mCubed T-Balancer

[mdmint]

Just checked, 3dcool shows them now in stock.
http://www.3dcool.com/Index.asp then search mcubed.
Was considering a Pyramid V fan silencer http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showde..._ID=67&CATID=7
but the T-Balancer though costing substantially more looks to be much more effective, and configurable.

[stanger89]

And just when I thought I was about done buying stuff.

Thanks mdmint.

As a bonus, they've got the Panaflo L1As rather cheap.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by stanger89

And just when I thought I was about done buying stuff.
Thanks mdmint.

Hey, it's all your fault! I didn't even know about the T-Balancer until you brought it up earlier!

As a bonus, they've got the Panaflo L1As rather cheap.

See, there you go again!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mdmint

Hey, it's all your fault! I didn't even know about the T-Balancer until you brought it up earlier!

See, there you go again!

Hey, it's not my fault, I just passed along some info I saw on Silent PC Review

[mdmint]

Bit the bullet and a T-Balancer is on it's way. Also will be correcting a design flaw I made building my HTPC. The D-Vine case comes with 2x60mm exhaust ports, I used 60mm Thermaltake dual speed thermal triggerd fans. Can be noise noticable. Replacing them with 80mm Panaflo LA1 with 80 to 60mm adapters. Running them and the 120mm CPU cooling fan off the T-Balancer should be sweet! Total temperature triggered smooth fan control. Also adding an external 120mm Panaflo fan off T-Balancer to back of Oak AV tower to help cool Denon receiver which sits in the stack jsut below he HTPC. Could've should've maybe moved the Denon to sit above the HTPC but didn't want to deal we the mega cabling mess! Plus it's been in that eye level position for years and used to it. May go ahead and move it this reconfig' time though, haven't decided.

I'll take pic's this time and pic's of my Server... Now the wait for them to arrive!

[stanger89]

Yeah, mine's on the way too. For my part, I cut the back of my D-Vine out to fit two 80mm fans. So I'll have 2 L1As and the Zalman running of the T-balancer.

I'm excited

BTW,
I'm really impressed with 3dcool so far, placed my order last night (about 10pm CST), and had my tracking numbers this morining.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Yeah, mine's on the way too. For my part, I cut the back of my D-Vine out to fit two 80mm fans. So I'll have 2 L1As and the Zalman running of the T-balancer.

I'm excited

BTW,
I'm really impressed with 3dcool so far, placed my order last night (about 10pm CST), and had my tracking numbers this morining.

I'll see how the 80 to 60mm adapters work and hack the case if necessary.

My first time ordering from 3DCool. Ordered this morning @ 10:45 and received tracking number 11:47. Yeah, impressive service!

Yes, this should be way cool cooling setup!

Since will have main HTPC Client apart anyway now about to bite another bullet and order MSI NX6600GT-VTD128 to replace ATI 9600...

BTW, looks like we're the only nuts jumping on the T-Balancer so far. No guts no glory!

[mdmint]

As Stanger put it: OMFG!
5 hours ago I attacked my Client HTPC. First the challenge of installing the 2x80mm Panaflo LA1 to replace the 2x60mm. They ended up external looking somewhat like a rocket booster! Then the Big Kahuna, installing the mCubed T-Balancer. Sensors & cables & USB headers oh my. Had a challenge with the internal mobo USB headers, never could get the T-Balancer to recognize them. So for now using external USB cable from scanner. Bummer, MSI 6600GT fan doesn't have tacho sig, it's connected to channel 4 of the T-Balancer anyway. (pulled it's heatsink, cleaned and applied Artic Silver too) Ok, time for the moment of truth, powered it up, all the fans came on then a few seconds later ALL the fans turned off! I immediately killed power. Didn't seem quite normal. Now, the PC was sitting on the kitchen table, no monitor or anything, just power cord. Did some more reading of the CD manual and online, everything seemed right. But everytime I turned it on all the fans would shut off after about 5 seconds. And then I found that's normal! Has default temp curve and until it needs to turn on a fan, they are just off, period. Then come up slowly. Time to "see" what's going on so hooked 'er up to the Toshiba with HPTC just sitting on the floor, cover still off. Installed the config and monitor software. You can use default power curve or customize about whatever you want. Max temp for 100% speeds, min speed you want, rate of climb, type of curve etc. And don't need the software running for it to do it's job, you save the config to the T-Balancer itself. Unbelievably sweet!
I mean, you want a quiet PC? Tough to beat fans off! Ok, 120mm overhead CPU fan currently ramped up and blasting away at a blistering 900rpm with cpu temp 112f. And the MSI 6600GT running at 20% (no tacho so don't know the actual speed) Both 80mm Panaflo currently just sitting there deader than a doornail. (covers off so cooler than normal) And with my Seagate Laptop HD this is so quiet it's unbelievable! Is the mCubed T-Balancer worth it? Man oh man, I'll highly likely be getting me more of these for my other PCs!

