ASRock Z77E-ITX Chassis Fan

[NewGuy9000]

Hi planning build with Z77E-ITX in Bitfenix Prodigy Black Case

Mobo has 1 x Chassis Fan connector (1 x 4-pin) voltage controlled

Looked all over and even the manual doesn't give spec for how much current the chassis fan header on the mobo supports.

Case has great airflow for air cooling, but only one 5.25" bay that I will be using for a dvd drive and NOT a fan controller. PCI plate external fan controller out of the question because my graphics card will be using both slots. The pc will be on 24/7 and i think running fans unnecessarily at full power from the PSU here would be such a waste.


Setup is to be air-cooled case with 2 fans only:

BitFenix Spectre Pro All Black 230mm intake
Current (A) 0.41A ±10%
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345032


BitFenix Spectre All Black 120mm exhaust
Current (A) 0.18A ±10%
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345001

Anyone know if the fan header will support both with a 3 pin Y connector?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189063

Also will the speed control on the board be able to adjust based on temp for 2 different fans?

Both fans are 12V but the big 230mm has a Starting Voltage of 5VDC. Both fans similar max rpm with the big one running at 900rpm and the 120mm at 1000rpm

Tnx for any help!

 

[redeemer]

I personally like running fans off Molex connector and not from the MB, you can purchase a fan extension that reduces voltage to 7v instead of 12v, this will significantly reduce the rpm thus the noise.

ie

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_108&item_id=038790

 

[larkspur]

They are usually either 1A or 2A. Even if it's 1A, with only those two fans you will be fine.

The speed control will work through voltage-regulation (provided your board supports it). Using a splitter, both fans will receive the same voltage - and you do not want to let the voltage go below the start-up voltage of your fans (though your motherboard probably won't output less than 5v to the fans anyway). You cannot independently control each fan, but they will both spin according to the fan profile that is probably either CPU-load controlled or temperature controlled (and sometimes either can be selected as an option - I don't know about your board specifically - read your manual). You may have to set the chassis fan profile in the BIOS (or maybe included software) to voltage-reg instead of PWM since your fans are not PWM. But otherwise it should work fine.

Also - You can use a 5.25" bay adapter and a slim-line optical drive that will provide you with a 3.5" drive bay for mounting whatever you like (fan controller, card reader, even an ancient floppy drive! ; ) Such as this: http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?sku=113

 

[NewGuy9000]

Tnx larkspur! been looking all over for a coherent answer on this.

 

[NewGuy9000]

Best answer selected by NewGuy9000.