Connecting case fan to psu?

[supatr8r]

Hi,

I have an MSI Z170i mobo and 3 case fans. I've connected 2 of them to the mobo but had a question about the other fan.

I know I can connect the 3rd fan to the psu but not sure which cable I need. The fan I have has 3 pins. Will I be able to control the fan if it's connected to the psu? Does it matter?

The 2 case fans are connected with a splitter into the mobo. Would I be better off to just get another splitter and plug that into the mobo?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Cooper0408]

Hi,

I have an MSI Z170i mobo and 3 case fans. I've connected 2 of them to the mobo but had a question about the other fan.

I know I can connect the 3rd fan to the psu but not sure which cable I need. The fan I have has 3 pins. Will I be able to control the fan if it's connected to the psu? Does it matter?

The 2 case fans are connected with a splitter into the mobo. Would I be better off to just get another splitter and plug that into the mobo?

Thanks for any advice.

If you plug it into the psu your fan will just run at max and you can't control it. It's really up to you if you care about controlling it.

 

[supatr8r]

Gotcha. What do you think about using another Y splitter to connect all 3 fans to the mobo?

 

[blinding]

Hard to say if three fans on one header would be OK. I checked the manual but it doesn't say how much power the motherboard can supply to the system fan header. I also don't know what wattage your fans are. Typically thee fans would be OK.

The typical way to run a fan from the power supply is to get an adapter. This has a 4 pin molex on one end and a fan connector on the other. You can also get manual speed controllers, useful if the fan is too loud at full speed. Finally you can get a fan controller that will regulate the speed of all three fans.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Never more than 2 fans on 1 header , risk burning out the header.