Liquid cooler wiring question

[scotty1105]

Hey guys just had a noob question about the installation of my corsair h100i and h80i liquid coolers. Now I have my power cable running off my mobo fan header but the fan header is a 4 pin and the h100 is a 3 pin. I am still able to run it but not control my fan speed like I want to. Therefore what type of splitter would I have to use to achieve this. I looked online and its crazy how many are out there to choose from so I am kinda lost. Do I want just a 4 pin to 3 pin single sleeve connector. Or do I want a 4 pin 12v molex to 3 pin. I am going to be running 2 coolers one for my cpu and one for my gpu. My plans were to hook up my cpu one to my fan header and my gpu one to fan opt. My question is what should I use to connect my 4pin header to the 3 pin wires from my coolers?s Thanks in advance.

 

[mcnumpty23]

the power should come from a sata connector not from fan headers

the fan headers are to give speed control

 

[Kevern_11]

you can plug the 3 pin fan cable into a 4 pin header, just make sure the securing clip things on each cable/header match up. No need for an adapter of any sort.

 

[mamasan2000]

Like Mcnumpty says, the fans are powered via Sata connector. The 3/4-pin is just there to not freak out the BIOS because you don't really have a CPU fan persay. Connect the USB-thing to internal USB-header and you can control fans with Corsair Link.

 

[scotty1105]

Ok then let me ask you this after I started installing my corsair h80i on my gpu I noticed a issue. I am supposed to connect into a usb 2.0 header. The problem is I dont have any open. I already am using one for my h100i cpu cooler. Since both are corsair units and both use that corsair link is there away to hook both up using only 1 usb header? Or do I need to buy another internal usb 2.0 header. I am running off a gigabytes z170x gaming 5 mobo.

 

[mamasan2000]

You could probably use one of these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-USB-3-0-20-Pin-Motherboard-Header-Female-to-USB-2-0-9-Pin-Male-Adapter-Cable-/191714171531?hash=item2ca30e1a8b:g:zn8AAOSwwbdWGy5E
Connects to USB 3 header instead.
You have 2 of those as well on the mobo.

You have 2x USB 2.0 headers, whats on the other USB header? Does it connect to front of case? Do you need those connections? Generally it's better to connect Audio and USB to the back of PC anyway. So that would be a solution without getting anything extra. Otherwise you need converter of some sort.
Male USB 2.0 mobo header to something (normal USB you connect to back of PC for example).

Another pricier option could be this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811997024&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Accessories%20-%20Case%20/%20Rackmount-_-NZXT-_-11997024&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=3630615&SID=

 

[mcnumpty23]

dont know about h80i but h100i has Corsair Link expansion port for using more than one device so must be able to use that

plus think the h100i can support 4 fans with y splitters so could also connect the h80i fans to the h100i as a second option

 

[scotty1105]

(Mamassan2000) the second usb header is being used for my usb ports on the top of the computelr.i think ill just dissconnect that one and just use my usb off my mobo for now. But I will have to buy either a splitter or converter for it.

 

[scotty1105]

(Mamassan2000) the second usb header is being used for my usb ports on the top of the computelr. I think ill just dissconnect that one and just use my usb off my mobo for now. But I will have to buy either a splitter or converter for it.

 

[scotty1105]

Can u walk me through this please because after reading you post ur making me wonder if I have this hooked up all wrong. On the h100i there are two wires coming off the pump one is a 3pin power wire an the other are 2 /4 pin fan connectors. Now corsair instructions clearly states to plug fans into your 4pin fan connectors on the pump and the 3pin power into cpu fan on the mobo. Now ur saying dont plug that one there but plug into sata molex instead. Is that what u meant? The problem I am having is that the fans seem to rev really high then go really low. Its like when u rev a car and it continues there is really no set speed and it is very annoying.
My other big issue is on my h80i gt which I have hooked up to my gpu. The 3pin power is hooked up to cpu opt and again 2 fan connectors to 4pin connectors coming of the the pump. The issue here is the fans are barely moving I mean blow on them and they stop. Therefore if I have hooked everything up according to corsair instructions why am I having issues. Can if possible someone run me through this step by step where my cables should go weather it be sata or cpu fan. Should my gpu cooler be hooked up to cpu opt and why am I gettin such low performance from my cooler fans. The one good thing is that my gpu temps have drastically gone down. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[mcnumpty23]

look here shows how to do it

picture 10 and 11 show the sata power connector

http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/2013/february/how-to-install-the-hydro-series-h100i-cpu-cooler

 

[scotty1105]

But the newer pumps dont have that sata cable with it. The old version has one but the newer one only has the 1 power 1 usb and the fan connectors. Therefore how do I hook into my sata if there is no sata connection for it. Mine didn't come with no splitter 4pin to (2) 3pin cable ither.

 

[mcnumpty23]

sorry didnt realise they had released a new revision of it

will have to look at the new version and get back to you

 

[scotty1105]

Ok, question though u can hear my cpu coolers (h100i gtx) fans adjusting speeds when the cpu gets hot. But on my gpu cooler (h80i gt) which is hooked into cpu opt header you do not have the fans changing speed. The fans are on a very slow setting never changing speeds at all plus the fans are not registering on my corsair link. It shows the pump temp and speed of the h80i but the fan icon reads 0. Now if I unplug and plug that into my cpu fan header it works as it should. So why is the cpu opt header not performing like the cpu fan header. I have a gigabyte z170x gaming 5 mobo, could i plug it into the system fan header instead?

 

[mcnumpty23]

you may need to go in the bios and set a fan profile for cpu opt header

normally the cpu header is already set--either low--med--high or whatever that bios uses

but most people dont use the cpu opt header so usually its not given a profile by default

 

[mcnumpty23]

and as long as your board has 1 4 pin header this would allow you to connect all the 3 pin fans to it and control them by pwm

though all fans connected to it will get the same profile

http://www.phanteks.com/PH-PWHUB.html

 

[scotty1105]

Thanks I will try the fan hub out, I found out what I think was causing my fans to rev high to low and repeat. I have msi afterburner and hwinfo installed and when I ran hwinfo with corsair link it would cause my fans to go nuts. Closing down the hwinfo and restarting the pc brings the fans back to normal. I should have known better when you try and open hwinfo you get a message stating it wont work with corsair link. I will try to enable that cpu opt header in bios and if that does not work I will buy the fan hub controller.

 

[mamasan2000]

The reason Corsair tells you to connect the pumps 3/4pin wire to CPU fan header is because the PC won't boot up otherwise. You would get a BIOS error every time (NO CPU FAN FOUND or similar).

I'm not sure on your revision but mine connects the fans to SATA conenctor and also USB 2 header. If I dont connect to USB 2 header, Corsair Link won't register the AIO Cooler.

Also, in the beginning I had trouble with the software. Some versions would not pick up the Cooler no matter what. If that is the case, try different versions of Corsair Link software. Go to their forums and try to figure out which version most people with your AIO Cooler are running.

And another pro tip is: The fans ramp up depending on the water temp in your Cooler, not CPU temp or GPU temp. I'm running fan curves that react at 30 Celsius and tops out at 40-45 Celsius.
I'm running OCed AMD so your curve will be different.
Make sure the fans aren't set to RPMs they can't handle. They will start making annoying noises if they are. I think the stock fans can handle 2200 RPM +- 5% Max. Extra important if you change fans.