360 Rad fan wiring

big_ray_t

big_ray_t

big_ray_t

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I am hoping to run my 3 120mm rad fans from a single fan controller output so I have control over them as a unit instead of individually. Is this possible simply by wiring the 3 in parallel to one 3 pin header plug then into one of the controller channels or would there be a power issue?

If not, any other way of controlling all three as a singular unit???
 
Provided your controller can handle the current it's fine. You can buy one of those splitter cables. All they basically do is split the 12v and Ground wires off to three fans, while only one gets a tach wire.
 
Cheers, will connect all the colours together later and terminate into one plug and see how it goes. Will make my wiring a lot easier to handle.
 
I think that might be a bit of a squeeze to fit three wires into the fan connector terminal. They aren't particularly big terminals and will probably provide a poor termination over three wires.
 
Krony said:
Most controllers can run at least 4 fans of a single channel.
Click to expand...

Can you quantify that? Are you saying that most fan controllers have an op amp that has a power ratio >4x greater than they need?

If this is so, I'd urge caution with the heatsink that's mounted onto the opamp as with one connected (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-007-ZA) it gets just hotter than I can bear to touch.

I've got 2 of these fan controllers so I know they're not faulty... they just run hot. If you mean the one on the motherboard... PASS.
 
Have two fan clusters on my fc5, one with three fans the other with four. No excess heat, handles them really well. Afaik most lamptron fan controllers have a high Watt per channel setup, the fc2 probably taking the most.
 
To be fair, I will feel safer trying it in a fan controller rather than potentially blowing one of my mb headers
 
How much current a fan controller will handle depends on it's components. If it uses cheap voltage regulators and heatsinks then it'll handle no more than maybe 1.5 fans without getting very hot.

The higher end ones use better components, ones that handle higher currents and waste less energy as heat. These components tend to cost more so the overall price of the unit goes up.

Always look out for the amount of Watts or Amps that a fan controller can handle per channel. Anything in single figures is good for one, maybe two fans. Anything in double figures is good for three fans. The Lamptron with 45W per channel is awesome and could handle as many as ten fans per channel.
 
May be easier if I just have them on a perm 12v feed then so they run full speed constantly. I suppose it would keep the temps lower and they do seem incredibly quiet
 
It's obvious when you put it like that. I've never really looked at the Laptron ones before - this explains why they are so popular in modding circles.

Tealc said:
How much current a fan controller will handle depends on it's components. If it uses cheap voltage regulators and heatsinks then it'll handle no more than maybe 1.5 fans without getting very hot.

The higher end ones use better components, ones that handle higher currents and waste less energy as heat. These components tend to cost more so the overall price of the unit goes up.

Always look out for the amount of Watts or Amps that a fan controller can handle per channel. Anything in single figures is good for one, maybe two fans. Anything in double figures is good for three fans. The Lamptron with 45W per channel is awesome and could handle as many as ten fans per channel.
Click to expand...
 
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