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Modding my Thermaltake PSU fan control lead

Spike

Diamond Member
Ok, all your animosity towards Thermaltake aside 🙂 , I really like their products, at least the few I have purchased. A little while ago I bought a Silent Purepower 480watt PSU which has served me very well. Recently I got a generic 4 channel fan controller and am using that to control my intake, exhause, and CPU fan in my Antec Super-Lanboy. I had the rear PCI bracket fan controller that the Thermaltake came with hooked up the other day and noticed that it does not work. For those of you not familier with this PSU, it comes with a 5.25" and PCI slot controller to adjust it's exhaust fan RPM (you choose which one you want to use), which is a very good thing as it is REALLY loud at full speed.

Anyway, I don't want to control the fan from the 5.25 as I have a fan controller in all-ready (and consequently no more large drive bays free) so I am left with either hooking the PSU fan to my controller or ripping out the non-working variable resister from the bracket and putting in the working one from the 5.25 controller (the other alternative is to always have the fan on max which is NOT acceptable). To make it easy on me, I want to hook my PSU fan to my controller, now this is where the problem comes in. The 2-pin plug from the PSU is too small to fit the 3-pin controller plug... what can I do? Can I cut it in half and plug it into the outermost pins on the controller? Is there an adapter to change the smaller 2-pin lead to a 3-pin one? Any other ideas?

Sorry to write so much, but I wanted to paint a clear(er) picture of what I am looking at. Thanks for any and all help

-spike
 
what does the connector look like, if it looks the same as the one on video cards then there is an adapter. if it looks the same as the three pin ones accept it almost looks like the middle wire was taken you then there is no adapter but, you can file or cut off one of the pegs that prevents you from puttin in on and attach it to the left side of the connecter on your rheobus (hte left side when looking at it so the pins are abore the plastic tab) witht he black wire on teh outside and the red in the middle. The final option, and personally teh one i think is the best is to just cut off that connector and solder on a new standard three pin connector, polarized like i said above.
 
Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
what does the connector look like, if it looks the same as the one on video cards then there is an adapter. if it looks the same as the three pin ones accept it almost looks like the middle wire was taken you then there is no adapter but, you can file or cut off one of the pegs that prevents you from puttin in on and attach it to the left side of the connecter on your rheobus (hte left side when looking at it so the pins are abore the plastic tab) witht he black wire on teh outside and the red in the middle. The final option, and personally teh one i think is the best is to just cut off that connector and solder on a new standard three pin connector, polarized like i said above.

Thanks for that... it does look pretty much like a video card fan plug. What stores sell adapters for that? Can I pick one up at Fry's?

-spike
 
Hi Spike, I have the same power supply as you. Sorry to hear that your fan controller that fits in the PCI slot don't work.
The fan controller wire comming from the power supply is 2 pin female, I don't think you will find an adapter for it. If you don't want to do any mods, this is what I would do. Take the Thermatake fan controller that fits in the bay, and just attach it somewhere on the interior of the case, using tape or zip ties. If you don't mind, you can even bend it some to make it more compact, its really bendable aluminum. I don't believe you will be changing the speed to many times, so set it to the noise level you like and just close up the case.

 
Originally posted by: Spike

Thanks for that... it does look pretty much like a video card fan plug. What stores sell adapters for that? Can I pick one up at Fry's?

-spike

I'd actually suggest you instead just buy a new fan - get a nice quiet one with a 3-pin connector and connect that to your fan controller. It's a bit more costly and a bit more fiddly, but I'd say it'll be well worth it. Only thing is it would probably void your warranty. However, if you don't use their fan controlling system, they'll probably claim you're voiding the warranty anyway. Up to you I guess - just my two cents really 🙂.
 
thanks for the additional suggestions.

To Matt, I have debated cutting out the sides of the bay and doing just that, connecting the dial to somewhere in the case out of the way as I usually just leave it somewhere between min and med settings.

To Degrador, how hard is it to put a new fan in the PSU? I ask because I assume this is an 80mm fan and I have about 5 80mm fans sitting around with no use, so cost would be virtually nothing (Antec tri-LED, Antec Blue LED, YS-Tech screamer, and a few others). I even have a couple of unused 120mm fans, too bad I can't put one of those in... 🙂

Even if the installation was easy, it would still be a pain to get my PSU out and back in as I have the cables setup just the way I want them.

-spike
 
i'm at work right now but when i get home i wil insert a link to where an adapter from the connctor for a video card hsf to a regular 3 pin fan connector. If that doesn't look right then see if you can upload a photo of the connector and i can tell you exactly how to re-wire it.
 
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