How to connect the fans to the motherboard in the smartest way?

[utnalove]

Hello, I have a Thermaltake Armor Revo chassis and an Asus X79-Deluxe motherboard.

I can see two ways of connecting the fans. Or so it seems. The last PC I build all by my own was around 12 years ago... and that that times there were not so many options for connecting fans and other peripherals.

The chassis has:
1 fan in the back
1 fan in the top
1 on the side
1on the front


The back fan is little and I have connected it directly to the FAN1 on the motherboard.
As you can see here, it looks like that the motherboard can drive and control up to 4 chassis fans (this is my understanding, please correct if I am wrong):

The problem is that the chassis instructions are not so good and not so well understandable.
Here you can see the side fan (probably it's the ;plug&play fan):

And here you can see other cables that are part of the chassis (there are a lot of other cables that are part of the chassis, but I identified them, and since they have nothing in common with the fans, I took them off the picture):

As you can see there are:
-one 4 pin power connector
-one 4 pin power connector male-female
-3 fans cables (if I follow those cables, each one of them has a side that is directly connected to the front, side and top fans) that are going up [there are 3, but in the photo you see only 2, because I just realized one was hidden by the cables and not visible]
======
all of them are going up.- the other side of those cables is not visible, and I cannot reach it.

Here here you can see the chassis instructions:

============
Now the question:

1) Should I leave it like it is and just connect the power to those two 4 pins power connectors?
2) Or it is better if I unplug those 3 black fan plugs and connect the 3 chassis fans directly to FAN2, FAN3 and FAN4 on the motherboard?


If the answer is 2. Cool, I can do it easily.
If the answer is 1, should I connect the black 4 pin power connector to the one with the colured wires? Or each one of those 4 pins connectors should have a separate, dedidcated source of power from the power supply?

Thanks

 

[LittleJerk]

2 things after I skimmed this:

1 - the Mobo features CPU_Fan should be used for the CPU cooling fan, not a case fan (assuming you're using the CPU stock fan or an after-market fan). That (for obvious reasons) should be connected at all times.


Also - the wires from the case, and the PnP fan connect to the fan controller built in your CASE, not the motherboard. Which means you have 2 choices. Either, you connect the case fans to their assigned wires from the case, and control them manually from the case controller. -OR- connect them to the motherboard, so you may pick up software and control them using a program or some other means of software.

 

[utnalove]

Hi, yes. But CPU apart, as you can see in the mobo instructions, there is not CPU_FAN and CPU-OPT. There are also CHA-FAN* connectors. Thus my question where it is better to plug all the fans according to the chassis instruction to the power, or it is better to unplug all the fans of the chassis and plug each one of them to a CHA-FAN connector in the motherboard, so that they will get the power from the mobo itself.

 

[LittleJerk]

It's completely up to you! Like I said, either way, they will get power accordingly, and they will be able to be manipulated one way or another. If you connect it to the case's fan controller, you'll be able to use your hands and manipulate the fans using whatever switches the case has.

The second option is, as you stated, connecting them to the mobo. With that, you'll have to download some software (or, your mobo might have software on hand for that) to control your fans when it's turned on(ie BIOS). Either way works just fine.

Generally, people like using the case fan controller, including myself. But don't let that manipulate your decision =P

 

[utnalove]

Ok, thanks much All clear now.