Easy fan questions

[Guest]

I'm building my first system and trying to figure it all out before plunking down money. What fan configuration is best? I'm getting a 1 GHz Thunderbird, either ASUS A7V or ABIT KT7 RAID mobo, Antec SX-830 case. It looks like either board can monitor one case fan in addition to PS and CPU fans. I'd like a total of 4 case fans--should I therefore get 3 with 4-pin power supply connectors and one with a 3-pin mobo connector? Any preference regarding which case fan should be plugged into the mobo (front, back, etc). Please tell me if I'm missing the boat completely here.

Here's a quickie--how many power connectors does a typical 300W PS have?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

I don't really expect you'll need so many fans, unless you don't mind the noise and are planning on some serious overclocking. I would recommend a coolermaster fan for the processor, they are a good balance of price, performance and noise, and available everywhere. Then a case fan sucking air in at the front, and one blowing hot air out of the back. I don't think you will have any problems then, but if the CPU is still a little warm, you can buy arstic silver thermal paste...I've heard it can bring another 7C off temps.
Anyway, Tom did an article testing a bunch of common fans just the other day...go check it out.

PEACE.

DESIGN TEAM.

 

[Geeba]

Don't put a fan that draws a lot of current on the mobo... It'll blow the header. 80mm high power or 120mm fans are just too much!

As for the power supply, mine here has 5 molex and 2 floppy connectors. I have seen some with only 3 molex on but on the flip side also I have seen one with 7. I advise against power splitters if at all necessary... they always make a bad connection and cause wierd system crashes.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it! I don't plan on overclocking (yet) but I had read that the Athlon chips were especially heat sensitive under just regular conditions.