wiring fans together

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2010
Posts
2,547
Location
swanley,kent
i'm wanting to setup two loops with 6 fans maybe more.can i wire 3 fans together in series so i only have 1 plug for the three fans or will that mess the voltages up.or will it still give each fan 12 volts?
 
You want parallel, not serial. Connect at most one of the rpm leads up though, if you join those together you'll get nonsense on the fan speed wire. Just solder the same-colour wires together.
 
I had this dillema when i wanted to connect 9 fans together and wasnt sure if i wanted 5v or 7v.

Do a search for

Fan Multi Power Port - 12V / 7V / 5V - 12 Connections

on the bay.

Someone else recommended it to me.
 
Phobya make some nice braided fan splitters, i think they do 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 6-1 and 9-1 in a few different colours, unfortunately Overclockers don't stock these atm but google will find them :)
 
Last edited:
Little off topic but does anyone know if combining PWM pulse wires (not the power just the signal) will work as normal or does the signal degrade?

Specifically I'm thinking about the Akasa PWM fan splitter which allows three PWM fans to be controlled by a single motherboard PWM header, it has a molex for additional power to the fans so I'm sure that works.
The only thing is, I would like to combine 2 or 3 of those splitter cables to the same motherboard header by only combining the PWM wire. Is it possible?
 
Little off topic but does anyone know if combining PWM pulse wires (not the power just the signal) will work as normal or does the signal degrade?

Specifically I'm thinking about the Akasa PWM fan splitter which allows three PWM fans to be controlled by a single motherboard PWM header, it has a molex for additional power to the fans so I'm sure that works.
The only thing is, I would like to combine 2 or 3 of those splitter cables to the same motherboard header by only combining the PWM wire. Is it possible?

i'd assume there would be a slight reduction in the signal, but it isn't going to effect the fan speed as it's a digital signal it's looking at. i have 9 fans running off the PWM signal from the cpu header, and they all work perfectly.
 
i'd assume there would be a slight reduction in the signal, but it isn't going to effect the fan speed as it's a digital signal it's looking at. i have 9 fans running off the PWM signal from the cpu header, and they all work perfectly.

Good to hear, are you using a unit made for that or did you do some wiring?

Only unit I've seen so far is the Cooler Master Wind Rider which connects 6 PWM fans but its hard to get a hold of.
 
fan controllers (as far as i'm aware) don't use pwm, so if you were running them purely on voltage control, you'd get reduced voltage with more attached. when using pwm, you have a control signal, which determines current draw; v + i are provided by the psu, control signal by whatever you've plugged it into. tbh i'd go with pwm and control it with software, i've had fan controllers in the past and it's just not worth it when you can let it happen automatically.

so to answer your question, they won't run at full pelt voltage (fan controller) controlled. pwm = win in this situation
 
wouldnt know where to start with pwm fans.i'm used to just plugging them into the board or fan controller.where/how to/ what would i connect them to? what software do you use to control them.i just don't want loads of excess wires in my case,so i thought maybe just connect them up together and just have 1 plug for 3 fans
 
Back
Top Bottom