Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Fan Setup

Options
  • 27-07-2009 6:52pm
    #1
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 7,152 ✭✭✭


    Hey Guys just looking on advice on how to setup the fans on my Antec 300

    I have set the top and the rear fan to exhaust, and was going to set the two front ones to intake?

    No I have another issue, whats the best way to power the two front fans?

    The fans come with a 3 pin connector Red, black and yellow (R,B,Y from now on), they also come with an adapter to converts the 3 pin RBY to a RB molex & BY 3 pin

    there is only one 3 pin socket on the motherboard, but connecting or soldering wires together wouldnt be a problem for me.

    Any advice on whats the best way to proceed?

    Cheers in advance


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Aren't those Tri-Cool fans bundled with most Antec cases? They don't neccessarily need PWM, so you can just hook them up to spare 4-pin Molex connectors and ignore the 3-pin PWM connectors if your mobo doesn't support more than one case fan. Just use the wee switch (either integrated into the case or dangling off a wee cable jutting out from the fans) to determine the speed and thus performance (and noise!) of each fan.


  • Options
    #3
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 7,152 ✭✭✭witnessmenow


    Yeah the fans that came with the case are those antec tri cool ones with the switches, but the ones i bought are just regular fans, akasa 12cm quiet fans to be exact.

    I know very little about fans, but i presume the 3 pin setup has its own way of changing the speed, i guess by changing the potential diffrence (i.e. voltage) that the fan recieves.

    So I also presume that removing the yellow wire from the setup up means the fan runs like the clappers 100% of the time? If this is right i might just see how it sounds with it on full wack, wouldnt be the end of the world to change it down the line!


  • Options
    #4
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    witnessmenow wrote:
    i presume the 3 pin setup has its own way of changing the speed, i guess by changing the potential diffrence (i.e. voltage) that the fan recieves.

    Not quite - the control signal on the yellow wire is in digital. Pulse-Width Modulation approximates the behavior of a variable analog signal with only a digital signal (that can only switch between two states - 100% and 0%) by sending the 100% signal only x% of the time, but at great speed, mimicking x% of the signal in analog. Without a PWM input on that line the fans will go like the clappers :o

    I hope if you only have one mobo fan header you only have one PWM fan! The rest will go at maximum noise- er, speed, unless you use resistor(s) to force a potential difference between the red and black lines and the 12V to drag the red below 12volts (i.e. 100%).


  • Options
    #5
    Jonathan
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 8,171 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jonathan


    Is it possible to get a TWM splitter if you dont have enough headers on your mobo?

    Connect that then to the PSU for juice, but use the mobo for controlling them all as one?


  • Options
    #6
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Like this? Just the ticket - but I haven't found one locally (yet) and I've never seen one in PCWorld.

    Note that if you are using high-current fans or more than 4 fans on a single splitter you should use the included 3-pin-to-4-pin-Molex converters so that the fans are drawing power directly from the PSU rather than all drawing from the motherboard simultaneously through that tiny low-gauge wire on the splitter...


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 7,152 ✭✭✭witnessmenow


    at the moment I just have them connected up via the molex, fairly shot up the noise level alright!

    I think I'll just splice the cable, it wouldnt be the actualy fan I'd be hacking up, just an adapter. These little things that I failed to think of at the time really push up the price of the build by the time you factor in postage! I spent almost €50 on the two front fans, thing of thermal paste and a 8 pin extender cable, and i got them all off the same guy!

    take for example also I want a 4" green cathode for the inside of the CPU cooler (sorry Papu, im robbing your idea!), cant find one on ebay, could have gotten one (two actually :) )for less than a fiver when i was ordering of Hardwareversand!

    Now I no longer have an excuse not to overclock it... gulp!


  • Options
    #8
    Jonathan
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 8,171 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jonathan


    Solitaire wrote: »
    Like this? Just the ticket - but I haven't found one locally (yet) and I've never seen one in PCWorld.

    Note that if you are using high-current fans or more than 4 fans on a single splitter you should use the included 3-pin-to-4-pin-Molex converters so that the fans are drawing power directly from the PSU rather than all drawing from the motherboard simultaneously through that tiny low-gauge wire on the splitter...
    Ya.. exactly what I was trying to describe :)


    EDIT: similar jobby here without the PSU adapter for about €5 delivered.


Advertisement