It's way late (or early) so think I'll hit the hay. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

[stanger89]

Just curious, did you figure out a way to get the TB software to report in F instead of C?

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Just curious, did you figure out a way to get the TB software to report in F instead of C?

Yes, one of the first if not the first config screen under advanced. Don't recall off the top of my head exactly which screen and just getting up after playing with it 'till 5am! It would be nice if it displayed C & F simultaneously like Asus Probe.

On a Panaflo note the 80mm LA1 don't play well with the T-Balancer. As you noted their tach isn't recognized, same here. May be able to play with the PWM freq setting to get their tach to be seen but haven't yet. Playing with the manual over-ride panel I also discovered once off they don't come back on 'till 100% voltage! Once on they'll dial down smoothly until about 20% then stop. So I set their curve with a 30% min. Since initially all fans at 100% for 5sec then dial down according to temp this should work. Atleast I think it was working right but then it was around 4-4:30am when I was adjusting and testing this. I'll be playing with it some more today with the case off so I can see the fans to confirm before putting back in AV cabinet. OTOH the cpu overhead mount 120mm Accoustifan and 6600GT fan seem to dial up from 0% fine. It was weird and a bit scary watching all the fans, including the cpu fan, just turn off after 5sec. Thoughts of toasted processors and all even though my mobo has thermal shutdown protection. (And I know it works too, when I first installed mobo months ago had heatsink slightly cattywombus, automatically shutdown after a couple seconds no harm no foul. Nice safety feature! )

Debi thinks I'm nuts, up 'till after 5am playing with this then back up a scant 4 hours later. (she's not necessarily wrong ) Time to go get a second cup of coffee and see if my eyes will open a bit further!

[mdmint]

I'm thrilled with the performance & flexibility of the mCubed T-Balancer. It's totally awesome. Also realize not everyone is able to spring $75+ to automatically control fan speeds. I'd been looking at and am ordering another more affordable item for a couple other PCs that will control multiple fans automatically varying the speed from 40% @ 0c/32f with linear rise to 100% @ 50c/122f. Unlike the mCube that can have up to 8 sensors controlling up to 4 fan channels configured any way you want it uses a single sensor and varies all fans based on it. For general automatic variable case fan speed control a single sensor will be ok assuming placed properly. SunbeamTech.com is the mfg and I've seen prices varying from $18.95 to currently on sale @ 3DCool.com for $7.95! (why I just ordered 3 of 'em )

[stanger89]

There are also these thingys:
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/nmt2.html

And fan isolators are quite nice also:
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/fanisolators1.html

[mdmint]

Since replacing my ATI 9600 component output via dongle with MSI GeForce 6600GT (AGP) component output via dongle haven't had a single stutter using VMR9. Picture seems a bit sharper too, nice smooth action, deep vibrant colors (toned down abit from too vibrant defaults). Very happy with 6600GT so far. Running Nvidia decoder, not playing with NVPP yet, only change from driver defaults was upping picture Q to best.

After we watched a couple shows this evening checked T-Balancer and running nice & cool (& quiet). AMD 2400+ CPU 121F w/120mm Accoustifan 1100rpm @62%, 6600GT 104f @58% (which really is a noticable improvement db wise over it running 100%), back exhausts one 80mm Panaflo @51% & the other 54% triggered off sensors placed on mobo bridge heatsink and side towards the bottom of power supply. (Didn't bother with sensor on Laptop HDs.) BTW, replacing the 2x60mm Thermaflow's with 2x80mm Panaflo LA1's big improvement.

Dang, can't think of much else to tweak on the main Client HTPC (hardware wise anyway )!

