Question Need help with Lian Li fans and PC PartPicker saying I don't have enough PCIe slots and USB 2.0 headers

[Haliax68]

As the headline says, I'm trying to put together a sweet computer build for my nephew for this Christmas! So excited to build this thing for him, he's gonna FLIP! His parents are going to pay for it all and were hoping I'd put it together for him. They said to make him something super nice and like my build I did. They say it a few weeks ago and flipped out. Here's my build I did. It was my first time building a computer and knew next to nothing when I started. But read a TON of articles online, watched videos, asked some questions here and it turned out amazing. Worked the first time I jumped it and so did all the fans, RGB lights and AIO. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jv7yGP

So they want me to build him an all white computer with the RGB fans like I have. His Dad said, "just build something almost exactly like yours, he won't shut up about it." So I now see Lian Li now has these amazing new Uni TL fans that look fantastic and I want to use those for his build! To me, they look even better then my SL-INF Mirror fans I have. But the problem is, when I put the O11 D Mini case, the Gigabyte B650E AORUS ELITE X AX ICE ATX AM5 Motherboard and the Lian Li TL fans (normal or reverse), it says there are some warnings of parts not working? It says the build needs 2 additional 6 pin PCIe power connector slots? And that it needs 1 additional USB 2.0 header.

But the weird thing is, I see loads of others using the exact same case, 9 Lian Li Uni fans (either SL, INF or TL) and a Mobo that only has 2 PCIe x16 slots and 2 USB 2.0 headers. And yet the whole thing works for them?! Whereas the Mobo I have picked out for my nephews build is the Gigabyte B650E AORUS ELITE X AX ICE ATX AM5 Motherboard and it has 3 PCIe x 16 slots and 2 USB 2.0 headers. So 1 more PCIe x16 slot than most of the other builds I'm seeing.

So question 1: how are these people getting all 9 Lian Li SL, INF or TL fans to work with their Mobo if it only has 2-3 PCIe x16 slots?

Then it got me thinking, can I can just plug these 2 additional 6 pin PCIe connectors from the Lian Li TL fans onto the 2 free remaining PCIe x 16 slots that will be empty on the Mobo I picked out? According to the build, it says I'm only going to be using 1 of the PCIe x16 slots for GeForce RTC4070 GPU. But that 2 of the 3 will be open and not used. So hopefully I can just plug those 2 additional 6 pin PCIe connectors into there?

And question 2: then what about the additional USB 2.0 header? How can I get around that or make that work? I looked at all the White or Silver/White Mobos that will work with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600x chip and only three of ALL of them have 3 USB 2.0 headers. And yet, almost every single build I've seen on PC PartPicker, using the Lian Li O11 D Mini case (that uses 9 Lian Li RGB fans) has a Mobo that only has 2 or 3 PCIe x16 slots and 2 USB 2.0 headers? Not the websites claimed 3 or more PCIe slots and 3 USB 2.0 headers.

So how are these people doing this?! I'm lost here. I did message one of the people, but haven't heard back and figured more eyes would be on this question here.

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

PC PartPicker build list:

Component		Selection	Base	Promo	Shipping	Tax	Price	Where
CPU			AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$196.78				$196.78		Buy
CPU Cooler			Lian Li HydroShift LCD 360TL RGB 79.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$259.89				$259.89		Buy
Motherboard			Gigabyte B650E AORUS ELITE X AX ICE ATX AM5 Motherboard					$239.95		Buy
Memory			Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6200 CL36 Memory	$134.99				$134.99		Buy
Storage			Samsung 990 EVO 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X2 NVME Solid State Drive	$149.99				$149.99		Buy
Video Card			Gigabyte AERO OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card	$641.55				$641.55		Buy
Case			Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini Snow Edition ATX Mid Tower Case	$111.99		FREE		$111.99		Buy
Power Supply			Cooler Master V850 SFX GOLD 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply					$169.99		Buy
Case Fan			Lian Li UNI FAN TL 120 90.1 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack	$98.99		FREE		$98.99		Buy
Case Fan			Lian Li UNI FAN TL 120 Reverse Blade 83.4 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack	$99.99		FREE		$99.99		Buy
Case Fan			Lian Li UNI FAN TL 120 Reverse Blade 83.4 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack	$99.99		FREE		$99.99

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[Paperdoc]

I can't answer all these items. But regarding the "6 pin PCIe power connector" thing, I', pretty sure that does NOT mean the number of PCIe slots on the mobo for adding cards. It refers to the number of (6+2 -pin) (aka 8-pin) power outputs from the PSU. These are for connecting power to devices in your system. That particular video card you have chosen uses a LOT of power - so much that it might normally use two or three 8-pin outputs from the PSU to that ONE video card. But there is an alternative new cable type introduced by GForce called a 16-pin cable that must use a NEW 16-pin socket on a modular PSU to feed such a card. You should check with the Sales or Tech Support people at the card maker for how to make power connections to this card. You MAY need to select a different PSU that has this type of output socket.

