3 pin to 4 pin adapter?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

After seeing the recent discussion about "blowing and sucking," it got me to thinking (no, not about that :P). It got me to thinking about my current cooling situation. SO, I went out and bought two fans for each of my towers. (one for intake and one for exhaust). The problem is that all four have 3 pin connectors (and from what I can see ... each of my mb's only have one 3 pin connector on them).

So, I was going to go and buy four 3-4 pin powersupply adapters to connect each of them to the power supply connectors.

Just curious to know if there is any hard fast rule against "coupling" 3 to 4 pin powersupply adapters? (ie. connecting them in series, so to speak?)

Thanks in advance

LG

[redwudz]

The third lead is generally a feedback lead to monitor the fan speed with the motherboard. If you use a regular 3 to 4 pin adapter that ignores that 'tachometer' lead, you should have no problem. A lot of 3 pin fans come with a Molex (4 pin power supply) adapter.

By the way, you would be coupling them in parallel, not series. Series would make them run at half speed, if at all. Similar to the Christmas lights where one burns out and they all quit. Series would lower the voltage to the fans, while a parallel connection would keep it at the rated voltage. I don't think there are any series fan adapters out there anyway, so it's a moot point.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Doh .. parallel .. series. All the same. Well not at all but you know what I mean :P

I just meant one adapter plugged into another plugged into the powersupply adapter

But thank you very much for the info Wudz! I very much appreciate it sir.

LG

[Marty2003]

You can add as many in parallel as you want as long as it does not exceed the max amperage or wattage for your power supply, which is highly unlikely since each fan should only consume about 5 watts, 1 amp.

[ROF]

You can use multiple adapters to connect a device to a power connection on your motherboard or powersupply with no effect on the device or the power consumed.

In your case I would buy two of these adapters or something similiar that allows you to connect more than one fan to one Molex. I have used this connector alot. The computer I am typing this on has one of these stuck to the rear wall of the tower powering two fans.

[jagabo]

You can add as many in parallel as you want as long as it does not exceed the max amperage or wattage for your power supply, which is highly unlikely since each fan should only consume about 5 watts, 1 amp.

Just so nobody gets confused: fans run off the 12V lead, not the 5V lead.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

You can use multiple adapters to connect a device to a power connection on your motherboard or powersupply with no effect on the device or the power consumed.

In your case I would buy two of these adapters or something similiar that allows you to connect more than one fan to one Molex. I have used this connector alot. The computer I am typing this on has one of these stuck to the rear wall of the tower powering two fans.

Sooo apparantly, Newegg doesnt/wont ship to canada.

Too all you canadians in here, any one of you know where I can order a couple of those adapters? I have called 5 computer stores in the Ottawa area and none of them carry this item (well, one has it on their site, its out of stock, and they cant order anymore .. wtf??? .. take it off your website then, losers).

Anywho .. anyone know if a place in ottawa or in canada where I might be able to get the part mentioned above in ROF's post?

[kush]

The only 2 that I can recall offhand (don't pay much attention to Canuck retailers)..
http://www.bigfootcomputers.com (resellerratings.com listing: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2055.html overall 8.45/10 but no ratings in last 6 months [suspect]) and
http://www.ncix.com (resellerratings.com listing: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2064.html 8.80 overall 6 months, 9/10 lifetime)

..of course there's tigerdirect.ca, but I hate them -esp their shipping rates (@ least in US) are ridiculous.

[redwudz]

Thanks for posting that connector ROF. That would help to clean up the wiring in a couple of my computers.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Thanks for posting that connector ROF. That would help to clean up the wiring in a couple of my computers.

I wish I could find a place in Canada, more specifically Ottawa, to buy these.