Question Using an old Dell Fan with an AM4 motherboard ?

[ismmostaar1]

It's a Yes or No answer for a newbie question, I'm slightly upgrading my old system to a mid range one, going to replace an LGA1156 MOBO with an AM4 one so i can be able to upgrade CPU and Ram, but due to my tight budget i would like to temporarily use an old 4-pin system 90mm fan like the one in picture.

So before i buy the MOBO i want to know if it's safe to use this old fan with something like a B450 or A520M..., i mean is it going to be a plug and play thing? do i have to do something in the BIOS? I'm afraid the fan might damage the MOBO or something, thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do NOT try plugging that fan into any AM4 motherboard fan headers as it will not have the same pinout and you will likely fry something. It's a server fan, four pin DC, NOT PWM like most any 4 pin consumer motherboard fan header would be. Even on boards that can handle both 3 pin DC and 4 pin PWM on the same header, this 4 pin DC fan is likely not going to have the same pinout.

Besides which, WHAT, exactly, were you wanting to use it FOR? Case fan? CPU cooler fan? Chipset or VRM fan? What, exactly?

 

[ismmostaar1]

Do NOT try plugging that fan into any AM4 motherboard fan headers as it will not have the same pinout and you will likely fry something. It's a server fan, four pin DC, NOT PWM like most any 4 pin consumer motherboard fan header would be. Even on boards that can handle both 3 pin DC and 4 pin PWM on the same header, this 4 pin DC fan is likely not going to have the same pinout.

Besides which, WHAT, exactly, were you wanting to use it FOR? Case fan? CPU cooler fan? Chipset or VRM fan? What, exactly?

I appreciate your feedback, as i said my budget is tight and i'm slightly upgrading from an old system to a mid range one, first i upgraded GPU & SSD, next will be MOBO & CPU & RAM, later will get a Case with better cooling and a newer PSU, so i was thinking of keeping my old Case for as long as possible since it's big enough and re-use its fan, now I'll wait a bit longer until i have saved for a new case, though i will postpone upgrading the PSU since the current old one has enough wattage with needed connectors.

 

[Darkbreeze]

"Wattage" does not tell the story. In fact, it rarely even has much to do with anything especially if it's an older unit. If that unit is more than 3 years old, unless it is a VERY high quality power supply and is less than five years old, it would be very foolish to reuse it with your new hardware. This is exactly the type of wrong thinking that ends up with a lot of people ruining brand new hardware. And that's not just "everybody needs a new PSU" line of thinking, it's simply a fact.

You want to make SURE you are not making such a mistake. As I say, "wattage" really doesn't tell you ANYTHING, at ALL. One unit with an advertised 500w capacity might only be able to actually supply maybe 40-50% of another model that also claims 500w capacity. Then there are other considerations as well such as how old the unit is, because power supplies lose the ability to supply full capacity over time and quite often what worked with one system simply will not with a new one even if on paper it seems as though it should.

In addition to that is the fact that if the unit you have does not support the required low power sleep states that have become common since about the LGA 1150 days (Haswell, Broadwell, which are like 4th and 5th gen platforms) and became, for a time, known as being "Haswell compliant" which in reality simply means that the power supply can support the C6 and C7 states and AMD Ryzen platforms require this ability these days as well as Intel. For your LGA 1156 platform, if your power supply is from the same approximate era as your board and CPU or even a little newer, it is probably a group regulated unit and will not only not support those states but being group regulated can have some other issues with newer platforms as well.

It would almost certainly be a very bad idea to try and use that power supply with a new platform unless you've replaced that power supply in the last five years or so and it's a very good model. Even then, it might not be a good idea.

What is the model of your existing power supply? If you are unsure, look at the specifications label on the unit. It will list the model. Also, approximately how long has that PSU been in service?

These are VERY important questions to ask. These are not the days of "oh, well just about any PSU will do fine". Those days are gone. Even power supplies from well known brands are VERY often nothing but pure junk. It is, specifically, the model that tells the story.

