Floppy cable to molex or 3 pin fan cable.

EndermanGalactic · Aug 13, 2015

Hello, everyone!

I want to connect 2 more case fans to my pc, but all of my motherboard's fan headers are full and all of my power supply's molex cables are filled. I already bought an adapter from sata cable to molex, but I wanted to know -
Is it possible to connect a fan cable to floppy power cable (from my power supply) and if yes, which of the wires should I solder together or change?

Thank you so much!

Eximo · Aug 13, 2015

Yes all the different types of connectors all carry the same voltages. PCIe has ground and 12V, SATA, Floppy, Molex all carry 5V, 12V and two grounds.

Black = Ground
Yellow = 12V
Red = 5V

Fans are normally run from 12V.

None of the wires should be soldered together. For a standard 3-pin fan, assuming red, black, yellow. Then it would be red to yellow, black to black.

I assume if you have a soldering iron you have access to a multi-meter/volt meter. If the wires are all one color use the center wires as grounds and the outside wires to test for 5V and 12V.

Paperdoc · Aug 13, 2015

There's an easier way - Y-splitters! These devices split one output into two.

IF you want to add fans that are under control by the mobo SYS_FAN ports, you need to buy a splitter for the type of fan you already have - that is, 3-pin (or Voltage Control) or 4-pin (PWM Control) - and buy the same type of fan. Virtually all mobo fan ports can supply up to 2 fans per port (via a splitter) but not more.

IF instead you want to add fans plugged directly into the PSU's 4-pin Molex outputs (with no speed control, as you know), it's even easier. You still get Y-splitters to convert 1 output to 2, although they are different because they are for 4-pin Molex, not fan splitters. BUT a PSU's Molex connectors can supply MUCH more power than a mobo fan port, so you can connect many fans to ONE PSU output simply by stacking splitters. Two splitters on the outputs of one yields 4 fan connectors from one Molex. Add more if you need to. In this case you buy fans with 4-pin Molex connectors on the ends of their wires, not the ones with 3-pin fan connectors.

EndermanGalactic · Aug 14, 2015

Thank you Eximo and Paperdoc!
Both of your answers is really helpful for me

Sad that I can't pick both of your answerd as best solution...

pete_101 · Aug 14, 2015

What I did was solder the wires for 2 fans onto 1 plug (only because I couldn't get a Y connector straight away). Anyway if you do this, here is the thing to know. Use only 1 of the 2 fan's yellow wires (leave the other fan's yellow wire disconnected). So basically you cut the plug off 1 fan and then take the red and black wires from that fan and solder them onto the red and black wires on the other fan.

Edit. This is assuming both fans are the 3 wire type.

Paperdoc · Aug 14, 2015

pete_101 is exactly right if you want to do the job by splicing wires. Emphasize his point: "Use only 1 of the 2 fan's yellow wires (leave the other fan's yellow wire disconnected)". If you're doing 4-pin fans, the "Yellow wire" not to connect is on Pin #3, and usually the wire color is Green.

To identify Pin numbers clearly on a 4-pin connector, recognize that the male connector (on the mobo) has a plastic tongue sticking up next to the first three pins, but NOT next to Pin #4. To fit on, the female connector on the fan's wire ends has a groove on the outside that also is lined up with Pins 1-3, and NOT next to Pin #4.

If you buy Y-splitters, the good ones will do this for you - they simply won't have a Pin #3 on the male output connector on one of its two branches.

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