 

[bill001g]

Lian li likely makes a fan controller that will reduce the number of things you need to connect.

BUT you have much larger issues.

You have listed the "mini" version of the case. That case only has room for 2 360 length fan/radiator. One on the top and one on the bottom. So the radiator would go on the top and one of those fans on the bottom. Note your video card is going to hide the bottom ones. The side mount on the case will only take a 240 or 280.

So only need 1 on those 360 fans and maybe a 240 for the side.

This is likely massive overkill. You do not need to water cool a amd 7600. You are spending more on the cooler than the cpu chip. Maybe consider a air cooler and then buy a better cpu. You do not need to water cool unless you are running a overclocked intel. Almost all quality air coolers can cool even 14900k intels set to defualt setting. There are many air coolers in the $50 price range that will work fine.....they are more expensive if you are going to put silly LCD screens on them.

 

[Haliax68]

Lian li likely makes a fan controller that will reduce the number of things you need to connect.

BUT you have much larger issues.

You have listed the "mini" version of the case. That case only has room for 2 360 length fan/radiator. One on the top and one on the bottom. So the radiator would go on the top and one of those fans on the bottom. Note your video card is going to hide the bottom ones. The side mount on the case will only take a 240 or 280.

So only need 1 on those 360 fans and maybe a 240 for the side.

This is likely massive overkill. You do not need to water cool a amd 7600. You are spending more on the cooler than the cpu chip. Maybe consider a air cooler and then buy a better cpu. You do not need to water cool unless you are running a overclocked intel. Almost all quality air coolers can cool even 14900k intels set to defualt setting. There are many air coolers in the $50 price range that will work fine.....they are more expensive if you are going to put silly LCD screens on them.

Hmm, that first part might be right, but still not sure. I need someone to 100% confirm how this all works. I do remember when I put my computer together, there was 1 or 2 controllers for the fans and the AIO. But not sure why PC PARTPICKER wouldn't know that and show it as "compatible". I'm hoping someone here knows exactly what is going on and what will work because the problem with Lian Li is... they will not communicate with you unless you can send them your mothers maiden name, your first born child, your left nut and 3 months rent!!! It's ridiculous! They want the serials #s off of any product you have a question about, which is insane! AND photos of the purchase receipt?!?! I shouldn't have to completely dismantle my computer to find some serial #s and search for hours for a receipt I may or may not have anymore just so I can get some assistance from your extremely confusing products!!! That's HORRIBLE customer service! Nor can I give you serial #'s or receipts for a product I haven't even purchased yet!?!

Then on to second part. I have no problems and nobody else does either. Not sure if you read the whole message? I said I've literally seen hundreds of builds like I'm describing I want to do with 9 Lian Li fans (3 120's exhausting on top, 3 120s intaking on the bottom, 1 exhausting on the back and a 2 fans from the 240 AIO radiator on the side intaking, a full size GPU and all in a Lian Li O11 D Mini case. It all fits perfectly fine. Maybe you're just misunderstanding what I'm trying to do? Here's a photo of one of literally hundreds or thousands of builds exactly like what I want to do. That GPU in this photo is also MUCH bigger then the ones I'm going to use. And you can see, it fits fine.

And I know I don't "need" a liquid AIO cooler. But I want it. It looks the tits. And so does my nephew. So that's why I have a liquid AIO and that's why I'm putting one in for my nephew. It's not about practicality, it's about looks, aesthetics and a very specific amazing looking overall theme/design choice. But thank you for pointing that out, just in case I didn't know. I learned a LOT about computers while building mine and now am studying to get into IT, with zero prior experience. It's been interesting learning and building my own computer helped me learn a lot about the hardware.

