Powering Case Fans?

[Harigh]

I'm working on building my first desktop, and my case has several fans built in, along with one that I put in myself in an extra slot. Each fan has one 4 pin molex male connector with a 4 pin molex female connector branching off of it. One of my components (not sure which) came with an adapter for a 3 pin connection to the motherboard. The way I instinctively put it together was to attach one 4 pin molex adapter from a fan to the 3 pin adapter, and connect a chain of the 4 pin molex male and female connectors from the other fans until. Is this the correct way to power case fans?

 

[hunter315]

That is NOT the corrent way to power the case fans, what that will do is blow the fan header on the board, you will be pulling 4 times as much current as a normal fan from a single header. You can use that adapter for a single fan, but only one fan.

If you are going to chain your fans together you will need to use a molex connector coming from the PSU, then you can daisy chain them together, but make sure you never have a fan connected to both the PSU and the motherboard, it wont end well for the board.

 

[Harigh]

That is NOT the corrent way to power the case fans, what that will do is blow the fan header on the board, you will be pulling 4 times as much current as a normal fan from a single header. You can use that adapter for a single fan, but only one fan.

If you are going to chain your fans together you will need to use a molex connector coming from the PSU, then you can daisy chain them together, but make sure you never have a fan connected to both the PSU and the motherboard, it wont end well for the board.

And this is why I came here.

So it is alright to have them daisy chained if the power source is the PSU and not the motherboard?

 

[hunter315]

Yup, the cable from the PSU is capable of providing several amps of power easily, more than enough for a dozen fans chained together, the fan headers on the motherboard are built for one or two fans at most to come off of each connection, they have much less power that they are prepared to deliver.

 

[Harigh]

Best answer selected by Harigh.

 

[Harigh]

Yup, the cable from the PSU is capable of providing several amps of power easily, more than enough for a dozen fans chained together, the fan headers on the motherboard are built for one or two fans at most to come off of each connection, they have much less power that they are prepared to deliver.

Thanks so much, I switched it and they are now hooked up to the PSU. Glad I didn't turn it on until I knew.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey