Splicing 2 or more Fans to 1 header

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Hi Guys,

I have a Coolermaster Cosmos S. There are 8 fans in my case and only 5 headers on my board. Can I splice three of them together and use one header?
 
A fan controller would be a much safer option, using y splitter cables you could run multiple fans from each of the controllers channels.
 
It should be possible to find out what the headers are rated for. My P5Q was rated at 24W, which is enough for many fans.

Two fans from one header is safer than three, so id at least use two splitter cables. I think ocuk sell a cable that runs four fans from one header, using power from a molex. Not sure how it works exactly but hopefully one of the above guys understands it. Might be the answer.

Combining the power from a PSU molex connection with the versatility of PWM motherboard connections for the very first time the Akasa AK-CB002 is a revolutionary take on a old concept. Taking the stress of powering your fans from your motherboard enables much more powerful fans to be used while allowing their speed to be synchronized with CPU usage.
 
If you connect 3 pin fans to it do they still vary in speed, or does it just run them all at 12V?

I don't have any pwm fans, but that cable might be an argument in favour of getting some. It seems a lot cleaner than using a hardware or software fan controller, and I suspect using two of them would let you run five pwm fans
 
Ive never tried it with 3 pin fans, but id say theyd just run at 12v, as their essentially being run via the psu, the speed control for 4 pin pwm fans is supplied solely from the cpu header, im not sure either if you could run 2 of theese adapters due to most boards only having pwm on the cpu header. However arctic cooling do a nice 400-1500 rpm pwm fan that can be daisy chained, upto 5 according to their spec, and ran from the mobo cpu header.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3_48_68&mID=144

Prior to switching to sharkoon fans i had 2 of theese on my TRUE and old q6600 combo.
 
DO NOT connect more than 1 fan per 3/4 pin header on the motherboard - I've seen a number of dead motherboards where this is the most likely cause of death - could just be coincidence but I wouldn't chance it personally.

If your out of headers get a fan controller and.or 4 pin molex adapter and run it off the 12v rails.
 
@setter I'm fairly sure you could use two of them. Would leave quite a mess of cables, but plug one into the motherboard header and the other into one of the three newly available sockets. So five pwm female fan sockets available, using power from two molex cables.

I'm sure I can work something out.

Rroff is worth listening to here, running multiple fans off one header isn't a great call. I still think it's alright as long as you check what the header is rated for first, but I probably won't do it again.
 
Will be interesting to see how you get on with this, your right though about the cable mess, the top of my akasa eclipse looks like spaghetti junction. Personally i never ran any more than 2 of the arctic fans of my cpu header, as like Rroff says it could be risky (im a very cautious type) though i have seen some people running 3 or more.

I currently have the 2 fans on the cooler and rear case fan ran via pwm.
Picture536.jpg


2 front 2000 rpm silent eagles on a fan controller.
Picture535.jpg
 
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The top of it? Its the area behind the hard drive cage/optical bays which is mental on my akasa, but then the top is full of radiator.

I currently have the cpu header empty, and fans running at 7V from the standard 12V and 5V molex wires using a mix of molex to 3 pin and 3 pin Y splitters. It's not pretty. I'm grateful for the space either side of the psu.

Nice system setter, it's nearly identical to the one I had die on me a couple of months back. Is the 280 running fairly cool in it? I had to put intake fans in the roof to control my one
 
In theory it shouldn't be a problem... in practise I get teh feeling manufacturers are cheap and assume no one will ever run more than one off a header...

I've seen about 3 cases where motherboards have died without any obvious cause and the only recent change was to splice extra fans onto the fan headers - could just be co-incidence but it rang my internal "alarm bell".
 
The vid card is currently idling at 42c, fan set on auto, im not sure of the speed of the 2 intake case fans as my fan controller doesnt give any readouts, i keep them on low most of the time though, only diall em up for benching/prime runs. The silent eagles on the cooler are also supplied with 7v, 9v and low noise 12v modular cables.
 
So you were the fellow to recommend the kama bay to me :) I don't have one yet, but I will do.

I'm happy to hear that your card is doing well, mine used to make it to the high 90s under furmark which worried me far too much. Back to the ol' 8800gt now, far easier to cool.

Thanks for the photos man
 
Cheers for that Setter, I have a second 4 pin header on my EX58-UD5. I will replace my existing 3 pin fans and daisy chain them up.
Thanks agan guys
 
That's wildly exciting, I've got a UD5 waiting for me to pick it up from a mailroom. Do you know what the second 4 pin fan header is for?

Which pwm fans are you going with stef?
 
It seems that MB manuactures are slow in implimenting provision for 4 pin control for fans. They may impliment several more PWM 4 pin headers on MB's when they introduce USB 3.0 later next year, or are they going to introduce a 5 or 6 pin header, we'll have to wait and see.

In the mean time they suggest that several PWM fans can be linked together from one header using a couple of PWM splitters. (Akasa from about £3). A header typically provides over 1.5 Amps and a aratic fan draws a maximum of 0.11 Amp.


I'm going for the Arctic Cooling 12025, 120mm PWM Cooling Fan; it has an air flow specification of 56.3 CFM (Cubic feet per minute) other manufactures are only providing less than 40 CFM. They seems to provide us with an array of colourful LED functionality and people forget the prime function is to cool down components and draw as much heat away from the inside of the case as quietly as possible.
 
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