 

[Haliax68]

I can't answer all these items. But regarding the "6 pin PCIe power connector" thing, I', pretty sure that does NOT mean the number of PCIe slots on the mobo for adding cards. It refers to the number of (6+2 -pin) (aka 8-pin) power outputs from the PSU. These are for connecting power to devices in your system. That particular video card you have chosen uses a LOT of power - so much that it might normally use two or three 8-pin outputs from the PSU to that ONE video card. But there is an alternative new cable type introduced by GForce called a 16-pin cable that must use a NEW 16-pin socket on a modular PSU to feed such a card. You should check with the Sales or Tech Support people at the card maker for how to make power connections to this card. You MAY need to select a different PSU that has this type of output socket.

The GPU's I'm looking at only use 1 of the 3 PCIe x16 slots. So there will be 2 leftover. So maybe these 6+2 pin aka 8 pin connectors can go right in together side by side into 1 of the 2 leftover PCIe x16 slots? Not sure. Still waiting for someone who knows for sure to confirm.

 

[Eximo]

The GPU's I'm looking at only use 1 of the 3 PCIe x16 slots. So there will be 2 leftover. So maybe these 6+2 pin aka 8 pin connectors can go right in together side by side into 1 of the 2 leftover PCIe x16 slots? Not sure. Still waiting for someone who knows for sure to confirm.

You are mixing up PCIe power cables and PCIe slots. The GPU needs both, like in your example there. The massive cable coming into the GPU.

Can you link the pcpartpicker link to the new build? Should be relatively easy to swap out a few things to make it work completely.

 

[Haliax68]

You are mixing up PCIe power cables and PCIe slots. The GPU needs both, like in your example there. The massive cable coming into the GPU.

Can you link the pcpartpicker link to the new build? Should be relatively easy to swap out a few things to make it work completely.

Ok, but I'm still not exactly sure I understand what you're saying here in regards to the PCIe power cable vs slots? The GPU uses 1 PCIe power cable to connect to the mobo, correct? And then the mobo says it has 3 PCIe x16 slots total. So that would mean there are 2 left, correct? And for some reason, with the Reverse TL 3 packs, it's showing an error, but not when I put the build together with a 3 pack and then single SL-INF fans in normal and reverse blade. So that's what I'm confused about. Not about PCIe slots vs cables. But any explanation you can give to help me understand better is much appreciated.

So this is super weird. If I take out all of the TL reverse blade 3 packs I had in the build, and instead use all SL-INF fans, normal and reverse, the "warning" or "problems" go away on PC PARTPICKER, hahaha. I wonder if it's just some glitch on their website?

And also, they ONLY show the TL fans in 3 packs, not singles. Which is weird, because the TL fans come in normal and reverse in singles and 3 packs. But PC PARTPICKER doesn't show that. Not sure if that has anything to do with the problem as well? Who knows.

But here are the two builds. The ONLY thing that is different is using Lian Li Uni TL fans (normal and reverse blade) 3 packs, vs using SL-INF fans (one 3 pack of normal blades, a single normal blade, then 5 single reverse blade fans).

Build with SL-INF fans
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/TalKamar68/saved/RzBVBm

Build with the three TL 3 pack fans
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ftP9VW

And here is a screen shot of the warnings/issues from the second build using 3 3 packs of TL fans

And here's what PC PARTPICKER shows for the Expansion slots:

Thanks

 

[Eximo]

GPU card edge plugs into the PCIe slot. Other cards can also be plugged into PCIe slots. Network cards, sound cards, storage controllers. The GPU also has large connectors which you plug in power cables that come from the power supply. x16/x1 PCIe slots are on the motherboard. PCIe 6+2 (8)pin, PCIe 6 pin, and the new 12VHPWR 16-pin cable are used to power GPUs. I can't really think of another way to explain the difference.

Some other devices need PCIe cables for power. Now it seems that the Lian Li fan packs actually need SATA power not PCIe. So that IS a mistake on pcpartpicker. So that should be fine.

Your PSU offers 4 6+2 PCIe cables and two EPS cables, which is pretty typical of an 850W PSU. They don't show the cable layout anywhere though, but I assume you have 2 dual 8-pin PCIe cables, and then two EPS cables one 4+4 and one 8-pin. That is enough for the GPU and Motherboard and the PSU has the wattage.

For the USB thing though, you don't have enough plugs to use them as they come. But my understanding is that you can daisy chain the Lian Li sets together. As long as the cables reach you should be able to get away with that and reduce the number of USB headers you need. If not, you can always get small USB splitters to increase your port count.