Fan wiring and 3 vs 4 pin question

mk000000 · TweakNOOB Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 78 Location: Philly

Can anyone refer me to a good how to on removing molex connectors and permanently affixing wires together? I'd rather have power wires streamlined by tight wiring rather than have molex connectors everywhere. I suppose it would be tough to remove the molex connector, they have tools to do that, and then solder wires together and maybe use the same color electrical tape to sheeth them. Though I do think tape would look a tad cheap. Any tutorials?

Also, whats the consesus on 3 vs 4 pin fans. Obviously 4 pin have the ugly molex connectors and 3 pin are speed controlled by the mobo (at least in my case). But Ive heard that 3 pin can either not work well, or make too much noise, but I have no experience with that. And I've never measured either sound or airflow. I have a 6 4 pin Fans in my Rig. I wouldn't replace them, though I would be more inclined to permanently daisychain them, as I ask above. But I want to know for the next generation Rig I may build.

Thanks!
MK

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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Well, I can think of one good reason NOT to do this.......fan failure. They do go bad, pretty regularly, depending on your room/cleanliness. I have cats, and I basically have to replace all of my fans at least once a year, even with thorough cleaning. The hair just gunks everything up.

If you really want to clip the molex's off, then all you have to do is match the wiring colors.....yellow to yellow, red to red, etc. You don't need to disassemble the molex connectors (oh, btw, the "special tool" used to remove the pins from a Molex is a paper clip.........). In reality, the only wires you need are the Red and Black (power and ground) wires. The other two are purely pass-through wires so you can daisy-chain with hard drives, optical drives, and the like.

I don't suggest doing this, though, for the reason stated above. You have six fans......if one goes bad, then you have to go through the same hassle of desoldering, cleaning, clipping, and re-soldering the connection.

One other thing, too........6 fans should NEVER be put on one power line. That's entirely too much power draw off of one set of wires.

Just plan your wiring carefully, tuck molex connectors as much out of sight as you can, and don't stress about it.

3 pin vs 4 pin.........doesn't really make much of a difference. Two wires provide power (red and black) and the third yellow wire is for speed control. Typically these are only used for CPU/GPU/chipset fans, which are much smaller and draw fewer amps, although some case fans have a seperate yellow wire and three-pin connector to hook up to a mobo header. You don't need to use these, if you don't want, or don't have enough fan headers. The main issue is the wiring and amps drawn by the fan. Big fans draw more amps, and the skinny wiring used in 3 pin connectors can't handle the power flow.

Anyway, just plan your wiring carefully, tuck everything neatly out of the way, and perhaps extend the wires, if need be, but I'd strongly advise against permanently daisy-chaining them.
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Ham_fisT · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject:

I think it would be a bad idea to hard-wire all your fans with soldered connections, as fussnfeathers said, they tend to fail, but what you could do is replace all the fan connectors with maybe some 1/8 mono phone plugs, (like headphone plugs), and get a bunch of female jacks, and a "project box", and build a nice little power distribution block. (if you have ever seen the "Orac 3" mod, you will know what I'm talking about), then you can just run from 1 power molex. It's ok to run 6 fans from one drop, if you're only running 80mm, and not a bunch of tornados, just add up the total wattage of the fans. If you have more than 10 watts, you may need to power the distribution box with two separate molex connectors.

BTW Fuss...the Yellow wire is the 12v line, and the Red is 5v

1/8" plug
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F003%5F001%5F004&product%5Fid=274%2D868

1/8" jack
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F003%5F001%5F009&product%5Fid=274%2D251

Project boxes
http://www.radioshack.com/search.asp?find=project+box&site=search&SRC=1
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Yeah.......I knew that.......I was just testing you.

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mk000000 · TweakNOOB Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 78 Location: Philly

Some good ideas there. I do agree about the cleaning and breakdown issue. I do tend to clean them alot. I'm just bored with the look, wanted to add a little touch of modding to make it more streamline. I do like the jack idea, not sure if I'd go through all the trouble.

The power supply is a solid 500W one, and it fairs very well.

One line that supplies the power, the rail from the PSU uses 3 molexes. One is for the EZ_PLUG on the Mobo, Asus AN8-SLI, one powers all 6 fans, and the last is connected to a throttle. There are 5x 80mm and 1x 120mm.

The other rail with molex connectors is maxed already, two optical, two SATAs (via one molex Y SATA Adapter), temp guage and led light.

Then there is just 12v ATX and Big ATX plugs.

I know you're all gonna jump on me now, "hey thats not enough juice!!!" But It seems fine. I should do a lilttle wattage calculator I suppose.

MK

Ham_fisT · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:28 pm Post subject:

A solid 500W is fine, looks like you have it set up ok

(what is the "throttle" you mentioned??)
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mk000000 · TweakNOOB Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 78 Location: Philly

Fan throttle, for speed control... Since all 6 are daisy chained, they all are throttled together which is great, but I only use two settings, all the way up or down. FYI, the PSU has a rear throttle to match!