Sleeved Fan Cable

[dsplover]

Building my 1st 4U RAID rig and need help.
I prefer sleeved cables from Icemodz but need a description for the 4 pin male plug below.
It's a small PCB where 2 x 80mm cage fans, and a 120mm fan connect to.
The 4 pin needs to connect to a Chassis Fan plug on the Motherboard.
It's an ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 with a pair of chassis fan connectors.

Any ideas what I would call the cable so I can get a nice sleeved version made?

Thanks as I am totally new at this.

https://ibb.co/cpq6Ak

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm not sure which connector you refer to - there are three empty in the photo. The smaller one at the rear looks like a standard male 3-pin fan header, just like the four others. The empty small 3-pin male at the centre labeled FAN4 is certainly a fan header, probably to be used for a fourth fan. But I suspect the one you're asking about is the larger one at the front of the photo. That is a standard male 4-pin Molex connector. Normally it is used as a power input, and you plug into it a female 4-pin Molex output from the PSU. That provides power to the devices (in this case, fans) connected to the other board headers. By appearance, this little board looks like all it does it provide a way to connect four or 5 standard 3-pin fans to a common power source from the PSU. Done that way, the fans all would get a fixed 12 VDC supply from the PSU and run at full speed all the time. There would be no control of speed of those fans, and no ability to display the speeds of the fans.

BUT your post says you believe it is supposed to connect to a CHA_FAN header on the mobo. Are you SURE about that? It is not normal to make such a connection using this type of connector, and I doubt you could find such a cable ready-made. But MAYBE the case system came with a custom cord for this purpose IF you are correct about where it connects. Please review the instructions to be sure.

One other possibility occurs to me. This board MIGHT be a version of a 3-pin Splitter that is used to connect up to four fans to EITHER a PSU's 4-pin Molex output OR a mobo CHA_FAN header. In that case I'd expect that the fifth small 3-pin connector at the back is used as the way to connect to a mobo CHA_FAN header only if you are NOT connecting to a PSU supply.

 

[Valantar]

If the Molex connector is the one you mean, I guess it's technically possible to wire it up with only two of its four connectors (12V and GND) to the matching pins on a standard 3-pin fan connector, leaving the other two disconnected. Most likely they're not connected to anything on the board anyhow. This would leave you without any way of monitoring fan speeds, though. Also, for this to work, you have to be sure that a) your motherboard is capable of controlling fan speed by voltage on the connector you plan on using, and b) that it can deliver sufficient current through that port to power all four fans. If not a), your fans will run at full speed all the time, and if not b), you'll most likely burn out the motherboard connector (if not trash the entire motherboard). Be very, very careful, in other words.

 

[dsplover]

I found the cable/connectors, and thanks for your replies.
It's called a 4 pin Pass Through (molex 4 pin) to 3 pin PWM Fan.

The pic shows a small PCB where dual 80s and a 120mm fan connect to.
The male 4 pin molex is a way to connect all fans to the motherboard using a single cable.

The 4U Chassis is unique due to its side firing fans.
Usually in Rack mounts its front to back.
I wanted to build a mobile outdoor PC where the rack has no sides, just top and bottom panels.

Had throttling issues last year in 100+ degrees and have prepared for this summer.

Thanks

 

[Paperdoc]

I very much doubt the cable you dscribe is the right one. What you describe looks like this, right?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...m_re=fan_adapter_cable-_-12-423-172-_-Product

It has both a male and a female 4-pin Molex connector on it. You plug the male end into a female output from the PSU, and the female end of the adapter replaces the "used" output from the PSU, so it's a "pass-through" design. Then you plug the female connector from your fan into the adapter's male output. BUT you seem to think that you can connect the adapter's fan connector to a mobo fan header, and then plug the adapter's female Molex into the 4-pin male Molex on the little board to provide the board with power from the mobo. That can't work. The mobo header is male and the adapter's fan connector also is male, so they don't connect!

It appears that the little board is intended to provide power to several (up to 5) 3-pin fans from a single PSU female 4-pin Molex source. If you do it that way it will work, but all those fans will run at full speed all the time.

IF your wish is NOT to power fans that way, but to ensure that all your fans are powered AND speed-controlled by a mobo header, using the little board will require you to custom-modify a cable to get power from the mobo to the little board. But a better alternative would likely be to use a simple Splitter to connect the fans to the mobo header, and ignore that little board completely.

To do that you need to ensure you meet a particular limit. This applies no matter how you make the connection. A standard mobo fan header can supply up to 1.0 amps total to its combined fan load. You have three fans. Common fans used in desktop systems draw 0.1 to 0.25 amps each, so combining three using a Splitter into one mobo header is quite all right. BUT many higher-use systems (such as you may have) use higher-power fans with much higher amperage pull. That is why the rack system you have provides this little board to get power directly from the PSU that is not limited by the mobo header's limits. So you need to verify the amperage ratings for all three fans.

IF the total power consumption of those three fans is less than 1 amp, then you can use a simple Splitter. It does not matter whether you get one designed for 3-pin or 4-pin systems because both will work. Here are two example options.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-162-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-168-_-Product

The first is one with three outputs on a single cable, directly suitable for your system. The second is a unit with two outputs on separate 6" arms. One with 12" arms also is available. To use that, you need three of them. Then you plug two of them into the outputs of the third one, and the combined "stack" provides four outputs from one mobo header.

NOTE that each of these Splitters has one female connector to plug into a mobo header, and two or three male outputs. It has NO other connectors or arms. Do NOT buy a HUB. That is a different device, but unfortunately some are sold with the label "Splitter" and they are not. A HUB is different in that it also has an extra arm that must plug into a power output (either female 4-pin Molex or SATA Power Output) from the PSU. But a Hub can ONLY work with 4-pin systems, which you do not have.

If you do it this way, you MUST connect those 3-pin fans to either the CHA_FAN2 or CHA_FAN3 header. Those two headers use Voltage Control Mode, necessary for use with 3-pin fans. The CHA_FAN1 header uses PWM Mode and cannot control 3-pin fan speeds.

IF your check discloses that your fans use much higher currents so that they can't meet the limits of a mobo CHA_FAN header, post back here for alternatives.