 

[ismmostaar1]

What is the model of your existing power supply? If you are unsure, look at the specifications label on the unit. It will list the model. Also, approximately how long has that PSU been in service?

my PSU is "DPS-400MB-1 A" , it is 400W and has a standard 24 pin as well as a 4 pin for CPU so it should work on B450, i use it just fine with i7 860 + 1050 TI, i will only be upgrading CPU & MOBO & RAM, i will get a CPU of no more than 65W which is less wattage than my i7 860 that uses 95W, I'm not sure how old it is but I don't see how this PSU will be a bad idea to re-use with this mid range upgrade since it will supply less wattage than it does with my current system.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So that's a Delta PSU, which means in general it's probably not a dumpster fire type unit. BUT, not necessarily. It's still a VERY cheap unit manufactured for OEM contracts and is not very great by comparison to almost any even "mediocre" unit that aftermarket companies sell like Seasonic, Super Flower, Corsair, etc. Without doubt ALL of those companies, and many others, sell BOTH good and really not good type models, but OEM units like that are sold for only ONE reason, to meet a price point. They will be good enough to last for a WHILE with the specific hardware they are designed to run "for a while" with, but nothing more than that.

If you choose to run your new hardware on such a unit, especially since it's for one thing not designed for use with ANYTHING other than what it was originally designed to run with, but also because it's old, and additionally wasn't that great especially for Delta, from the start, you would be very unwise.

 

[ismmostaar1]

......

Thanks I appreciate you taking the time and replying to me.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Anytime man.

 

[ismmostaar1]

If you choose to run your new hardware on such a unit, you would be very unwise.

so you have convinced me to get a new PSU but my MOBO has 4pin port not 8pin, am i free to get any PSU that made for custom builds? like are there PSUs dedicated only for 4pin motherboards and other PSUs dedicated for 8pin motherboards or they're all the same? what if the PSU has 8pins how will it fit in the 4pin port and will it provide the needed wattage?

As a second part of my question, do you think the following budget PSUs will be good to use on a 4pin MOBO and be enough for the following combo? (regardless of bottleneck)
- COMBO: "R5 5500" + either "RX 6600 or RTX 3050 or RTX 4060"
- PSUs: "Aerocool VX PLUS 550W" or "Mars Gaming MPB550 " or "MSI MAG A550BN"

Much Appreciated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the motherboard model? I need to know that before I can offer you any advice worth listening to.

 

[ismmostaar1]

What is the motherboard model? I need to know that before I can offer you any advice worth listening to.

not sure yet but i'm sure it's going to be an AM4 with Ryzen 5000, my budget choices are: "A520M-A PRO" & "B450M-A PRO MAX"
note: not going to overclock, there will be no future upgrades, and i'm okay with PCIe Gen3

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, it REALLY matters which CPU you are going to use on it and what other devices you expect to be able to connect TO it, such as specific drive models and how many of them.

It might actually be a lot easier to help you as well if I knew what country or region you are in as it makes a big difference in hardware availability as you most likely already know if you are from anywhere other than one of the major "western" countries.

 

[ismmostaar1]

Well, it REALLY matters which CPU you are going to use on it and what other devices you expect to be able to connect TO it, such as specific drive models and how many of them.

It might actually be a lot easier to help you as well if I knew what country or region you are in as it makes a big difference in hardware availability as you most likely already know if you are from anywhere other than one of the major "western" countries.

No i'm not from a major western country so not all PC parts are available, but all the PC parts that i asked you about are available in my country, i knew that because i have looked for components in my local online stores and those are the PSUs i could find within my budget, but just in case you might think i'm being cheap on the components since i mentioned something about RTX GPUs, i want you to know that i'm not going to buy any of those GPUs at the moment, i have GTX 1050TI that i'm using in an old HP desktop and was thinking of upgrading only the CPU & MOBO & RAM and reuse my PSU if you remember, now that i have decided to upgrade the PSU too and since you've been of a lot of help to me, i wanted to ask you about the PC parts that i want to get for my tight budget upgrades, which are CPU & MOBO & RAM & PSU, the aimd for this upgrade is to learn some photo and video editing, as for the mentioned RTX GPUs i only wanted to know if they will work in my combo in case one day i'd want to upgrade the GPU too but i know for certain that the GPU will be the only thing i will want to upgrade in the far future when GTA6 come to PC, now i hope i gave enough information so you can please go back to answering me on my question here #9

 

[Darkbreeze]

I kind of figured it was something like that, because, you know, you're not the first. I have worked with people just like you from probably even worse places when it comes to getting hardware like some of the south american and asian countries. But the bottom line is, it does not matter in the least where you are from, a POS power supply is still a POS power supply, no matter where you are. But, without a discreet graphics card and without any significant overclocking (And yes, running the board's PBO features IS the same thing as overclocking, and it's default behavior) then a mediocre PSU MIGHT be ok. But of the three you listed, I would never, EVER, connect any hardware I cared in the least about to any of those three power supplies. It's not a joke. Those are garbage. 100%. Not even semi-mediocre.

