etavoa

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2008
12
0
18,510
Hello all!

I'm working on building my first computer. Well, technically I helped on another and have some experience in adding/removing other components.

Anyway, I've found everything to be pretty easy actually. My one remaining question is how I hook up the fans. I bought the Antec Nine Hundred case and an additional fan as well. Each of the fans has a 4-prong male and female connection. Do these all get hooked together? Do any of them go back to the power supply, or is it all powered by the connection to the motherboard? The Antec case has one fan in back, one on top, and two in the front. Should these all be hooked together? How about my one additional fan?

I suppose same goes for the Blu Ray drive. It has the same connection. Can these be daisy-chained with the rest of them?

Thanks in advance!
 

toledo_speedo

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2008
154
0
18,680
Fans draw very little amperage and so in order to preserve as many connectors as possible they have a male/female adapter so you can plug in your fan and still have a 4 pin (Molex) connector available.

I would connect the Blu Ray drive and maybe one fan on a cable and you can daisy chain the remaining fans on another cable however you want.

If you have a lot of left over 12v Molex connectors just plug a fan into each individual plug to keep it simple.
 

br3nd064

Distinguished
Aug 20, 2008
807
0
18,990
All the fans are going to connect to the power supply. Usually you're able to disconnect the molex connector from the fan and connect it directly to the motherboard. The Blu Ray drive I'm assuming has one male molex connector? That you should connect to the power supply as well.

Sorry if that's confusing. Post back if you have any questions.
 

festerovic

Distinguished
Don't put components that are critical on the same molex connector as ones used for fans. I have had bad experiences with fans that have bad wires, which shorted out the connection and all the other devices connected to it. Fans and their daisy chain style of molex connectors are usually cheaper and much more prone to fail than molex connectors from power supplies.
 

etavoa

Distinguished
Oct 19, 2008
12
0
18,510


So, you are saying that I'll need to connect each Molex connection to a separate spot on the power supply? At first glance, It looked like the power supply connection was more of an 8pin (4x2) rectangle, and wouldn't work. Perhaps a bunch of adapter cables came with the power supply?

I'll also need to connect the fans to the mother board, correct? I'm assuming this is how it monitors the fan speed, etc...

The Blu Ray drive came with a cable that is about two inches long. Since you are saying I'll also need to connect this to the power supply, I'll have to find an adapter, correct?
 

toledo_speedo

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2008
154
0
18,680
The only fan that should draw power from the mobo is the fan/heatsink combo on your CPU. What type of PSU are you using? It should have a bunch of the 12v molex connectors for case fans, drives, etc.

The 2 inch cable on your Blu Ray drive sounds like it is an adaptor, are both ends the same?
 
if you have good fans then they should come with small 3pin connector with you can plug directly to the motherboard, then you can control speeds using programs like speedfan if your system is to loud
 

rakoth

Distinguished
May 16, 2008
107
0
18,680
I just put together my system with the Antec Nine Hundred case. My PSU is the Corsair CMPSU-650TX and it comes with two cables containing four Molex connectors each. I just connected the fans to one of the cables - but I don't have any other components that use those connectors.

I didn't see any easy way to connect the fans to the motherboard. The documentation certainly does not cover the topic. The fans run all the time I believe and each has a little switch that allows you to change its speed.
 

toledo_speedo

Distinguished
Sep 24, 2008
154
0
18,680
The Antec 900 fans do have the 4 Pin Molex and the small 3 pin plugs so you can use either. Just use the 4 Pin unless you have the extra receivers on your mobo for a speedfan program.
 

rakoth

Distinguished
May 16, 2008
107
0
18,680


There were certainly no 3-pin plugs connected to the fans, and I don't see any 4-pin to 3-pin adaptors. Maybe I'm missing something that should have come with the case, which I bought less than two weeks ago.
 

br3nd064

Distinguished
Aug 20, 2008
807
0
18,990


Look at this picture: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...ion=Scythe SY1225SL12SH "Slipstream" Case Fan Is that the type of adapter you have on each of the fans? The blu ray drive shouldn't need an adapter. It should be powered off a sata power cord, which the power supply provides.


Unless you run out of connectors, every fan should be connected to the motherboard, so that you can change the fan speed manually.


Look at the picture I posted above. Is that what the connector looks like?