Probably a noob question: connecting PSU + case fans to motherboard

[Pott]

I was looking about at my case + components tonight (I don't yet have 100% of everything and I took nothing out of their static bags, no worries ()) when I saw that the case fans have a different connector to the motherboard's chassis + power fans connectors.

Therefore I panicked for the whole of 5 seconds before I decided to take a look at my nice fancy OCZ power supply (seriously, a power supply that comes with a nice nylon case for extra cables, no idea why, but it feels nice).

Of course there I noticed the connector that goes:

PSU > fan connector (female) 1 > fan connector (female) 2 > motherboard fan connector.

Am I assuming correctly that:
I can connect one of these PSU fan connectors to both my fans (I see nothing against it; the supply is 5V as required and voltage isn't shared across all components but is constant)
The cable then goes to the Chassis fan connector on the mobo
Same for the CPU fan; Do I connect it directly to the motherboard..?

I also can't seem to find the 12V power fan to connect to the motherboard...

Here's what I do have on the mobo:
A: 3 prong 12v required Power Fan (not got the appropriate fan for this I believe)
B: 4 prong 5v required Chassis Fan 1 (I can connect it to the PSU's fans cable)
C: 4 prong CPU fan (can connect it to CPU directly)
D : 3 prong 12v required Chassis fan 2 (got nothing there again)

Similarly:
I have three storage/optical devices connectors per PSU power cables.
I only have two devices that require this kind of connectors.

Stupid question: do I connect the two closest to the PSU from top to bottom or the two furthest from the PSU and let the '1st' connector dangle out (stowing it away as much as I can of course!)?

I hope this is not too confusing...

Gear:
Core i3-540 with supplied cooler
GTX460 (which will use the PSU's supplied PCIe cables for power)
Antec 300 case (with two inclued 5v fans)
ASUS P7P55D ATX mobo
OCZ ModXTreme Pro 600W Power supply (which incidentally does not power on when I plug it into a wall outlet and turn it on... I believe this is normal, I'll try to test this out if I can find a paperclip somewhere)

Thanks...

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/DISTRIBUTED-BY-MCM-FAN-CABLE-/83-10390

You might need one of these, it connects a 3-pin fan connector, to a 4-pin molex connector.

Otherwise, you plug the 3-pin fan connectors on the fans onto the motherboard, it usually provides a few fan plug points.

 

[Pott]

Mhmm I could require these indeed.

Both the fans on my case come with the big plugs with 4 prongs (both female + male).
While of course my mobo uses the tiny plugs... (and only one of them which is 5v, 4 prongs).

Is there something wrong with going PSU > Fan 1 > Fan 2 > motherboard..?

Those fans each have a switch I can preset to High, Medium or Low...

 

[mv2devnull]

PSU > fan connector (female) 1 > fan connector (female) 2 > motherboard fan connector.

Here's what I do have on the mobo:
A: 3 prong 12v required Power Fan (not got the appropriate fan for this I believe)
B: 4 prong 5v required Chassis Fan 1 (I can connect it to the PSU's fans cable)
C: 4 prong CPU fan (can connect it to CPU directly)
D : 3 prong 12v required Chassis fan 2 (got nothing there again)

I seriously do doubt some of that.

That cable of PSU is most likely a "two Molex and one floppy connector cable". You would use it to power peripherals that have Molex connector, and floppy drive. PATA/IDE HDD, CD/DVD, and some case fans do have Molex. Molex does have both +12V and +5V wire.


On your mobo the connectors are for empowering fans. You do not supply power to the board via them. A and D are identical, and by google the B is just like them, except for the fourth "+5V" pin that nobody seems to know what it is for. The CPU_FAN can empower either a 3-pin fan or a 4-pin PWM fan.

The "Rotation" or "FAN IN" pin on them does provide feedback from the fan, indicating the current speed of the fan. The motherboard can (to some extent) control the speed of the fans connected to it.


I happen to have a case with Antec TriCool fans next to me. Those fans do have a Molex (passthrough) and only two wires (red and black). No "fan in/rotation" wire. No real need for that either, because they have their three-fixed-speed setup.


Therefore, you would take that OCZ cable and connect the two fans to its Molex connectors. And definitely don't try to push that floppy connector into the board's headers.


You will have some CPU cooler fan too and that you can connect to the CPU_FAN header.

 

[Pott]

Thanks. So long as the fans are connected I guess it'll be ok. I figured the motherboard connector was a parrallel regulator that'd allow the mobo to control the fans.
I guess I could power one of the fans via the PSU and get an adapter for the other one, to power/regulate via the Mobo then?

 

[crucibelle]

Am I assuming correctly that:
I can connect one of these PSU fan connectors to both my fans (I see nothing against it; the supply is 5V as required and voltage isn't shared across all components but is constant)
The cable then goes to the Chassis fan connector on the mobo
Same for the CPU fan; Do I connect it directly to the motherboard..?

Not really understanding what you are saying here. If you plug the fans into the PSU, you don't need to plug them into the motherboard. If you plug them into the motherboard, you don't need to plug them into the psu. You are not supposed to plug anything from the PSU into the FAN headers on the board. You only plug the fans into those headers. If I misunderstood you, I apologize.. it's a bit confusing (not your fault). What motherboard are you using, if I may ask?

 

[Pott]

Asus P7P55D and you understood me just right

My reasoning was:

Case's fans plugs don't connect to the mobo
PSU cables connect to the fans and the cable has a connector that looks exactly the same as the mobo fan connector
2+2 = 4, use that cable for the fans and then to the mobo for temperature control...

I guess I looked for complications when they were none! It would seem logical now to get an adapter and let at least one of the fan be controlled by the motherboard.

 

[TheStu]

Asus P7P55D and you understood me just right

My reasoning was:

Case's fans plugs don't connect to the mobo
PSU cables connect to the fans and the cable has a connector that looks exactly the same as the mobo fan connector
2+2 = 4, use that cable for the fans and then to the mobo for temperature control...

I guess I looked for complications when they were none! It would seem logical now to get an adapter and let at least one of the fan be controlled by the motherboard.

Fan connectors look something like this |ooo|, it is roughly 6-7mm by 3-4 mm I think and almost always white.

On the motherboard, the matching connector with be in a L shape, with 3-4 pins coming up perpindicular to the motherboard.

The larger, 2.5-3cm by 3cm connectors with four (2 black, 1 red and 1 yellow) wires and 4 pins are Molex, and are used for primarily IDE optical drives. The smaller 4 pin connectors that are about 1cm by 1cm are Berg connectors and are used for smaller devices (traditionally floppy drives, but nowadays fan controllers, older video cards and flash card readers).

The booklet that came with your motherboard should be able to illuminate further. And if the PSU came with one, it should also help. For the most part, everything is keyed and can only fit one way. It should also fit with minimal resistance.

 

[Pott]

Nope... the mobo booklet gave me the info highlighted above and the PSU booklet is just useless