How to add fans

I'm new at all this, so don't blow me off please. My question is, if I add a fans to my system, how do I get them power. My power supply has only one remaining 4 pin cord coming off it and I was wondering if I need to have any special connectors or anything like that. Any websites w/ how to info would be cool too. I hope to one day build an awesome system so I'll probably be visiting this site often. Thanks

Some fans have a 3 wire connector that will plug onto your motherboard if it has those connectors. Other fans have a 4 wire connector that will plug onto your power supply connector. They usually have a male on one end and a female on the other so you dont lose a power connection when you plug it in. There are also power y adaptors out there that will turn one connector from your power supply into two.

Welcome quiksilvr00 ! You came to the right place to learn about overclocking and building computers in general. You won't be blown off here. Feel free to ask ANY questions. The members here love to help. The moderators are great, and along with the Senior members will be on top of rude or hostile behavior like stink on ..... . The beginners guides are wonderful. I've read most more than once. They are a good starting point and will help get you started safely.
The fan headers (like the one your heatsink fan is plugged into) on most mobos support hardware monitoring. They will report fan RPM's an can be configured with some monitoring programs to shut the system down upon a fan failure. Be sure not to overload a fan header by running a 3.5 watt fan on a 2 watt header. The safest way is to get 4 pin fans. Like TT120 said, you don't even lose a connector and you don't take any power from your board. I don't know if that last part is a bonafide issue or just a theory. (power from board part)

quiksilvr00 (May 14, 2001 12:02 a.m.):
I'm new at all this, so don't blow me off please.

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I don't think you'll ever find that here bud.

Welcome to the board! Lots of good people here willing to help you out. =)

Don't cut any holes or add any fans until you get a chance to read an article I just submitted to Joe for the front page. It is way "outside the 9 dots" but extremely effective. It is a large article with lots of pictures. If it does not get published in a few days, I can send it to you as an email attachment. Trust me, hold off a few days. This is quite a unique architecture change for PC cases, but can give you .15c/w or better performance, even from a cheap HS.

Hoot

Thanks guys for all your help.
The only reason that I had that line in there was b/c I have visited webboards before and lots of times, the people don't want anything to do w/ newbies, only people that have been there awhile.

Also, something people didn't mention:

Just attach the fan's wires to any place that has the *proper* voltage on it! (As long as you're doing it carefully, you shouldn't damage anything).

Be sure to *use good isolation*. Try and connect by using these thingies (dunno the name) - little plastic boxes, they have places for the wires to go into from both sides, and screws to hold the wires in place. ISOLATE.

I was able to take a 12v fan (with cut wires), attach it to a 2-pin connector i had, and plug it into the mobo's 3-pin connector (one pin left unused)

Good luck

looking forward to the article hoot.
I cut a led connector spliced it to my Sunon 120MM and connected it to my CUSL2-C 3pin chassis fan connection. The CUSL2-C has 4 watt fan headers.
Make it or break it??

quiksilvr00
You can attach that fan to anything putting out the right power with wire, connectors, and a soldering iron. If you don't have access to a soldering iron I suggest you get one. You can get that and lots of other cheap useful things from mpja.com. $15 minimum order is the only hassle.

I always make fan buses for any additional fans I put in a case. For a minimal amount of money, you can make one that will accomodate as many fans as you want. Check Here. You can find all the instructions you need. As was mentioned above, it is easy to blow out fan headers on motherboards, and this saves you from having to use them.

ooops.........wrong thread