Connecting case fans...

GoogalyMoogaly · 12 Sep 2010 at 15:17

OK, so I've just bought:
AMD Phenom II bundle
Corsair TX750
CM 690 II Case
3 x Akasa Apache fans
And a couple of more generic fans that came with a water cooling kit (3-pin power connectors.
My question, is how do I connect all the fan's power connectors?
None of them came with adaptors to connect to the 4-pin molex PSU connectors and I doubt the motherboard has enough connectors...

Theophany · 12 Sep 2010 at 15:51

These. IIRC Akasa bundle one with each of their fans anyway, but I highly doubt the generics will come with them.

If you're doing watercooling, might I suggest getting a 4 pin version? If you're watercooling your CPU, it's better to have the fans attached the radiator to be running at a speed relative to your CPU rather than the overall system temperature. I can't seem to find any on OcUK, but they do exist. It's a 4 pin plug for the CPU fan header that splits into 2 or 3 3 pin sockets.

If it were me though, I'd just buy a fan controller. I have the Akasa Junior (~£10) and whilst basic, it is great for controlling the noise generated. There are some more advanced ones on OcUK's website around the £30 mark and they are all good

GoogalyMoogaly · 12 Sep 2010 at 16:00

I looked at the fan controllers, but they seem to work off 3-pin power connectors where as the Akasa ones I have have 4 pin (not molex type). I didn't get them off this site and got the OEM version (£3 cheaper, each), I think I got confused thinking that the 4-pin connector was a molex connector.

I've now found these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-031-AK
and
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-030-AK

I'm hoping they'll do the job.

Theophany · 12 Sep 2010 at 17:38

Then I'd hook the Apache's up to the radiator (again, probably need a splitter so all 3 can run off one header) purely as they're ready to run off the CPU fan header and the rest should be taken care of by one of those molex adapters you've found yourself

I've had a look at some hi-res images of your motherboard and the amount of headers appears to be dependent on which revision of the motherboard you'll receive. The Rev 1 board had a 3 pin header between the first and second PCI-e slots, whilst I can't seem to find any at all on the Rev 2 boards, dunno what's at play there...

Part of me wonders why OcUK do that bundle on a mATX board, doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to bundle a huge HSF and OC'd CPU with a board designed for SFF builds (which such large HSFs would be difficult to fit inside, not to mention airflow issues). On the flipside, I have the ATX version of that board and I can't fault it. Very happy with it indeed, so I hope you're as pleased with it!