First time on buying/installing fans to chassis, I need help!

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David92

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Jul 5, 2012
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Hello everyone :)

I have some newbie questions to ask about buying and installing fans into my chassis. I would like to improve the cooling system inside my case since i am currently having some heat issues with it, i do fear the worse when summer comes 🙁

I think i do have only one of the fan with blue LED installed on the front it's located at HDD/SSD area. I'm planning on buying at least 3 fans and install them into my chassis to improve the cooling quality of it.

Here's what i have, a mid tower chassis made by Cooler Master which is Elite 431 Plus and i have a Asrock Z77 PRO3 Motherboard.

I already checked the official site for the specs of my chassis and my motherboard, here are the sites http://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/z77%20pro3/ and http://www.coolermaster.com/case/mid-tower/elite-431-plus/

My CoolerMaster Elite 431 Plus chassis maximum amount of fans can be installed are 5 fans.

My Motherboard specs

- 2 x CPU Fan connectors (1x 4-pin CPU_FAN1 and 1x 3-pin CPU_FAN2)
- 2 x Chassis Fan connectors (1x 4-pin CHA_FAN1 and 1x 3-pin CHA_FAN2)

1x 4-PIN CPU_FAN1 USED BY INTEL STOCK COOLER 1x 3-PIN CPU_FAN2 UNUSED
1x 4-PIN CHA_FAN1 UNUSED, 1x 3-PIN CHA_FAN2 UNUSED
1x Power Fan connector (3-pin) PWR_FAN 1 UNUSED

The fans connectors are currently not in used are 3-PIN CPU_FAN 2, 4-PIN CHA_FAN1, 3-PIN CHA_FAN2 and lastly 3-PIN PWR_FAN1.

I do believe my CPU stock cooler made by Intel has already taken the 4-pin CPU_FAN1 connector. and my blue LED 120mm? fan on the front is plugged and powered by my PSU? I'm not sure myself since my chassis connectors are not in used. Anyway, i just looked inside my case again and i found out that my 4-PIN CHA_FAN1 and 3-PIN CHA_FAN2, CPU_FAN2 and PWR_FAN1 are all unused.

Okay here are my questions

(Question 1)
I want to get 3x of 120mm fans with 3-PIN and i wonder will it work if i plugged 1 of my 3-PIN 120mm fan to my 4-PIN CHA_FAN1 connector? Will there be any problems with it? or should i plug in my 3-PIN 120mm fan to 3-PIN CPU_FAN2 connector instead? How about the 3-PIN PWR_FAN1? will it work if i plug in one of my 3-PIN 120mm fan into it?

OR should i get 1x 120mm fan with 4PIN, and 2x 120mm fans with 3-PIN?

I'm planning on installing 2x 120mm fans on top, and 1x 120mm on the rear, and having all of those 3 fans blowing out the heated air.

(Question 2)
Do i need to get screws and nuts to install the fans or they are included with the fans when you purchase them?

I really do need your help on this :) since this is probably my first time on installing new fans into my system so i need all the information and help that i can get :)

And please do feel free to drop recommandations on which brand of 120mm fans should i buy,
My budget is probably somewhere to 50 to 100 USD i don't mind raising my budget if quality ones are above the budget price.
 
Solution
MasterDell
If you are worried about cooling your system I would get a different CPU cooler aswell.

Questions 1: It doesn't matter if you plug a 3-pin into a 4-pin and a 4-pin to a 3-pin. It is just fine to do that.

Don't put side fans on. I know this case doesn't have side fan options, just never put side panel fans on. Putting side fans on messes up airflow and make your system hotter at times.

Question 2: All screws are included and you need nothing and long as you have a screw driver.


Okay so the problem with this case is that there is only one intake fan which means you should have only one exhaust. So that's exactly what I suggest. I suggest you get really good fans to do the job though. I also suggest getting this CPU cooler I...
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If you are worried about cooling your system I would get a different CPU cooler aswell.

Questions 1: It doesn't matter if you plug a 3-pin into a 4-pin and a 4-pin to a 3-pin. It is just fine to do that.

Don't put side fans on. I know this case doesn't have side fan options, just never put side panel fans on. Putting side fans on messes up airflow and make your system hotter at times.

Question 2: All screws are included and you need nothing and long as you have a screw driver.


Okay so the problem with this case is that there is only one intake fan which means you should have only one exhaust. So that's exactly what I suggest. I suggest you get really good fans to do the job though. I also suggest getting this CPU cooler I added to add airflow and cool your CPU better.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.32 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Aerocool DS 140mm Blue 93.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($14.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $50.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-24 04:25 EST-0500


If you add all 5 fans you will have negative air pressure (more is going out than in) This is not good and it's actually worse. If you were to use one top fan and one exhaust you would be good. (Both of those taking air out)
Then for intake you could use the bottom fan as an intake and you would obviously use the 140mm I included as the intake.

So 2 options.

1. Use just two fans. 1x 140mm and 1x 120mm.
2. Use 2 x 120mm for exhaust and then 1 x 140mm for intake and 1 x 120mm for intake.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.32 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Aerocool DS 140mm Blue 93.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($14.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $74.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-24 04:30 EST-0500


OR


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.32 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Aerocool DS 140mm Blue 93.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($14.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $50.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-24 04:25 EST-0500
 
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Solution

First of all, thank you very much for helping me on this! 😀 i really do appreciate your help. Your answers here are really helpful to me :)

Well... when i first bought my PC back in 2012, i was in a budget and was unable to get some new case fans for it., and i said to myself i will get some later in the future but for some reason i have forgotten all about it 🙁 it could be it was running perfectly without any problems that makes me think there isn't any cooling problems with it, but it was fine until 3 years later which is now 2015, and i am currently having some heat issues and noticeable increase of temperatures.

It's 31c to 33c during the afternoon where i am currently living at, and during gaming without my air conditioner turn on, my temperatures of my CPU is somewhere 75c above, wheres my GPU is around 65c above never hits 70c before, as for my HDD one was at 40c another one is at 38c, I have no idea about my RAM temperatures since HWMonitor doesn't monitor it for some reason 🙁

So i do fear the worse when summer comes 🙁 so i would like to improve my cooling system of my PC before all of that happens. I'm planning on getting 3x 120mm 3 pins fans for my case and i am trying to follow this here http://assets.coolermaster.com/global/upload/product_feature/elite431_revised_airflow.jpg if i am not wrong it looks like 2x on top exhaust and 1x on the rear exhaust both front and bottom part are intake. And you don't have to worry about the side fan since i couldn't install one even if i wanted to 😛

If it's wrong for me to follow that picture linked above, could you guide me ? on how to install the fans in a correct order to have a balance airflow inside my case :)

By the way, i have another question for you if i wanted one of my fans to do the opposite like my intake fan as exhaust, do i just have to flipped the fans the other way around to have the opposite effect? will this work ? or....? I just want to be sure on this.
 
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Yes a fan is a fan. Simply flip it around and it will do the opposite. That's how all fans work.

I seriously suggest that you change the front fan to a 140mm. This will be extremely good for your temps. As well as the CPU cooler like I said before.

I think your motherboard only has 5 fan connectors, correct? We can't forget that the CPU take one up so that leaves us with only 4 for the case. So what I think you should do is buy a fan splitter and then connect the two top exhaust fans to the splitter. Then you should buy a 140mm for the intake. So this is the new setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.32 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 60.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Aerocool DS 140mm Blue 93.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($14.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $74.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-24 16:57 EST-0500


Then we can use the current intake fan as the rear exhaust fan.

I made an image of what it would look like: http://imgur.com/y6X7VTK

So the blue on there would be your LED one in the front being put as an exhaust at the back.





