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Fans Wasting Power Connections

Forum CPU & Components : Other Components - Fans Wasting Power Connections

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Cellfish   12-23-2003 at 05:04:44 AM

Hi. Well, I ordered a bunch of stuff to build a new system. The case I got is a Raidmax Scorpio 868w. I think this seems like a very nice case for the $55 I paid.

Anyway, I haven't built a system for enough years that there wasn't really any fans to worry about :). Now this new case has 5 case fans and I'm wondering about how they are powered. Each fan appears to have 2 power plugs, one male and one female. Is this for passing through so that they don't waste as many power connections? (Can I plug one fan into the power source, then plug another fan into the first fan?) Thanks!

Oh yeah, just for fun- What I'm building is:
p4 3ghz, 512 ram, radeon 9800 pro, 160gig hd & reusing my old dvd burner, cd burner & 120gig hd.

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Coyote   12-23-2003 at 10:49:37 PM
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I don't think this part of the forum gets visited as much as the others. Otherwise a guru would have come along and answered by now. Anyway, I'd say yes you can "daisy chain" your fan connectors. I've got some of that in my case(about 5 or 6 fans)so far w/o problems.

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Crashman   12-24-2003 at 09:06:27 AM
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Yes, those pass power through, you can "daisy chain" them like the last guy said. Fans draw less than 200 milliamps (usually around 140ma), so you could easily put 5 or more on a cable end.

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Black_Cat   12-26-2003 at 02:44:06 AM
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I have a related question. Would it be advisable to daisy chain a fan or two with a couple of hard drives?

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.

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pIII_Man   12-26-2003 at 04:56:20 AM
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IMO it shouldn't matter, its not like fans have spikes in their draw or something, and they draw so little power (so does the hard drive 1.5a 12v at the most) i just don't see how it could cause any problems.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
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Crashman   12-26-2003 at 05:18:54 AM
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I don't know about advisable, but I've never had a problem with it.

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Black_Cat   12-27-2003 at 05:43:56 AM
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The reason why I ask is that I have eleventeen fans in this thing now. Not including the vid card, the PSU and the CPU I have 2 60mm case fans, 3 80mm case fans, 2 120mm case fans and 2 HDD coolers with 2 fans in each. The most that I have daisy-chained is 2 HDD's, 1 80mm case fan and 1 HDD cooler with 2 60mm fans.

Okay, brain. You don't like me, and I don't like you, but let's get through this thing and then I can continue killing you with beer. -- Homer Simpson.

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4ryan6   12-28-2003 at 12:06:21 AM
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I never daisy chain fans with hardrives, mainly because of a friend of mine that works at a computer repair shop, that a shorted out fan can fry a hardrive, and they have the evidence to prove it, on more than one occasion. Its definitely not a good idea!

To even think that a cheap ass fan, could cost you your expensive hardrive, its just not worth it!



<b><font color=red>HAPPY</font color=red><font color=blue>NEW</font color=blue><font color=orange>YEAR</font color=orange></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by 4ryan6 on 12/27/03 06:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

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pIII_Man   12-28-2003 at 01:41:57 AM
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thats a good point...but thats also like telling people not to plug fans into their motherboard because a 7 dollar fan could kill your mobo (and yes it has happened to me...fortunatly the damage was repairable).


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

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4ryan6   12-28-2003 at 03:02:30 AM
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Thats also a good point, we do have to plug fans into our M/Bs, that also could short out, and destroy a perfectly good M/B, we take chances everytime we push the power buttons to fire this equipment up, and depend on the hopes, that the manufacturers of these products have done their jobs well, and made products we can depend on and trust, my point is, not to take anymore chances than you have to, with your investment, and the question was daisy chaining cooling fans with hardrives, which we could find a lot of other things that could be just as bad, and use that as an excuse not to heed a legitimate warning, but if the situation arises, and a hardrive is lost to a cooling fan, along with all the important information on it, which in some cases could be thousands of times more valuable than the cost of the entire computer system, and it could have been avoided, all the counter arguements don't mean sh!t. Which also would be a good arguement for a major business, not to wait to the end of a business day, to back up their drives, but sh!t happens.

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