 

[ismmostaar1]

But of the three you listed, I would never, EVER, connect any hardware I cared in the least about to any of those three power supplies. It's not a joke. Those are garbage. 100%. Not even semi-mediocre.

I appreciate your honesty sir, now unless you can recommend me some reliable 500-600W PSUs so i'll see if i can find one of them in my area, i guess i'll go with "MSI MAG A550BN" since it's at least a tier C PSU, thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, I really can't recommend anything and know that is going to be available to you without knowing where you are. From one country to the next, what is available changes drastically.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Case fans are made to a standard specification so if the fan connector fits your motherboard's fan header, then it's fine.

In my 36 years of building PCs (man, it makes me feel old to say that), I have never once wondered if a case fan would work with a motherboard and have never once encountered a situation where a case fan wasn't compatible. I just plug them in and go, regardless of brand or model. If it fits the case mounting bracket, then it's the right fan for the job. This has been true for all three form-factors that I have built (PC/XT, AT and ATX).

Come to think of it, I've never seen a case fan fail before either. I mean, I'm sure that it happens sometimes but it must be extremely rare and takes longer than a decade to happen. Even the fan on my old AM2+ cooler that came with my Phenom II X4 940, a cooler that I also used on my FX-8350 (2008-2017, so nine straight years of use) still works perfectly to this day.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

 

[ismmostaar1]

Case fans are made to a standard specification so if the fan connector fits your motherboard's fan header, then it's fine.
I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

so are you saying that i'am free to use an 8 pin PSU in a 4pin MOBO and Vise Versa? and that the PSU will still provides the needed wattage either way?

 

[bill001g]

If you mean the cables you plug into the motherboard in addition to the big 24 pin plugs it should be fine. Most of those 8 pin connectors can be split 4+4 so you can use just half. The reverse if not always true. If the CPU and other things like video cards that draw power from pcie a single 4 pin might not be enough. In general if the motherboard has a 8 pin or maybe even more you should always hook them all to the power supply just to be sure you never attempt to pull to much power. Most times it will just not boot if it does not have enough power.

Note this has nothing to do with fans connectors so maybe this is not what you mean.

 

[ismmostaar1]

If you mean the cables you plug into the motherboard in addition to the big 24 pin plugs it should be fine. Most of those 8 pin connectors can be split 4+4 so you can use just half. The reverse if not always true. If the CPU and other things like video cards that draw power from pcie a single 4 pin might not be enough. In general if the motherboard has a 8 pin or maybe even more you should always hook them all to the power supply just to be sure you never attempt to pull to much power. Most times it will just not boot if it does not have enough power.

Note this has nothing to do with fans connectors so maybe this is not what you mean.

all i wanted to know if i can plug a PSU with 8 pin (4+4) in an A520M motherboard with only 4pin port in terms of safety and wattage efficiency to all PC parts like CPU & GPU..., but can't seem to find a clear answer to that, it would be way more helpful if someone can just say yes or no.

 

[bill001g]

yes.

Of course you must split it in to 4 + 4 it won't physically connect if you leave it a 8 pin plug.

 

[ismmostaar1]

yes.

Of course you must split it in to 4 + 4 it won't physically connect if you leave it a 8 pin plug.

and what about the other way around, would a PSU that has only 4pin provide the needed wattage for an 8 pin motherboard?

 

[bill001g]

In general no.

Each 4 pin connection is only rated to deliver a certain amount of power. It is partially related to the wires size and number of connectors. You basically need more wires or larger wires to deliver more power.

The messy thing is in some cases you can just use 1 4pin connector on a motherboard that has 8. It all depends on how much power the motherbaord actually uses. It will depend on how much power the cpu chip and how much power a video card draws from the slot. The motherboard likely is designed for highest cpu and video card that will work in that baord. If you use a lessor power cpu you might be able to use just 1.

Doing this would be for someone who really knows the details of how much power they need for everyone else you always have power supply cables to all the connectors.

 

[ismmostaar1]

Thank You.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Case fans are made to a standard specification so if the fan connector fits your motherboard's fan header, then it's fine.

I'm not even going to bother reading the rest of what came after this, because this, is entirely incorrect. I've seen PLENTY of people connect proprietary Dell, HP and other OEMs connectors, that have entirely different pinouts but are still either three or four pin connectors, to headers they shouldn't have been connected to and smoke the board, or fan, or both, or even the PSU in some cases. There are quite a few four pin fan connectors that are NOT PWM and there are three pin system connectors with different pinouts than what the aftermarket board manufacturers generally use.