CM 430 Fans

doyler78 · 1 Dec 2010 at 08:18

[SOLVED] CM 430 Fans

I've just bought a CM 430 and it comes with only the one fan (front).

As I have to buy a new psu I'm now going to buy case fans as well. My pc will not be used for anything too taxing and will be running an amd athlon ii x4 650 processor with onboard graphics.

I have 2 system fan connectors on my mobo so I have space for one more fan with a 3 pin header and of course I can add molex connector fans.

I can have fans rear, bottom, top & side (front already supplied). Power supply points to the top of the case and it's fan is pretty near the vents so a top fan wouldn't seem to be needed.

Silly question - Exhaust fans - are they same fans as ordinary fans as there doesn't seem to specific fans and if so how do you get to push out rather than in (mount the other way round)?

Sorry for the basic questions.

Tealc · 1 Dec 2010 at 08:50

You might even get away with mounting the existing fan at the rear and rely on them pulling some air through the front. If your system has low heat output and low number if hard drives this could be an option.

If you want more fans then look to getting one installed at the rear. Then block the side vents as they just mess up airflow.

You will notice that there are arrows on the fan casing that will show you the direction of airflow when rotating.

doyler78 · 1 Dec 2010 at 10:01

I've 3 hard drives & 2 optical drives and as I have to pay for another delivery, which aren't cheap to NI, then I thought I would get a couple of fans anyway just in case I need them as the delivery would get very expensive if I was paying for relatively cheap fans on their own if I found I did need them.

I will use one to push the air out the rear and then just keep the other as a backup in case one goes belly up or if I find that I need a bit more cooling if I decide to do a mild overclock.

I never thought about covering the side vents. I presume the arctic freezer 2 will draw the air from the front fan and that cools the cpu which is what I presume the side vent is trying to do anyway?

Are the akasa fans ok? I see they are relatively cheap (blue led). I notice there are quiet versions however from what I have read the akasa aren't that noisy anyway. I guess it is just whether you want whisper quiet or not.

doyler78 · 1 Dec 2010 at 13:27

I've checked the manual and I'm away from the case at work at the min so can't check therefore if anyone could confirm if the supplied front fan on CM 430 Elite case is a 4 or 3 pin connector. I only have 1x4pin & 1x3 pin connector for system fans so want to make sure I get the right one.

Thanks

Tealc · 1 Dec 2010 at 14:52

I'd imagine the installed fans are 4 pin molex powered with the possibility of having a 3 pin fan header too if you are lucky. So it can be powered directly by your PSU or spare mobo 3 pin header.

Which Akasa? Avoid the cheap cheap ones. Maybe go for the 4 quid Yate Loons, they are very good apparently for the price.

doyler78 · 1 Dec 2010 at 15:16

I was looking at this one just for the blue led:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-045-AK

That one only seems to have a 3 pin connector hence why I was a bit concerned about buying it. I will get another fan as well though another LED one will not be necessary as that will be blue LED front and rear so that should enough of a light show. My dilema is what connector to go for the other one. I could go molex but I would like to use the sys fan mobo connector as the system can adjust speeds dynamically if temperature rises not that I expect it to be much of an issue however you never know.

Tealc · 1 Dec 2010 at 15:53

If you are short of headers you could always get yourself a fan splitter so two fans are powered off one header. Provided the fans are less than 2000rpm you shouldn't have any issues. Maybe later on you may like to look at fan controllers, you can get cheap 4 fan units from some places.

Still, only 2 headers on the mobo seems rather sparse.

doyler78 · 1 Dec 2010 at 18:02

Thanks Tealc. Yeah the mobo has 4 fan headers. 1 for cpu cooler, 1 for the psu, and the 2 system fans. I've been doing a little reading around and it would appear that I can use the 3 pin fan connector in a 4 pin socket. It just will not allow any control over the fan speed so will run 100% all the time. I will just get those Yate Loon one's you talked about earlier. They do blue led lights as well. I've been doing a bit of reading and they aren't too loud and nice and cheap too. I will probably get a 140mm and replace the stock front fan as apparently it is noisy and replace with that and get 120mm set to exhaust on the rear.

Thanks for the help.

MeatLoaf · 3 Dec 2010 at 00:30

doyler78 said:
I've checked the manual and I'm away from the case at work at the min so can't check therefore if anyone could confirm if the supplied front fan on CM 430 Elite case is a 4 or 3 pin connector. I only have 1x4pin & 1x3 pin connector for system fans so want to make sure I get the right one.

Thanks

Just got a 430 and the front fan is 3 pin but has a 3 pin to molex adapter fitted.

doyler78 · 3 Dec 2010 at 07:26

Thanks Meatloaf. I got a look when I got home. Still haven't bought the fans yet. Having more problems with my build anyway (details on another thread).