[SOLVED] Help with RGB fan setup

Jul 16, 2019
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I have a gigabyte aorus elite b450 motherboard.

Q1: can i buy two 3to1 rgb splitter and two 2to1 fan splitter and connect 6 rgb fans to the motherboard?

Q2. And also can i connect 2 led strips to the 2 led strip header?

Q3. Will all these work together in sync with rgb fusion?

The RGB fans im going to be using are the antec prizm 120mm, 12v, 4pin rgb, 4pin fan.
The splitter is the coolermaster RGB splitter.

Thanks for the help.
 
Solution
Much of what you want to do is do-able, certainly, but there are a couple details you have wrong that need clarification.

Just a note on RGB fans in general. Such items really are two device in one piece - a fan motor, and the RGB lighting units. Each has its own separate cable with different connectors on it, to be plugged into different mobo headers.

First, your mobo's capabilities. See its manual p 12 through 15. Regarding fans, all your mobo headers have 4 pins, but in BIOS Setup (p. 27) you can configure each separately to use either the older Voltage Control Mode required for 3-pin fans, or the newer PWM Mode best for 4-pin fans. Also note that, when connecting case ventilation fans to mobo SYS_FAN headers you should ensure that...

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Much of what you want to do is do-able, certainly, but there are a couple details you have wrong that need clarification.

Just a note on RGB fans in general. Such items really are two device in one piece - a fan motor, and the RGB lighting units. Each has its own separate cable with different connectors on it, to be plugged into different mobo headers.

First, your mobo's capabilities. See its manual p 12 through 15. Regarding fans, all your mobo headers have 4 pins, but in BIOS Setup (p. 27) you can configure each separately to use either the older Voltage Control Mode required for 3-pin fans, or the newer PWM Mode best for 4-pin fans. Also note that, when connecting case ventilation fans to mobo SYS_FAN headers you should ensure that the headers are configured to use the motherboard temperature sensor, and not the one inside the CPU chip.

Regarding RGB lighting devices (strips or fan lights), there are two main types dominating the market. The plain RGB type uses a 4-pin mobo header that supplies power at 12 VDC. The more advanced form is called Addressable RGB or ADDR RGB or ARGB, and it uses a 3-pin header (very like the other, but one pin missing) and 5 VDC power. So they can NOT be mixed in the same lighting circuit. However, your mobo has BOTH types of header on it, and you CAN use both types of header, with lighting devices of the correct type connected to each. On manual p. 12 we see items 5 (LED_CPU) and 6 (LED_C) are of the plain RGB (4-pin, 12 VDC) type. p. 14 says each can be used for any plain RGB device, with limits PER HEADER of 2A max current. That normally is quite sufficient for a modest number of RGB devices per header. Note that the LED_C header actually has FIVE pins. It is a variation of the plain RGB header with an extra pin for devices with White LED's also in them. But any common plain RGB device for 4-in connections CAN fit onto that header and just not use Pin 5, and that works fine.

Your mobo also has two Digital RGB headers called D_LED1 and D__LED2 (p. 12, items 7 at top front and bottom rear) - that's what most now call the ADDR RGB type. Associated with each of those is an adjacent jumper header called DLED_V_SW1 etc. (items 8) used for a not-so-common purpose. At one time there were some ADDR RGB devices that used a 12 VDC supply, so this jumper needs to be set to the correct Voltage for each D_LEDn header - in your case, set for 5 VDC.

So you're in good shape for what you need. For six 4-pin PWM-type fans you have three SYS_FAN headers, so three simple 2-output SPLITTERS will do that job (BUT see below for another option).

My problem comes with your specified fans choice. The Antec Prizm line of RGB fans ALL are of the 3-pin 5VDC ARGB type - see this web page.

https://antec.com/product/casefan.php

One way they are sold is called their "3+2+C"package containing three fans, two ARGB strips, and a Controller box. MAYBE that is how you planned to buy them. If so, you would get in one package three fans plus two strips ALL of the ARGB type, and a Controller box. Of course, you can always buy fans singly. For six fans you get double that, of course.

I noted one important point that might lead you to get two of those packages. The mobo D_LEDn headers are each spec'd as able to supply up to 2 A to their connected ARGB devices. But the FAN specs say each fan's RGB component uses up to 0.8 A, so three fans exceeds the limit of the ARGB header. BUT if you use that Controller box included in those packages, it gets all power for its lighting devices from the PSU via a connection to a SATA power output connector from the PSU, so it does NOT have that limit. Further, one such box has five output ports for fans and five for ARGB devices, so you could connect to one box all three fans plus the two included ARGB light strips in one package. And further yet, the box comes with a cable that allows you to connect it to both a mobo fan header and a mobo ARGB header so that those mobo signals control all the items connected to that Controller box and you do NOT use the manual buttons on the box. So, you could buy two of those "3+2+C" packages and create two groups of three fans plus two strips, each connected to its own D_LEDn header and SYS_FANn header. Then the fan speed all will be controlled by the mobo automatic systems, and the ARGB lights all will be controlled via the mobo's D_LEDn headers using the Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 utility it comes with. Then you do not need any fan Splitter, nor any RGB Splitter.

To complete my notes about confusion, you said the fans were "12v, 4pin rgb" type. But the ONLY fan from Antec with those specs is their Spark line. It IS of the plain RGB type and would have to be used differently. So IF you really do mean that one, and not the Prizm line with ARGB lighting, post back here for more details.
 
Solution
Jul 16, 2019
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After seeing their official website the fans were indeed 3pin aRGB. I was steered in the wrong direction by amazon.
Decided to go with 2 packs of 3+2+c. Thanks a lot for your well detailed answer :).
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
You're welcome. One small note to add. As I outlined above you can provide ARGB control signals to each of the two Control Hubs, and hence to all the ARGB lighting devices, from separate mobo D_LEDn headers. What I don't know for sure is whether the RGB Fusion 2.0 software can synchronize the signals on both those mobo headers so all your lightstdo exactly the same thing. I suspect yes, but I do not know for sure.