Corsair 500R Case Cables

[hm]

I am installing a Corsair 500r case, Corsair TX650 Power Supply and a ASRock Z77 Extreme4/A/ASR Motherboard. These were all purchased from Newegg.com in the past week.

There are two cables coming from the 500R front panel which are not labeled and not obvious as to where they go.

I will call the first cable, Cable 1. It has a 3 pin connector which does not mate with either the motherboard or the power supply. It requires a mating female connector. It is very short barely reaching the MB.

The other cable I will call Cable 2. It has a 4 pin connector normally associated with power. The cable has only two conductors. I'm guessing that it is for 12 volts to the front panel fans and simply needs to be plugged into a 12 volt power supply cable however the connector is the wrong sex.

If anyone can tell me the function and where the heck they connect and what adapters I should use it would be much appreciated. Now that I have all the parts it sure would be nice to get this thing running.

I also posted this in the case section.

 

[Z1NONLY]

The 4 pin plugs into a connector from your power supply (for the front fans) and the 3 pin gives you another place to connect a fan. (It is controlled by the far right switch on the front panel)

 

[hm]

The 4 pin plugs into a connector from your power supply (for the front fans) and the 3 pin gives you another place to connect a fan. (It is controlled by the far right switch on the front panel)

Thank you.

OK so I really don't need the 3 pin cable unless I want to connect another fan, I could put the side fan there.

I'm guessing that the switch on the front panel controls the two front fans speed also, otherwise they would just run full speed.

The 4 pin plug has no mating connector from the PS. Looks like a Corsair case and PS should naturally work together, guess not.

So I need an adapter to go to the PS.

Any idea what this might be called when I go to the computer shop tomorrow?

 

[clutchc]

The Molex plug (bottom pic) should have female on one end and male on the other end. As mentioned above, it should be the feed to the fan controller from the PSU. The small 3 pin connector is probably for fans that have a motherboard type fan connector.

 

[hm]

The Molex plug (bottom pic) should have female on one end and male on the other end. As mentioned above, it should be the feed to the fan controller from the PSU. The small 3 pin connector is probably for fans that have a motherboard type fan connector.

I understand but unfortunately the Molex connector shown above is female and the PSU connector is the same. Having spent the last hour looking for a male to male adapter/cable and finding none I must conclude that Corsair has an unusual way of doing things. 🙁 Tomorrow I will kludge up an adapter and venture onward. Hopefully I will not let the smoke out.

It seems a fairly safe bet that the 3 pin connector is for another fan to plug in. I don't need it and don't plan to use it.

Wish me luck!

 

[boulbox]

I suggest connecting the "CASE" fans into the case fan controllers(or at least LED fans) by connecting it to the 3 pins you are allowed to control the speed of the fans and LED lights, so if you want to make the LED lights off or on quickly, or want to a more silent case but a switch of a button i would use it.

PS: i would use it anyways since i dont like having the speed of the fans on max all the time. the TX650 should have a molex plug

 

[Goodeggray]

Don't kludge a adapter. Look at the other side of the female molex plug and youi will find a male plug. It's not a Corsair thing. It's a standard. What on the other end of the 3 pin male fan header and what's at the other end of the molex?

 

[frankworm]

The 3pin is for one of the stock case fans that comes with the case. (Only works with the 500R fans, pretty useless for any aftermarket ones.)

The 4pin molex has a male and female end is meant to be used to control the LEDs of the case for the fans. (Restricted to the 500R fans, see above answer for 3pin as to why)

You don't need anything special for the molex cable, just a power supply with molex connections. Yes they will fit, just turn the case's molex cable to face the other way to plug it in.

 

[clutchc]

The fact that most Molex connectors are dual gender is what we have been trying to say.

@HM
Please post another pic of the Molex connector facing the reverse way so we can satisfy ourselves. Thx.

 

[hm]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks for beating the dual gender thing into my head. I kept looking at the PS connectors which were definitely not dual but finally looked at the connector coming from the front panel and bingo it was. My red face is probably showing thru the web.

My guess is that this 12v feeds the control panel which has a switch that controls speed and it controls the two front fans and the fan(if any) plugged into the 3 pin connector.

Thank you!!

 

[clutchc]

Excellent! No need to feel bad. There's not a soul here that hasn't been blind to something obvious at one time or another.
I should have probably stated "most Molex device connectors are dual gender..."
PSU connectors, not so much. 😉

 

[Rnn15]

Thank god i've found this post, i hope it is not too late though.

Yesterday i've started building my first PC.
I think everything is in place so far, except for a dual-gender molex coming from the front panel (the case is a Thermaltake chaser mk1).

How should i connect it? From the male end? Female end? Both?

Thanks

 

[Z1NONLY]

Either end. No need for both.

 

[clutchc]

+1^
All power supply cables provide female-ended Molex connectors. So plug the male end of the device's Molex into one of them. The female end of the dual-ended Molex will provide a pass thru for the next device if needed.

 

[Rnn15]

Great!

Thanks a lot