Can I plug my fans into the headers on my motherboard?

[scrawnypaleguy]

I want to plug my cpu fan and my rear case fan into the motherboard headers on my A8N-E so that they can be controlled by temperature, instead of me manually adjusting them. Here are the ratings specified by my motherboard manual:

"The fan connectors support cooling fans of 350mA~2000mA (24 W max.) or a total of 1A~3.48A (41.76 W max.) at +12V."

I want to plug in one Arctic Cooling 12025 fan, which appears to consume 0.13 Amp, and one Arctic Cooling AF12 fan which consumes 0.15 Amp, and I don't really know what all these amperage ratings mean. Can I safely plug both of these into my motherboard at the same time? These will be the only fans drawing power from it (there's no chipset or video card fan).

 

[zagood]

Yeah, you'll be fine.

-z

 

[Zepper]

Total of fans listed = 280mA. At those ratings it is unlikely that those fans will need any speed control at all. Probably should just run them full speed 24/7. Shouldn't be capable of much noise with those weeny power ratings.

.bh.

 

[RallyMaster]

I run three of my case fans on my motherboard (last 120 mm doesn't have a 3 pin connector) and I don't have any issues.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Another question: can I get a Y-adaptor and plug them both into the same header? It seems that my manual is wrong and only the CPU fan connector can be controlled via Q-fan.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
Another question: can I get a Y-adaptor and plug them both into the same header? It seems that my manual is wrong and only the CPU fan connector can be controlled via Q-fan.

Yes.

 

[corsa]

hi scrawnypaleguy, nice rig u have there (pics), just observed u have ur HD connected to SATA1 ....do u OC? if u are its recommended u have it on 3 or 4, as they are locked.

 

[Zepper]

Let me modify Operandi's response. Yes, but only ONE fan's tach lead can be connected at a time to one header. If you want to monitor both fan's RPMs, then you'll have to connect one of their tach leads (usually yellow) to a different mobo fan header.

.bh.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Let me modify Operandi's response. Yes, but only ONE fan's tach lead can be connected at a time to one header. If you want to monitor both fan's RPMs, then you'll have to connect one of their tach leads (usually yellow) to a different mobo fan header.

.bh.

Right, forgot about that. You should pull the yellow wire on one of the ends of the Y splitter so you don't get a mangled up tach signal from two fans into one header.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

Ok cool, thanks guys. The second fan doesn't have tach output, only the cpu fan, so I don't have to worry about tracking them both.

Corsa: SATA 1 is not locked on the A8N-E? I thought all modern boards had them all locked so that you can overclock. Do you know this for a fact?

 

[SparkyJJO]

I don't know about the nVidia based boards but my Asus A8R32-MVP Ati board I think has them all locked. At least, I'm OC'd by 30% and don't have any trouble with my HD in SATA1..... But could that be why I hit a hard wall all of a sudden?

Interesting, I might try switching to SATA3. Odd tho how 1 and 2 aren't locked but 3 and 4 are

 

[corsa]

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
Corsa: SATA 1 is not locked on the A8N-E? I thought all modern boards had them all locked so that you can overclock. Do you know this for a fact?

It may well limit ur OC being on 1-2
Check this post out.