Question Can I plug these old RGB fans into mobo ARGB header?

[twenntwo]

These are the fans in question. They're SP120's that came with a hub kit with a controller. The hub and controller are SATA powered and do not go into ARGB headers.

As you can see the fans' RGB connectors are different as they belong in the hub itself. What I'm wondering is if the 4-pin connector you see there is the same as These ones.

I want to know because I'd like to connect these old fans directly to the MOBO so I can control RGB lighting with MSI center instead of having to use the physical controller.

Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Pretty sure they are NOT compatible, but there are several different variations of the SP120 so it's pretty hard to say without knowing the exact model of the fans in question.

We need:

Exact model of fans (Should be listed on the sticker located on the back of the fan motor)

Exact model of motherboard

And the model of the controller might be helpful as well.

 

[twenntwo]

Thank you for the fast reply!

These SP120's are labeled as 'CO-9050059-WW'; 12V DC 0.30 A.

My mobo is an MSI Z690-A

The controller itself is just a lil plastic piece with 3 buttons for color, mode, and speed (of lights cycling).

All that said, I suspect they might NOT be compatible because I tried out the lighting modes and they seem to come in fixed, switchable colors instead of full range RGB, but this could also just be a 'limit' of the controller itself that sticks to specific shades.

Edit: the label also has smaller letters that read 'RWF0016'. I am not sure which code is the model.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Those fans do not appear to be compatible. It looks like it's a proprietary connection that requires the controller that comes with it.

 

[Paperdoc]

First, you can NOT power and control 4-pin plain RGB lights from a 3-pin ARGB header. They simply won't work. In your case you could connect them to your mobo's 4-pin plain RGB header called JRGB, but NOT to the JRAINBOW.

They will not simply plug in, though. That connector on the cables is mechanically different from the header pin sizes. Also we do NOT know the electrical functions of the four holes in your fans' connectors. IF you were going to try to cut off those connectors and custom re-wire the fans' LIGHTING cables to fit a mobo standard RGB header, you would need to know which wire is which to get it right, Without that info, this custom work would be risky.

The small Controller box and its manual button box that came with those fans has no way to accept a signal from a mobo header to provide control signals, so you can't get it to allow your mobo to take control.

By the way, IF your hope was that an ARGB header on the mobo could make your fan lights do all the fancy displays of ARGB lights, including static and moving rainbow effects, that is NOT possible. For the 4-pin plain RGB lighting system they have, each fan's lights can be changed over a wide range of colours and brightness, but at any one moment the entire set of lights in a fan can be only one colour.