if works properly (as that so easy to swap out) and if works ok will keep it there as they have good airflow RPM ratio.