SLi and the Fan-ily Sto...

[dpriest]

...oh, I'll shuddup. :-)

Bit of a Q:

Just put together a system, with a Gigabyte 3D Aurora case, and
an Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe motherboard...

The case has two rear fans, connecting to a standard 3 pin socket,
and a front fan which uses a 4 pin plug, which connects to the
4 pin socket on the motherboard.

Question is, the 4 pin socket on the A8N-SLI is also termed its "EZ Plug"
and is supposed to have a 4 pin power cable connected to it when
an SLI configuration is set-up.

I'm looking to set up SLI in the future, but what happerns to my front fan?

[dave87]

Your front fan should have a four pin molex, which should go directly to the powersupply, or fan controller if you've got one. Four Pin molexes should go nowhere near the motherboard? thats unless I've totally misunderstood the connection you have described?

Dave

[Lee H]

The "molex" is there for additional pwer requirements if your PSU is not up to the task of supplying the required voltages, plus it makes it very stable.

I've had mine connected ever since I build my SLI based rig and it's hardly crashed.

[dpriest]

Four Pin molexes should go nowhere near the motherboard?

Hi,

Well if it's capable of being powered straight off the PSU, then that's OK, but in the Aurora's manual it states:

Plug the front fan 4-pin power cable into the 4-pin connector on the motherboard.

Are PSU molexes self-regulating in terms of delivering power? I doubt if the front fan assembly is drawing much.

Image and description of EZ-Plug here:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284&p=2

[FatalSaviour]

The manual in that case is completely and utterly wrong. :S
Most motherboards will not even have a 4 pin molex on them, and as has been said above, this is designed for delivering power more evenly over the board when an SLI setup is in place.
Generally, if it's a 3 pin connector, then it's normally ok to plug into the motherboard (unless it's a very powerful fan, in which case it isn't), but a 4-pin molex fan should be powered straight from a PSU molex ideally.
Sometimes there is a 3pin to 4pin adapter attached, so that people don't have to wire them directly to the motherboard. This isn't the case for the front fan?

[dpriest]

Sometimes there is a 3pin to 4pin adapter attached, so that people don't have to wire them directly to the motherboard. This isn't the case for the front fan?

Nope, it's very specific, including a photo of said 4 pin connecting to the motherboard.

If it's fine for it to be connected straight off the PSU, then I'll do that when SLI-time comes around!

Cheers all! :-)

[Lee H]

In all honesty I even had my "EZ-Plug" connected when using 1 graphics card. The "ez-plug" is asus's idea to help the PCI-Express graphics cards get the required voltages they require.

[FatalSaviour]

In all honesty I even had my "EZ-Plug" connected when using 1 graphics card. The "ez-plug" is asus's idea to help the PCI-Express graphics cards get the required voltages they require.

Same here. Just looks so much cooler with power cables plugged absolutely everywhere into the motherboard

[FatalSaviour]

I see what you mean about the manual btw. Page 12 right? I'm 95% sure it's just a typo, the picture doesn't show it actually being connected to the motherboard, I think the image is showing it being connected power supply > front fan.

[RavenNight]

Yep same case/mobo, just shove it into a spare molex off the PSU and its fine, if your worrried just grab a 3-pin extension for a quid or so off somewhere, take the front panel off and you'll see that they've used a 3 pin to molex adapter and switch it for the three pin extension.

[hitman67]

get the required voltages they require.

Can you tell it's been a long day?