Motherboard Fan Question

atidreamer

New Member
How many fans can I run off of my motherboard if I keep splitting the one power supply? I want to add a 92 and 80 mm fan to my case, while using an existing fan on the heatsink. Can this be done? What would happen if it draws too much power? PLEASE POST!!!
 
I dont know how many fans you can run, but if you draw too much power for less important things like fans, and your hard drive, cd drives etc. dont get enough power, your system can become unstable. If you think that your computer might not get enough power, then personally i wouldnt think it was worth it for a few fans.
 
I'm running 3ea. 92 MM 2.8 W fans plus a volcano 7+ cpu 3 speed fan off one molex connecter that goes to a fan controler...I only run a vga fan off the mobo.. I run the yellow wire off the cpu fan to the mobo so I know the rpms. U should have no problem with a cuple more fans on ur PSU... Ur only talking about adding around 5 or 6 watts
 
What would happen if it draws too much power
If you continue to connect fans using y-splitters and adapters etc and it so happens that somewhere along that chain of splits there's a HDD/Optical/Video-card attached, after a certain number of fans, that connected device just wont fire up on boot-time. Nothing has "broken", just lighten the load on that rail and you'll be fine.

If you think that your computer might not get enough power, then personally I wouldnt think it was worth it for a few fans.
Argueable either way.

if u keep splitting the cable u can only split it about four or five times before it starts to get screwed up
Yeah, my Vantec Stealth 420W has trouble keeping up if I connect 1 HDD and 4 Volcano9+ fans to the same rail (same goes if I connect five 80mm Tornados or four 92mm Tornados). You wouldnt think they'd draw that much wattage since, if you look at the sticker on the fan you can calculate (or it says), most (80mm) fans dont use more than 0.5W .... but note that, like cars and such, they (the hdds, video cards etc) need extra juice to get started and after they've powered up, then they dont need as much.
 
they have to have 3 pin connectors if you want to power them off of the mobo, therefore it depends how many connectors are on your mobo and what your PSU is
 
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