Hi there.
I'm building something different- an external watercooling setup inspired by the Alphacool Eiswand. I have all my parts figured out, and even have a plan for the assembly of the thing in a custom enclosure.
The only things I can't be sure of are my fan/pump control, and my method of controlling when the external system turns on/off.
I want a PCB-only controller, and ideally one that can be controlled by plugging it into a USB port. From the looks of things, the Aquaero 6 LT meets my needs perfectly. It even has PWM fan headers.
The thing I'm unsure about is my pumps. I'm running two
Alphacool DC-LT 3600 pumps in series, because I found a great way to mount them in a super low-profile configuration to keep the size of the external unit as small as possible. I'm using a 280mm Monsta radiator, and four Noctua Industrial PPC 2000 fans. It's already beefy and there are no aquabus-compatible pumps that will fit into the design at all.
So what I was thinking of doing is plugging two PWM fans into FAN1 with a splitter, ditto with FAN2, and then in FAN4 is what I would use to control my pumps (which are powered by 3-pin molex fan headers) with another splitter. Also, I intend to use a
Aquacomputer USB cable A-plug to 5 pin female header to connect the thing via a normal USB port. This has the added benefit of being able to unplug it when I need to without any hassle. The unit will be powered by a
Phobya external PSU 230V to 4Pin Molex 34 Watt plugged into the molex connector on the Aquaero 6 LT. This means that it will be receiving power from the wall even when the computer it's connected to is turned off. I imagine I should be able to simply tell the controller to only turn shit on when the system turns on, but I didn't see any documentation confirming this.
I basically just need confirmation that all this will work. In summary:
- Will I be able to control my pumps via voltage control on the Aquaero 6 LT's fan headers? Will the 3-pin splitter work? Will I be able to tell it that they're pumps, not fans?
- Will the controller work as if it were connected internally? i.e. I only want the pumps and fans to turn on when the computer is running; there's no switch on the external PSU and I don't particularly want to add one even though I could. It's cleaner to just have it turn on when (and only when) my motherboard tells it to via the USB. That said, what would happen if the USB connector got unplugged while the system was running? Unlikely to happen, but is there any potential problem there? (by which I mean unexpected or unpredictable "glitchy" behavior, not the fact that I now have a computer running with a non-active water loop)
- I plan to get a Aquacomputer cuplex kryos NEXT with VISION as my CPU block. Will this be able to display stuff about the fan speeds etc (info from the external unit) provided it's plugged into the USB internally? And I'll be able to make custom fan curves based on CPU/GPU temps without purchasing extra temperature sensors, right?
I'm pretty sure it's all going to work fine, but I wanted to be sure before I locked in my enclosure design based on having this particular controller.
Please let me know if there's anything else I should be aware of before I choose this controller, and any advice is welcome.
If I've explained this badly, sorry; I can clarify anything that's unclear.