Using a Y Splitter for a fan head.

[Viking2121]

Hello,

After some reading around I been getting A LOT of mixed reviews if I should do this, I cant find anything on my mobo on how much power 1 fan head can deliver to fans, So im not 100% sure if it will work.

I have the ASRock 970 Extreme3 With the 1100T 4ghz, and 7 110 cfm fans in the case all together including the H100, and talk about a noisy system, This thing is almost as loud as a vacuum cleaner. Anyway I hooked the h100 fans to CPU_FAN_1 and CPU_FAN_2 and Chassis Fan 1 & 2 which I can control the speed easily, but I have other fans in the case like the front fan blowing at the HDDs and 1 in the back that are hooked to heads that cant be controlled at all, So the fans run at 100%.

I was wanting to know if it would be alright to use a Y Splitter on both the CPU 1 & 2 heads to control the speeds or rather the sound.

This is my mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

The fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185060


I have asked ASRock the same question, but they haven't got back to me in over a month, and like I said, I looked around and found so many mix answers all over the net, Some would say don't do it as it could burn the head out, others said I ts perfectly fine.

 

[GhislainG]

Why not use a fan controller?

 

[Viking2121]

Why not use a fan controller?

I want to, and hav looked into it, I just don't got the money till later next month. I got a lot of Y Splitters from old computers, I wanted to use it in the mean time.

 

[GhislainG]

You can use splitters, but you need to make sure that 2 fans won't exceed the rated watts of the header. Do you really need so many fans in your system?

 

[Viking2121]

Yes I do matter of fact, 4 fan on the h100 is just enought to keep the 1100T under 60c at 4ghz, and 1 fan blows at the hdds, while 1 blows in the side to keep my HD5850 cooler since 1 fan only works on that atm, and back to get rid of that hot air, I have a top 230mm, but it don't blow any air its so slow.

 

[jsrudd]

One problem you might run into is that sometime Y splitters for PWM fans will carry the RPM reading of both fans. The motherboard will not know what to do with this information and so controlling the fans will not work effectively. You can avoid this by clipping the wire that carries RPM information on one of the fans.

There is really no harm is testing the Y splitter to see if they will work. I've got three fans hooked to one molex and they all run fine (I realize this is different than the motherboard). Look in your motherboard manual for the amount of power the headers will output and then look up the amount of power your fans need. You will have to do a little bit of conversion with watts, amps, and volts though.

 

[Viking2121]

One problem you might run into is that sometime Y splitters for PWM fans will carry the RPM reading of both fans. The motherboard will not know what to do with this information and so controlling the fans will not work effectively. You can avoid this by clipping the wire that carries RPM information on one of the fans.

There is really no harm is testing the Y splitter to see if they will work. I've got three fans hooked to one molex and they all run fine (I realize this is different than the motherboard). Look in your motherboard manual for the amount of power the headers will output and then look up the amount of power your fans need. You will have to do a little bit of conversion with watts, amps, and volts though.

I got 4 or 5 fan y splitters, and each only has 3 wires only going to 1 of the 2 plugs, Which in this case I would only 1 fan would be used for the RPM reading, as my mobo lowers the fans from 12v to 5v and really doesn't control a RPM set point.

I looked in the manual and on a PDF on this board and could not find anything about how much power a fan head can deliver, I read some are 1.5amps while others are 2 amps at some 20 watts, which should be enough as my fans only use 0.53 amps total and 1.2watt If I remember right.

 

[GhislainG]

I got 4 or 5 fan y splitters, and each only has 3 wires only going to 1 of the 2 plugs, Which in this case I would only 1 fan would be used for the RPM reading, as my mobo lowers the fans from 12v to 5v and really doesn't control a RPM set point.

I looked in the manual and on a PDF on this board and could not find anything about how much power a fan head can deliver, I read some are 1.5amps while others are 2 amps at some 20 watts, which should be enough as my fans only use 0.53 amps total and 1.2watt If I remember right.

Then you'll be fine.

 

[Viking2121]

I'll have to screw around with this in the morning before work, The fans at max rpm/cfm cools the 1100T just enough with prime95 for 9 hours, temps hitting 58C (that was with the stock H100 Fans and 2 110CFM fans) Now with high cfm fans I havnt tested it, but its louder. Playing games even with just 2 fans on the h100 cools it enough to play pretty much any game and render videos with Sony Vegas. Now to fix the noise.

Thanks!

 

[Viking2121]

Alright, currently have 2 Y splitters and can control the fans via software. So much better, I can hear my air conditioner over the fans now. Im running the fans on low atm, I'll watch the RPM's of the 2 fans that are hooked to the 2 splitters and see if there is any big RPM jumps or anything which should mean that it can't provide enough watts/amps if they do move a lot. Shouldn't anyway.

I have the fans set to kick on full blast at 51C which I shouldn't even get to that on low, unless I put a really heavy load on all cores.

 

[Viking2121]

Best answer selected by Viking2121.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr