Can I adapt the wires?

[camieabz]

I bought three 80mm case fans and I've only just noticed they have the HDD power type connection.
My mobo is a BX133 RAID with 3 fan headers.

Can I adapt the cable ends on these fans to fit to the mobo, instead of using the four pin power conns?

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[Crashman]

Well, there is no RPM detection wire, so that would really be pointless, and an unnecessary expense.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[camieabz]

RPM detection wire? Whats that?

I just thought it would be tidier and it would keep my PSU sockets free for other things.

Oh, and I have 5 connectors. 3 x HDDs, 1 x CD-ROM, 1 x CD/RW. Add to this 3 x case fans and I'll have a fair bit of cable adapters fitted.

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[Guest]

Well if you look at the 3 pin connector there are...."3 pins" 1 for power, ground, and rpm monitoring. Oddly enough the 4 pin connectors only use 2 wires. Power and ground.
If you have a cpu fan connected to a 3 pin on the board you will notice that most likely there are 3 wires. The RMP monitoring wire lets the BIOS determine the fans rpm.


One thing to be carefull though with connecting fans to the MB is power consumption. Some fans (such as the delta fans) draw a lot of power. They draw so much that they can burn out the 3pin power connections on some MBs..which kills the board. Some of the newer MB upgraded the power to those connectors..but unless you know for sure I wouldn't hook a fan up to it unless I know its not a high power one.

"Sorry Sir we can't replace your Toshiba cup holder....Toshiba does not make cup holders."

 

[Crashman]

The third wire on a three wire fan is for RPM detection-it allows you to monitor fan speed and can even sett off a warning if your fan is having problems.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[camieabz]

<A HREF="http://www.quietpc.com/casefans.html" target="_new">http://www.quietpc.com/casefans.html</A>

Check them out and tell me what you think.

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[Guest]

Well I wouldn't worry about those fans burning out your MB unless you are trying to connect a bunch to one connector. The fans that have problems are the Delta fans mostly. The 60mm delta black sucks up 3.8 watts. Your fans only use .8W. I think you want to avoid anything over 3 for a MB but I can't confirm that number.

Like an earlier poster stated there isn't a real benifit to hooking it up to your MB since it won't give you RPM data. But if you don't care..then who cares right. You will however have to buy connectors to convert your 4 to 3 pins and I havn't seen any of those. Well not 4 to 3 pin.. I only see 3 to 4 (has a male 3pin). You will need female 3pin connectors.

You can connect more than 1 of your 4 pin in series with other things or several on 1 line. At .8W per fan it should not be a big power drain.

So yes you can probably convert your 4 pin connector fans to 3 pins.
You will probably have to wire that connection yourself and buy the female 3pin and solder them yourself.
Its more than fine to have your 4 pins in series with other power devices. Personally I would just keep the fans on the 4 pins. You are not hurting anything by doing this.


"Sorry Sir we can't replace your Toshiba cup holder....Toshiba does not make cup holders."

 

[lamer_gamer]

I just purchased an 80mm case fan that has the 4 pin connector for power, but also has a 3 pin connector to connect to the mobo for monitoring.

My brain has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down

 

[camieabz]

Thanks for the responses.
To give you a bit more insight.
Its a full tower case, and until I can be bothered or if the temperature levels require it, I'll not be modifying it.
Aopen HX-08. 1 x lower intake, 2 x upper exhausts. The cable lengths on the fans are about 10.5 inches from fan outer to connecter.
With the mobo being lower down, this means power extensions anyway.

So to re-cap, 3 x HDDs, 1 x CD-ROM, 1 x CD/RW, 3 x fans = 8 x connecters.

So how should I split the requirements up?

I'd prefer to have all my HDDs seperately powered.

Can I run with two PSUs, or is this impossible/inadvisable?

God! This is annoying. Right, just to keep you all informed, so that I know I have enough power:

PIII 1GHz
Abit BX133 RAID
3 x IBM 60 GXP 40GB (1 as C: on primary & 2 as RAID 0 on secondary)
64MB ATI Radeon DDR
512MB Crucial CAS 2 PC-133
Creative SB Live Player 5.1
Ricoh MP9120A-DP retail (32r12w10rw + 8x DVD)
LG CD-ROM 40x
FDD
300W ultra quiet PSU
3 x ultra quiet 80mm x 80mm case fans
Radial Fin cooler
3 x Silentdrive

The hsf, case fans, silentdrives & PSU are from quietpc.com.
As you can see, I want a quiet as possible system. I may overclock if I can keep the temp. & noise down.

That about covers everything.

I appreciate the replies, cause its these little things which cause the problems.





<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[ejsmith2]

You might give this one a shot:

Find the -5 volt wire on your motherboard power plug. Run a branch off it to the black lead of your 80mm fan. Now connect the red lead of your fan to the +12 volt lead on one of the molex power plugs.

Now, your 40cfm 80mm fan puts out 65cfm at 6000+rpm to boot.

 

[peteb]

If you are worried about the number of 4 pin connectors, strip the connectors from 2 of the fans and splice them into the remain fan lead - that way you power 3 fans happily off 1 4 pin connector.

300W I would say is a little light for the amount of kit you have - but if it is not giving you problems then just bear in mind if you run into stability issues or add anything in the future.

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details