 
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Alright I just researched about that fan splitter that you're talking about it,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189063&cm_re=fan_splitter-_-12-189-063-_-Product

if i am not wrong, it's a cable wheres the female 3pin cable is connected to one of my Fan connectors doing this allowing me to add additional 2 more fans while using only one of my motherboard fan connector, am i right ?

And the fans connectors are currently not in used are 3-PIN CPU_FAN 2, 4-PIN CHA_FAN1, 3-PIN CHA_FAN2 and lastly 3-PIN PWR_FAN1. The front 120mm fan with Blue LED is probably powered by my PSU? i have no idea with this one since most of my fans connectors are unused...so.. that makes total 4 unused.

I already looked at the picture you made, you're asking me to take off my current intake fan on the front to replace it with a new 140mm fan for it and use the previous blue LED fan as my exhaust on the rear. And get 2 more of 120mm fans for the top? and another 1 120mm for the bottom as intake as well?

So it's front and bottom intake, top and rear as exhaust?

By the way, those fans you listed there are really nice! :)

 
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if i am not wrong, it's a cable wheres the female 3pin cable is connected to one of my Fan connectors doing this allowing me to add additional 2 more fans while using only one of my motherboard fan connector, am i right ?
Click to expand...
Yes that is correct. You shouldn't have any fans connected to your PSU. Is isn't bad but it just confuses things.


I already looked at the picture you made, you're asking me to take off my current intake fan on the front to replace it with a new 140mm fan for it and use the previous blue LED fan as my exhaust on the rear. And get 2 more of 120mm fans for the top? and another 1 120mm for the bottom as intake as well?

So it's front and bottom intake, top and rear as exhaust?
Click to expand...

Yes that is exactly what I think would be best. And the CPU cooler will be your best improvements.
 
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That's good thank you very much for your confirmation on it! :) And yeah my front 120mm blue LED fan is indeed connected to my PSU using molex. And today i am planning on going out on getting some of those Cougar Vortex fans that you're recommending it to me, but the only thing that i am afraid is i am unable to find them as it might not be available on my local shops here 🙁 So is there anymore good fans that you know about them?

I would like to check my local shops first, if all of them has nothing i wanted then i will try to order it online.

And i have another question for you, If i plugged in an PWM 4-PINS 120mm fan to a 3 PIN connector will it run at the lower RPM or it will always run at the highest RPM it can go?
 
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http://pcpartpicker.com/part/aerocool-case-fan-shark120mmblackedition
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/enermax-case-fan-uctb12nbl
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/bitfenix-case-fan-bfflpro12025brp
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-fan-rffz12002

Those fans would also be good choices. The ones I suggested before are the best though.


Answer to question: The fans will run a full speed. You can still adjust the speed though in most cases. On most motherboard, it will lower the voltage to lower the fan speed.
 
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Thank you very much for listed them! :) And i do have another question for you, If i plugged in an PWM 4-PINS 120mm fan to a 3 PIN connector will it always run at the lowest RPM (800RPM Cougar Vortex) or it will always run at the highest RPM (1500RPM Cougar Vortex) it can go?
 
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The fans will run at full speed. You can still adjust the speed though in most cases. On most motherboards, it will lower the voltage to lower the fan speed.
 
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Alright here's an update i just checked my local shops here, and i was right after all they do not have any of those quality fans that are listed here, most of them are out of stock 🙁

But i could find Cooler Master SickerFlow fans everywhere though and i decided to get some for those and use them temporary until the quality fans are in back in stock!

And i did managed to get a single stick of Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333mhz RAM. But i noticed something is wrong with it i meant it's design of the RAM was changed? it's doesn't has the previous looks where it was kinda big like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239876.

