Installing Side Fan

[Robbie]

Hello guys,

Another quick question..

As the side fan of my PC arrived disconnected I have no idea where to plug the 4 pin connector into. Please could someone explain where it goes

My specs are in my sig.

Thanks,
Robbie

 

[Gorman]

If its a molex connector:

You just need to find a spare one coming from the psu to plug it into. Power off of course.

 

[Robbie]

Ah okay thanks, I think it has two connectors from it. Both 4 pins (one like the one above) and one with 4 pins but like hollow pins, if that makes sence.

I'll have a look tonight and see what wires I can find coming out of the PSU

 

[abdulhamid]

Robbie, I see you also ordered the HAF-X. In my case I found the side fan power connector (Molex) from the PSU located under the HDD bays. It is very simple to connect.

 

[Tez77]

Did u get as many spare wires as me robbie loads here not sure what half of them are for added my hdd from old machine to this

 

[Robbie]

Erm, i think i got afew, was hoping one would already be connected to the PSU and i could just plug the wire in.

I'll hunt in my welcome pack for a 4 pin Molex? to a errr 6 pin connector at the back of the PSU.

 

[pengipete]

There's usually a few spare parts - they're often included with cases, graphics card etc and PC pass them on to us in the Welcome Pack. If there are any that you aren't sure about, lay them all out and take a photo - we can play "Name that part".

 

[Robbie]

Name that wire!

Ok Pete,

By special request:

Let's play "NAME THAT PART!"

I think thats the one i use to connect the side fan?

 

[pengipete]

The plug at the top of that photo is a Molex plug - it's the main standard 12V plug used in PCs. (The other plug connects to the modular PSU). Before Sata, Molexplugs were used to connect to hard-drives and opticals as well as most internal peripherals other than floppy-drives, graphics cards and a few others. It is sometimes used for case fans - most commonly side-panel or other large fans that do not require speed control.

Confusingly, the small, rectangular 3 or 4 pin plugs used on the usual motherboard fan headers are also called Molex (actually, Molex is the name of the company that developed the plugs back in the 1950's - long before they were used in computers). If buy a fan and the description say "4-pin Molex", you need to check if it is the type in your photo or a square Molex - the usual way to tell is if the fan is sold as PWM - if it is, it should have the square plug.

These large Molex plugs are not used so much these days because of the safer, hot-pluggable Sata power connector. Because PSUs have so few of these, low-power devices like fans often have a through-port arrangement - a socket to connect the power and a plug to allow daisy-chaining. You can also buy adaptors which connect to that Molex plug and output through other types of plug to allow connection to Sata drives, graphics cards etc.

Next...

 

[Robbie]

Ok, tomorrow I'll take a pictures of the fan connector and we should be able to work out what cable to use, the one i took the picture of is the one I thought it might of been.

 

[Gorman]

the one i took the picture of is the one I thought it might of been.

The cable pictured would do the job just fine if the fan connector looks like the male version.

 

[Robbie]

Yeah it worked , just the one on the case was a white connector so wassnt sure if they matched up