It just dawned on me. I've been ticked @ 3ware for not following through with promised HD enclosure monitoring. Hmmm, with a T-Balancer and it's sensors could not only monitor their temps but possibly quiet them thar 6 HD enclosure fans down! And the two 80mm exhaust, and case side 120mm hitting 4xPVR250s... Nah, it's not in the AV room , just leave the Server alone as cool as possible. Or maybe not!

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by mdmint

Since replacing my ATI 9600 component output via dongle with MSI GeForce 6600GT (AGP) component output via dongle haven't had a single stutter using VMR9. Picture seems a bit sharper too, nice smooth action, deep vibrant colors (toned down abit from too vibrant defaults). Very happy with 6600GT so far. Running Nvidia decoder, not playing with NVPP yet, only change from driver defaults was upping picture Q to best.

After we watched a couple shows this evening checked T-Balancer and running nice & cool (& quiet). AMD 2400+ CPU 121F w/120mm Accoustifan 1100rpm @62%, 6600GT 104f @58% (which really is a noticable improvement db wise over it running 100%), back exhausts one 80mm Panaflo @51% & the other 54% triggered off sensors placed on mobo bridge heatsink and side towards the bottom of power supply. (Didn't bother with sensor on Laptop HDs.) BTW, replacing the 2x60mm Thermaflow's with 2x80mm Panaflo LA1's big improvement.

Dang, can't think of much else to tweak on the main Client HTPC (hardware wise anyway )!

It just dawned on me. I've been ticked @ 3ware for not following through with promised HD enclosure monitoring. Hmmm, with a T-Balancer and it's sensors could not only monitor their temps but possibly quiet them thar 6 HD enclosure fans down! And the two 80mm exhaust, and case side 120mm hitting 4xPVR250s... Nah, it's not in the AV room , just leave the Server alone as cool as possible. Or maybe not!

Cool !! And the HTPC too ... that is with your T-Balancer ...

So how did it go trying to get the 2x80's in where the 2x60's original where? Require the Dremel??

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by mightyt

Cool !! And the HTPC too ... that is with your T-Balancer ...

So how did it go trying to get the 2x80's in where the 2x60's original where? Require the Dremel??

Mounted them side by side externally at the original 60mm openings using 80 to 60mm adapters. Would have been rather tight internally with 120mm overhead cpu fan right in same area. Since HTPC in AV cab can't see the back so went the easier route. (Though they do look kind of cool like rocket boosters on the back )Tin snipped out the built in case fan guards and up part of one side each adapter to clear top case edge overhang. (I can't believe I don't have a dremel... ) I took pics, will get posted after I get some pics of the Server including innards.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by stanger89

There are also these thingys:
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/nmt2.html

And fan isolators are quite nice also:
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/fanisolators1.html

So many toys to choose from!

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by mdmint

So many toys to choice from!

Hey Hey ... Toys!! This is serous business ... (Psst ... the wife is listening!!)

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by mdmint

I took pics, will get posted after I get some pics of the Server including innards.

Very Creative!

Yea ... Pix please

Send video if those booster cause the HTPC to hover!!

Oh... start dropping B-Day hints for the Dremel! Or print this post and leave it an obvious place!

[mdmint]

The more I play with the mCubed T-Balancer the more impressed I am. Sure Speedfan works with some motherboards to software control some fans. I gotta tell ya it's way cool powering up the HTPC Client and hear all the fans initally at 100% and 5sec later during POST they slow down to my custom defined sensor temp triggered speed curves. No software needed to run. Fans don't need to be plugged into mobo fan header to be controlled. For instance 6600GT fan controlled perfectly via T-Balancer normally only needing about 50%v to keep gpu cool running VMR9 Sage playback, much much quieter. If I do happen to throw in one of the dozen or so games included with the 6600GT pkg and hammer the gpu hard it's fan will speed up if and as needed. Same for cpu and exhaust fans. T-Balancer an excellent investment IMO.

BTW, thanks again Stanger for bringing the mCubed T-Balancer to the Forum's
and my attention!

[ukmgranger]

This device sounds (or hopefully not ) pretty cool. I just have a couple of questions.

1) Isn't it more annoying hearing fans speeding up/down? As far as human perception goes - noise at a constant amplitude is less noticable than noise at varying amplitudes as the brain instantly picks up on the changes.

2) On the website that I am looking at buying a T-Balancer from, there are two types; SL4 'Digital' and SL4 'Analogue'. What is the diference between the two?