Cooling gurus.... Need some fan advice

[donbarron]

I have the Define Mini-C (Micro ATX) case and am using the AsRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX board which only has two chassis fan headers. I added an intake fan (Dynamic X2 GP-12, like the others) and used a noctua splitter on it, so my case now has three fans (1 out and 2 in).



I'd like to replace the three fans with Noctua case fans, so I'm looking at NF-A12, but I'd like to move the Dynamic X2 GP-12 to the top to help VRM cooling, but I'd quickly run out of headers.

Can you give me suggestions for a simple hub or controller that I can just plug the extra fans into and hide in the cable bay area of my case? I'm not looking for something fancy, but I don't care how much it costs. I want it to work simply.

Thanks for any advice/suggestions. I'm a Noob. This is the first custom PC I've owned since the Athlon X2 days.

 

[Zerk2012]

You can run 2 fans off each header even 3 if you need to. Just buy a spliter.

 

[donbarron]

Three fans on one header won't overload it?

 

[Zerk2012]

Not the fans your using.

 

[Paperdoc]

Your existing Fractal Design fans are of the 3-pin design and pull at max 0.18 A each. Now, with 3-pin fans, the ONLY way to control them is using Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode). In your case, the only mobo header that does it that way is the CHA_FAN2 header. Further, to connect such fans to a 3-pin header using that Mode of control, you must use a SPLITTER, and not a HUB. You have a Splitter already, but it may be one with only two outputs. However, if I read this right, your plan is to use only two of them at the top, so that Splitter will do the job for you. From the perspective of mobo header loading there is no problem - the SYS_FAN2 header can supply up to 1.0 amps total, and the three fans you have draw max 0.18 A each, or 0.36 A total for two fans.

THEN you want to add Noctua fans, and I presume you mean three of them for the two front and one rear positions. For that I suggest you be very careful and choose 4-pin fans from Noctua, specifically their NF-A12x15 PWM Model. NOTE the "PWM" suffix there - it specifies the 4-pin version that uses the other control Mode, PWM. This fan type CAN be controlled properly by your other header, SYS_FAN1. These fans pull 0.13 A max each, or 0.39 A total for three, so easily can be fed from one fan header via a 4-pin fan Splitter with three output arms like this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812423163&cm_re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-163-_-Product

Note that as an alternative, you can buy three 2-output fan Splitters and connect two of them to the output arms of the third, making a "stack" of splitters that converts one header into four outputs. It is quite acceptable to connect these three fans to a single header using a Splitter. You do not need to go to a HUB, which is a different device (that DOES work with 4-pin fans, but not 3-pin) that gets power directly from the PSU.

I suggest you make a change of setting in BIOS Setup for BOTH of those SYS_FAN headers. On p.63 of your manual it says each fan header has its own setting for the "Chassis Fan Temp Source". For the two headers controlling the case ventilation fans, set that to be the sensor on the mobo, not the one inside the CPU chip.