Question USB Header issue

[John2090073]

Looking for someone to point me in the direction of a USB header splitter for my MB. Board only has 2 USB headers and I need 1 more for my RGB fans and cables. They’re all RGB so hopefully any splitter will do the trick? This is the only thing holding my build up. Any help would be awesome.

 

[hotaru.hino]

If you need only USB 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/Header-Extension-Splitter-Connector-Adapter/dp/B076QBK79M. If you need USB 3.0, I would recommend an expansion card instead like https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Ports-Header-Express-Dual/dp/B07GSQR6D4

Note USB headers cannot be split passively. It has to be an active splitter because it's essentially creating a USB hub.

 

[John2090073]

If you need only USB 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/Header-Extension-Splitter-Connector-Adapter/dp/B076QBK79M. If you need USB 3.0, I would recommend an expansion card instead like https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Ports-Header-Express-Dual/dp/B07GSQR6D4

Note USB headers cannot be split passively. It has to be an active splitter because it's essentially creating a USB hub.
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If you need only USB 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/Header-Extension-Splitter-Connector-Adapter/dp/B076QBK79M. If you need USB 3.0, I would recommend an expansion card instead like https://www.amazon.com/PCI-Ports-Header-Express-Dual/dp/B07GSQR6D4

Note USB headers cannot be split passively. It has to be an active splitter because it's essentially creating a USB hub.

So are my RGBs going to work with this? Fan speed control? From reading people are saying they don’t…

 

[hotaru.hino]

So are my RGBs going to work with this? Fan speed control? From reading people are saying they don’t…

What exactly are you trying to plug into the motherboard?

 

[Paperdoc]

Lighted fans come with either 3-pin or 4-pin types of Motors, plus LIGHTS mounted in the fan frame. These are completely separate, so you really have TWO devices in one unit, and the each have their own separate cable to supply power and control.

The LIGHTS come in two different types. The simpler plain RGB uses a connector on its cable with FOUR holes. The more complex type called Addressable RGB or ADDR RGB or ARGB or Digital RGB uses a connector with THREE holes (looks like it had 4 but one is blocked) and can do fancier displays including rainbows. A note of CAUTION: the labels "3-pin" and "4-pin" often are used BOTH for the MOTORS and for the LIGHTS, but there is NO relationship. Motors and Lights are separate. So, be sure WHICH type of LIGHTS you have when you ask about "RGB Fans".

Very commonly people plug the motor and the fan cable from a lighted fan into mobo headers for each of those functions, but your mobo needs to have the right header for the lights you have. If you have that, the mobo will come with a software utility to control the lights via the header. If not, you can get third-part Light Controllers for each light type. Some of these have wired or battery-powered control boxes with buttons fo set the light displays manually. SOME come with their own software utility so you can control the fan light from your keyboard and screen. For that last type, the system uses a connection to a mobo USB2 header as a communication channel between that software on the mobo and the Controller box. Commonly that Controller is for LIGHTS only, but SOME such Controllers actually contain TWO Controllers in one box - one for the fan MOTORS and one for the LIGHTS. The USB connection does NOT provide any power to this Controller - it gets all its power from a connection to your PSU. So, whether the Controller you buy does BOTH jobs or just one (leaving the other to mobo headers) will determine how your fan MOTORS and LIGHTS are controlled.

The USB2 header splitter device linked by hotaru.hino above will allow you to convert one mobo USB2 header into two such headers, giving you the extra header you need to make a USB cable connection to a third-party Controller box. This use requires only slow data transfer rates, so splitting one mobo header into two has no negative impact.

 

[John2090073]

I have 10 fans and 1 strimer cable. All are Lian Lin 120 fans which I have hooked into a controller box supplies from them. The controller box requires a USB header. So I have that control box plugged in.

I then have a 150i lcd cooler from Corsair for the CPU that also came with a controller box which also requires a USB header making it the only 2 USB headers that I have.

The last is the 24 pin strimer cable from Lian Lin which also has a separate controller box which also requires a USB header. That is why I was in need of a splitter but I saw people saying their RGB lights where not working with that above part. So I just wanted to make sure it would all work. Knowing that the actual control box controls the RGB answers my question as to yes it will be fine. Then I wonder about the control on the RPMs for the fans as some people said they are maxed out when using a splitter.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The USB header from the controller box is simply to allow it to communicate to the software needed to configure the RGB and fan speeds. Everything appears to be powered separately through SATA power connectors.

 

[Paperdoc]

The comments that fan speed can be "maxed out when using a splitter" comes from people who do NOT understand fans and Splitters! Those comments do NOT pertain to what you are doing!

Some info to help for background. This relates to fan MOTORS only, and not to lights. 4-pin fans are different from older 3-pin fans in some important ways. To make the introduction of the 4-pin design easier at first they have some backwards compatibility features. The connectors used and the electrical wiring details were made as close as possible to 3-pin fans so you CAN plug any 3-pin fan OR 4-pin fan into either type of header, and it WILL work, but with one important limit. In the specific mismatch case of a 3-pin fan into a 4-pin header that actually does use the new 4-pin PWM Mode of electrical control signals, that fan will always run full speed. So if you use a SPLITTER to make such a connection, you do have that issue. If you use a HUB instead of a SPLITTER to make such connections, the design of a HUB can only work with 4-pin fans and a 4-pin header, so you also get that issue.

In your case, OP, regarding the MOTOR components of your fans, they all are of the newer 4-pin design as I understand it. So you will NOT have any problem using those with any Hubs or any Controllers supplied for 4-pin fans, as long as any connection to a mobo header (to get a PWM control signal to share) is to one of your FOUR-pin headers.