Question Air Cooler With Two Fans: cpu_fan and cpu_opt headers?

[Small_Town_Gamer]

For an air cooler with two fans, such as the Noctua NH-D15, should I plug one fan into each the cpu_fan and cpu_opt headers? Or should I connect both fans to a splitter and plug the splitter into the cpu_fan header?

 

[Lutfij]

f you're speaking specifically about the Noctua cooler mentioned above, the cooler comes with a splitter, which is specified as NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable, that hooks up to both fans which can then hook up to the CPU_FAN header on your motherboard. If you don't get a splitter for whatever reason, you should still be able to hook up the fans to CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT respectively.

 

[Small_Town_Gamer]

Follow-up question: Is it okay if a fan cable rests against one of the tower heatsinks on the CPU cooler? Or do I need to keep the cables far away from the heatsinks?

 

[Small_Town_Gamer]

f you're speaking specifically about the Noctua cooler mentioned above, the cooler comes with a splitter, which is specified as NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable, that hooks up to both fans which can then hook up to the CPU_FAN header on your motherboard. If you don't get a splitter for whatever reason, you should still be able to hook up the fans to CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT respectively.

I feel silly for not noticing it came with the splitter.

 

[Paperdoc]

Basically, CPU_OPT is merely an exact mirror of CPU_FAN and will send to uts fan exactly what CPU_FAN sends. So it really does not matter which way you do this. The ONLY difference is that with the fans on both headers, each fan's speed will be reported to its header and "see-able" In BIOS Setup or with some mobo utitlity tools.

Re your folllow-up query, there is no real need to keep cables away from the side of the heatsink. It never gets really hot, and air flow for cooling it is THROUGH it, not along its sides.