Fan Headers and my sanity

bertie4evr

So, I've been driving myself mad trying to figure out what to do with the fans in my build. This is the first PC I've built so you can't dumb down the answers enough :P.

I'm looking at an ASUS H97M-E motherboard, which has 1 x 4-pin CPU Fan, and 2 x 4-pin Chassis Fan connectors. My case (Carbide Air 240) has 3 fans (4 with the CPU), and what I'd like to know is if I could buy a splitter and run the two intakes off of one header, and the exhaust off the other? I've seen conflicting answers to this.

Would using the splitter damage the header? I know (I think) that you can plug fans directly into the PSU but that would cause them to run at full blast all the time and I'd like to have them ramp up and down based on the temps of the CPU and GPU.

tl;dr Would an ASUS H97M-E be able to power two fans from a single header using a splitter?

Xenoronin

You can alternatively supply power to a fan directly through a molex to 3 pin fan connector adapter. I don't know the answer to the original question but this is an alternative. Won't have any fan speed control though.

ED E

With PWM (4 pin) fans you dont wanna split em, the RPM detection will go arseways. If they're voltage control fans (3pin) then go ahead and split em.

A cheapo fan controller is never a bad idea though. Mine runs my 4x case fans and then I just leave the CPU and rear exhaust on a low setting.

bertie4evr

ED E wrote: »

With PWM (4 pin) fans you dont wanna split em, the RPM detection will go arseways. If they're voltage control fans (3pin) then go ahead and split em.

A cheapo fan controller is never a bad idea though. Mine runs my 4x case fans and then I just leave the CPU and rear exhaust on a low setting.

From what I could find out they're AF120L fans. Not much info about them but it looks like they're 3 pin, so I should be good to go with the splitter.

Lu Tze

If they are 3 pin you can still reduce the fan speed if its too loud using cables with a resistor like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QLOSF92?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=AGJ2TI2R2YFK8

or this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007PPHLCS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A50DZI580G3JX

No fancy temperature control but effective, and useful if they are high rpm fans

Serephucus

RE: 4-Pin splitters - What ED said, though it's been a while since I looked myself.

RE: Fans of PSU: Yup, they'll run full tilt unless you stick a resistor on them like Lu suggested. Maybe the fancy digital PSUs from Corsair offer PWM control? That would actually be really nice...

levitronix

i replaced my psu fan with a case fan, ran power from original psu fan header and com from the motherboard fan header so now i can see psu fan speed.
lots a different ways to supply power for fans