Economizing Electrical ATX Fan Connections

[sgs]

ATX Case includes 1 80 mm top blow-hole LED fan (whatever that is). Planning to
add 4 more Panaflo L1A 80 mm fans (2 front, 2 rear) and manually control them
via Vantec Nexus NXP-205 Variable Fan Controller, which only accepts 4 fans.
Since I want to save power supply connectors, I thought I'd connect the original
case fan (only) to motherboard rather than power supply. The idea is not to
regulate the original case fan, but rather to simply give it power.

My motherboard will be an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, which advertises Chassis FAN
connectors (whatever that means). If powering the original fan through the mobo
won't work then I'll either have to daisy chain 2 of the 5 fans into 1 of the
NXP-205's 4 inputs, or use an additional power supply connector.

Questions:

1. Can case fan be routinely connected to mobo instead of power supply, just to
provide it power?

2. Power Supply will be Antec 550 TruePower, which specifically warns against
(daisy chain ?) connecting more than 3 fans to its fan connector. Is it
routine to connect the NXP-205 (which will be regulating 4 fans) to the
Antec 550 fan connector?

3. Given that I'm adding 4 extra fans, should I also keep the original top
blow-hole LED fan connected? What function will it serve?

 

[mechBgon]

1) Don't connect the Nexus to the Antec's "Fan-Only" line. :evil: ~ heeeeeed myyyyyyyyy warningggggg! The power going into the Nexus fan controller should be from a "normal" plug. Otherwise you'll have two layers of voltage regulation going on, probably resulting in stalled fans at times.

2) Case fans may use either a compact three-pin plug or a larger four-pin plug. The larger four-pin one takes the same kind of power-supply plug that your hard drive uses, and cannot be plugged into the motherboard. The small three-pin plug can be plugged into the motherboard.

3) You can wire more than one fan to the Nexus's headers if you need to.

4) Bigger picture: Panaflo L1A's are so quiet even at full speed that you may find there isn't much reason to actually control them in the first place

The function of the top fan is to vent hot air from the upper section of the case, where your optical drives are located. The "LED" part means Light-Emitting Diode, it's a fan with lights for visual effect. The top fan may not be necessary, but if it's there and you want to use it, hey. It'll make a cool light pattern on your ceiling at night, if nothing else

Sounds like this might be your first build. If so, check out the link in my signature below, it might help.