Question Question about Fans, Fan Hubs, etc.

[toddbatchelder]

Guys, I need some answers. I was wondering, since you need to connect your fan hubs to the motherboard (which are already powered via SATA power), in order to control the speed of the fans, would I be able to mount 2 Thermaltake Commander FP fan hubs and 10 NF-F12 Industrial PPC-3000 PWM fans from Noctua, on any 4-pin motherboard, regardless if it is a 4-pin CPU, Pump, or System fan header, without the 4-pin cord or any of the motherboard headers melting?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Someone can get the correct figure, but motherboard fan headers are only good for up to 1A. As long as the sum total of current the fans are rated for don't exceed this, you can connect as many as you want.

If the hub is powering the fans, then this doesn't apply since no power is going through the motherboard header.

 

[punkncat]

By a very 'rule of thumb' type process I have long considered the max number of fans to be daisy chained directly off a fan header to be three. As mentioned above most headers are 1A, I have seen some and in particular the pump or aux header to be 2A.
My experience with fan hubs has been that one connection in general would be the one which controls speed and then the other headers on the hub follow that fan, if possible.
I am currently using an Arctic hub in one of my builds where I have (5) variable speed fans and (1) fixed speed fan and they all work fine. On that hub and if I am remembering correctly, the fan plugged into #1 spot on the hub is deciding speed for all.

I hope this is a correct interpretation of what was asked.

 

[toddbatchelder]

Someone can get the correct figure, but motherboard fan headers are only good for up to 1A. As long as the sum total of current the fans are rated for don't exceed this, you can connect as many as you want.

If the hub is powering the fans, then this doesn't apply since no power is going through the motherboard header.

When you said "If the hub is powering the fans," did you mean via 15-pin SATA Power?

 

[hotaru.hino]

When you said "If the hub is powering the fans," did you mean via 15-pin SATA Power?

Yes. In this case, only the 12V pins are used and SATA is good for up to 4.5A total.

 

[toddbatchelder]

Yes. In this case, only the 12V pins are used and SATA is good for up to 4.5A total.

Ok. Thanks!