Plugging a fan to motherboard vs a molex connection

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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Wedge
Posts: 1360
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 10:59 pm
Location: NorthEast Arkansas, USA

Plugging a fan to motherboard vs a molex connection

Post by Wedge » Mon Jun 16, 2003 7:50 am

I have ordered fans that allow me to use a molex instead of the motherboard for powering the fan.

Does it matter which one is used?

Jan Kivar
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Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 4:37 am
Location: Finland

Post by Jan Kivar » Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:10 am

If the fans need much power (say, over 3W/0.25A) You can burn out the motherboard connector.

If You use S1 power save mode (stand-by), usually fans attached to the motherboard will stop, but fans connected to a molex connector will continue to run, as the PSU is still on.

RPM monitoring requires a connection to the motherboard's header. The power can still come from the molex, just the sense wire needs to be attached.

Cheers,

Jan

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