Where is the best place to connect fans [powersupply] [motherboard]
Q: I was wondering where the best place to connect the fans in my case . directly on the motherboard or power supply. And I only use the fan power leads or not?
Best Answer: 1. They usually connect via a cable. (Imagine having a whole External drive sticking out of your USB port!!) They connect via cable, naturally for ease!
2. Firewire tends to be a little quicker than USB (2.0), but unless your pc already has a Firewire connection, stick with USB.
3. It'll be cheaper to stick with USB, unless you already have a Firewire connection, otherwise the drives themselves will work out about the same.
4. Shop around!
5. You will NOT need a separate OS. It's USB, so XP will be fine!
6. Cache: Overflow, if you like! (simply)
7. Cooling can be an issue, many don't have fans & thus do heat-up slightly. To overcome this, they spindown (stop spinning) to conserve energy & thus reduce heat build-up.
8. Stuff you should know: Data transfer isn't as fast as an Internal drive (You'll notice when transferring a large file to it, or trying to play a large video file directly from it….transfer a video to your internal drive before playing for best results.), When they spin-down, it takes a few seconds to spin-up again (So you can't access any data until it has).
Apart from that, they're great for storage & backing up!
Re:As long as they don't draw huge amounts of power, hook them up to the mobo. If you have a relatively modern mobo (mfg'd in the last 2 years) you probably have all sorts of goodies built in. If you have 3 wires, you can sense rpm, but even better, some mobo's (even lowend/midrange) will let you adjust the voltage going to the fans (like an uber-rheobus) from software within windows. Check it out: speedFAN (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php).
Re:Hmm .. my L1a (no rpm monitor) panaflos are red and black. I dont think they have any type of standard for this
Re:Originally posted by: guy
I have seen fans with RPM as white, yellow and blue. I dont think I have seen any that didn't have red as positive and black as neg so just use the remaining wire
Panaflos have red for positive and blue for negative 
Re:I have seen fans with RPM as white, yellow and blue. I dont think I have seen any that didn't have red as positive and black as neg so just use the remaining wire
Re:hook up the + and – (black and white) onto a molex connector, then onto the PSU. Then keep the yellow wire still attached to the other (3/4 pin) connector and plug it onto your M/B.
None of my fan wires are colored in this fashion. Mine are red= +, black= – and white = rpm sens. Maybe yours are the way you say, but it sounds odd to me.
Re:If you want to hook up the fans to the PSU -AND- have the sensor still hooked up, hook up the + and – (black and white) onto a molex connector, then onto the PSU. Then keep the yellow wire still attached to the other (3/4 pin) connector and plug it onto your M/B.
Re:I have mine on a fanbus, in my other rigs, I plug them into the power supply with the 3-4 pin adapters. I don't want to fry any fan headers.
Re:If the fans have RPM sensors on them, you might want to hook them up to the motherboard for an extra eye on your system. Use MBM then to monitor the fan speeds. Plus, the system could be able to control the speed of the fans depending on the temp of the case. I believe plugging them into the fan connectors on the power supply will control the speed of them also, that is, depending if your supply supports this feature. I for one would have my case fans plugged into the motherboard if I weren't crunching DC units and have them plugged into a baybus. Either way, it's your call.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
I was wondering where the best place to connect the fans in my case was.. the motherboard or directly to the powersupply. And should I use the fan only leads from the powersupply or no?
You can connect them to either the mobo or directly to the power supply depending on if its a 3pin or a 4pin connection.
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Tags: motherboard, powersupply