Hmm... i wonder did i just bought the wrong RAM or something? this is my first time on seeing the DDR3 RAM become something like this =.= this is how it looks like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239267

 
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Yeah i didn't inserted the RAM properly no wonder it doesn't work lol it's my fault but i tried so many times and finally it makes that satisfying clip sound to confirmed it's successfully seated :) Whew !.. i just spend a few hours on successfully installing these Sickleflow fans into my case it's quite small to be honest :/ and the fans are quite loud i think. How am i going to describe it... well it sounds like a electrical kettle that is boiling the water 🙁 if you have one then you should know how it sounds :/

MasterDell could you teach me on how to lower the voltage of the fans ? i would like them to run on lower RPM if it's possible :)
 
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I have a blue SickFlow fan in one of my computers and it isn't very quiet but it is a pretty good fan for what you are paying.

Changing NON-PWN fan speeds is the same as changing PWN fan speeds. PWN fans are just more energy efficient. To change the speed you can go into your BIOS and then change each fans speed from there. Did you get it?
 
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You've received lots of advice on sizes and intake vs exhaust. Let me clarify 3- and 4-pin fan connections and performance.

First, you can always plug any 3-pin or 4-pin fan into either a 3-pin or 4-pin mobo port. They are designed mechanically so they only fit one way, and electrically so they will work - but with some limits, as follows.

A 3-pin fan on a 3-pin port, and a 4-pin fan on a 4-pin port, will work as expected. If you set the mobo to automatically control the fans, it will do that.
A 3-pin fan on a 4-pin port will always run at full speed. This is because it receives full 12 VDC always on Pin 2, and cannot use the PWM signal to change that. There are a few exceptions to this. SOME mobos allow you to set a 4-pin mobo fan port to act either like a true 4-pin or a true 3-pin. Some even are so smart they figure it out for you and set themselves. But most do not.

A 4-pin fan on a 3-pin port will work and change speeds according to the mobo control. This is because it receives variable voltage on Pin 2, and no PWM signal to change that.

So ideally, use a 4-pin fan on a 4-pin port, and 3-pin on 3-pin. A 4-pin fan on a 3-pin port will work with changing speed.

Now, the mobo control system for the CPU_FAN ports is guided by a temperature sensor built into the CPU chip, so that REALLY is where you should plug in ONLY the CPU cooling fan. In your case, since you have a 4-pin fan on the 4-pin CPU_FAN1 port and no other CPU cooling fan, you do not use anything on the CPU_FAN2 port.

The mobo's CHA_FAN ports use a different temperature sensor, one built into the mobo by its manufacturer, so this is the right place to plug in all your case ventilation fans. If you want to use more than 2 such fans, you will need one or more splitters. I recommend using no more than 2 fans on one port because of the large start-up current for the fans. I do not like the Link Depot splitter you were guided to above. Why? If you look closely at its picture, it has Yellow wires going to both output connectors. This means that BOTH fans will feed speed pulse signals to the mobo, causing confusion as it tries to measure a fan speed. I suggest you either buy a different splitter that connects the Yellow wire to only one of the two output connectors, OR simply take this Link Depot unit and cut off one of the yellow wires at one output connector.

In your case, do not connect anything to the PWR_FAN port on the mobo. That connector is designed for use with certain PSU's that have a set of wires coming out of them that look exactly like those of a 3-pin fan. Its real purpose is only to allow the fan inside the PSU to send its speed signal to the mobo for monitoring. It does not actually provide power to the PSU fan, nor does it control that fan. HOWEVER, some mobo makers have connected the Ground and +12 VDC sources to Pins 1 and 2 of this mobo port, with NO controller to change that +12 VDC line. The result is that any normal 3- or 4-pin fan connected here will run at full speed all the time. So if you need a full-speed fan anyway, you can use this. It will work just like a fan connected directly to the PSU's fixed 12VDC supply.
 
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Sorry for such late reply, but i was busy on doing couple of tests on my system. All i have to say is i am happy at the results :) installing 3 fans does managed to decrease 10c inside my chassis, but i do believe once i have gotten those fans that are recommended by MasterDell my temperatures will be even better! And lastly thank you very much to MasterDell for being kind and patience with me :) and let's not forget about Paperdoc :) i really found your post really helpful to me! so thank you very much i really appreciate it guys!
 
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