How to connect fans to mainboard and other questions

DoomtrainUK · 17 Apr 2011 at 18:43

well my first build is going quite badly, since i dont know my way around a mainboard or a lot of the cables positions

question 1: my instructions say to connect my chassis fan to a 3 pin slot on the board, however the cable coming from my fan has a clear head with 4 holes in it, i believe this is called a molex? whats the procedure to adapt a molex to a 3 pin slot?..?!

2: im trying to connect power cables to my GTX 580 gpu, it says i need an 8 pin and 6 pin cable, i have these coming out of the psu but the holes dont match the slot on the gpu, it fits, but they dont match so thats probably not a good idea to try and run it

specs:

mobo: intel h55 m-atx

case: zalman z7 mid tower case

cpu: i7 860 @ 2.8 ghz

psu: corsair 850w

would be veeery greatful for your help (dying to run crysis 2)

RJC · 17 Apr 2011 at 18:48

You might be connecting the 8 pin for cpu power to the gpu, the gpu power will have 2 extra pins which can be detached to make the 6 pin or attched for 8 pin.

The fans can be connected directly to the PSU.

Stupid question, why does your sig mention DDR 2 ram?

DoomtrainUK · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:05

no idea, i dont really know what im on about, tho i like to think im pr0

looked at the psu and cant see anything a molex might fit into, it has 4 blue 8 pin slots, and 5 blue 6 pin slots i think

the gpu came with a cable but ive lost it, i think there are 2 or maybe even 3 combinations of 6 and 8 pin cables protruding from the psu, but none of them fit

RJC · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:12

Sorry, when I mentioned connecting the fans to the PSU I meant via a cable with a molex connector on

The power cable to the gpu's should look like the 3rd picture in the link below:

http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-1/hx850w.html

Edit: the PSU has 2 PCI-E cables hard wired and 4 which are modular.

Surveyor · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:18

Do you have a HX850?

1) This is a 24 pin connector which plugs into your motherboard

2) This 8 pin connector plugs into your motherboard near the CPU (it probably splits into 2x4 pin)

3) This connector is for 6/8 pin supply to graphics cards

4) This connector is for SATA hard drives or DVD drives

5) This connector is the molex for fans, IDE hard drives & DVD's

6) This connector is for a floppy drive if you have one

DoomtrainUK · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:18

the 3rd pic seems to be of the innards of a psu, :S cant see cables in those images

il try what you said about the psu and get back

DoomtrainUK · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:32

nevermind i see it, i believe ive sorted the gpu issue with the cable shown, the fans are now plugged in,

doing the drives now, does the sata cable go into the drive, and then directly into the psu?

RJC · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:49

The power cable for sata drives will go back the PSU and the data cable will plug into the motherboard.

Surveyor · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:50

DoomtrainUK said:
does the sata cable go into the drive, and then directly into the psu?

The SATA power cable does yes.

If you have a SATA hard disk you can use another connector from the same cable.