Help! Fan Connectors for Biostar TA970 with Corsair CX 430

[mrmike13]

Hi All,

I have a Biostar TA970 mainboard with Corsair CX 430 PSU. I'm using the Corsair 500R case.

I noticed there are not enough 3 pin fan connectors on the mobo to connect all the case fans. Did some research and found I should be connecting the case fans to the PSU rather than the mobo. The PSU however only has 4 pin female molex connectors.

Do I need a 4 pin female molex to 3 pin male fan adapter?

I don't see any other way to connect the case fans plus I have two additional 120 mm fans I want to mount on top of the case which has vents for.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

--Mike

 

[Jaxem]

Unless you want to but a fan controller as well, you'll be stuck with all your fans blasting at 100% if they're all hooked to the PSU. There's nothing wrong with using the motherboard headers, just don't overload them (more than 2 fans each). I'm running 8 fans off of my motherboard (4 headers) and it works perfectly. Yes, it's a bit more power draw on your board, but unless you've got your board packed with every connection possible, it's got the power for it.

 

[mrmike13]

Unless you want to but a fan controller as well, you'll be stuck with all your fans blasting at 100% if they're all hooked to the PSU. There's nothing wrong with using the motherboard headers, just don't overload them (more than 2 fans each). I'm running 8 fans off of my motherboard (4 headers) and it works perfectly. Yes, it's a bit more power draw on your board, but unless you've got your board packed with every connection possible, it's got the power for it.

I believe my mobo only has 3 fan connectors. So in order to hook up two fans to each header, I would need a splitter for each header?

 

[Jaxem]

Yes, they cost a few dollars, but they're great to have for things like doing push/pull on a cpu cooler or dual front intake fans. I'm a big fan of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162026

They work for 3 or 4 pin

 

[mrmike13]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm gonna head to Fry's and see what they have. I dont think they have the female molex to male 3 pin connectors but they may have the splitters.

 

[mrmike13]

Also the Corsair 500R has a 200 MM side panel fan.

Would that one need to be on its own header due to the larger size, or is it ok to split the header and and use it in conjuction with another 120 MM fan?

 

[Calculatron]

Fans connected via a splitter should be the same make and model; just because two fans operate at 12V doesn't mean they use the same amount of amperage and wattage.

(Voltage = watts / amps, if memory serves this late at night.)

 

[mrmike13]

Well I just noticed I can't even connect the 200mm side panel fan to the same header as the others. It actually has a different 3 pin connection with plastic clamps on the side of the connector. I found where the front panel fans have this same connection but they plug into each other and relay back to the built in fan controller.

I heard corsair makes this type of connector exclusive so is there an adapter for it or am I missing a plug in? I tried tracing all the wires and couldn't find any missing connections.

 

[mrmike13]

Just called corsair and there is actually supposed to be other connector for the side panel fan which I will dig around for. It may be buried or tangled in the mess of wires leading back to the fan controller.