Changing the fan of my noisy water cooler

[kromahtique]

Hello everyone,

my CPU is currently cooled down by an Antec H2o 650 water cooling system whose fan is a little noisy. To solve this problem I have ordered a NF-A12x15 from Noctua that for sure would do a better job than this poor quality included fan from Antec.

Here is my problem. On every mounting tutorial I have seen, plugging in your fan is a piece of cake as you should plug your 4 (or 3, in my case)-pin female connector to the 4 pin connector from the cold plate. However, the plastic branches covering the fan come with an additional 3-pin female connector that my Noctua isn't made for.

The connector from my Noctua:

The additional connector from Antec. The one I'm holding is the connector from the Antec fan and you can see in the background the female part to which you should plug it to:

Does anyone know what is this connector used for? If I ignore it and simply plug my the fan to my cold plate, the fan spins at high speed and my CPU starts overheating within a minute or two.

Thank you, I'm very hoping I can find a solution to this!

 

[n0ns3ns3]

well, here is the problem as i see it: the pump of this particular wannabe liquid cooler is attached to the fan and gets the power over the same cable that the fan does. that 4 pin connector from the cold plate. so to replace the fan, you will have to pick one of those:
1. connect the new shiny noctua fan on the other side of the radiator and block the moving of the original fan with something. noctua fan connected to the MB directly.
2. detach the pump from the fan and make sure that pump remains connected to that cable from the cold plate. than put the noctua fan and connect it to some MB header.

I have no idea what CPU you are trying to cool, but a 120mm AiO can not be quiet by definition for a reasonably powerful CPU (>100w) under load. some 40$ air cooler will be cooling better at lower noise.