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mb 3 pin fan connectors

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darufe

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
was wondering what was the max amperage supported by the 3pin fan connector and multiple chassis fans on the p5b deluxe? probably very small but my panaflo isnt even .5amps current draw.

was just wondering if i could safely use the 3pin connection.
 
Normally headers are good for 8 Watts or so, which means your 0.5 A is about 6 Watts and will work fine.
 
darufe said:
was wondering what was the max amperage supported by the 3pin fan connector and multiple chassis fans on the p5b deluxe? probably very small but my panaflo isnt even .5amps current draw.

was just wondering if i could safely use the 3pin connection.

DFI is the only MB maker I have ever seen list that info and they say 350ma (.35A) absolute
max on a 3 pin header. The header pins themselves can handle a lot more but the MB traces
connecting to the pins are usually very small and are the basis for the limitation.

Viper
 
ASUS lists that info also and it varies from 5 to 9 watts per header, depending on the board.
 
I was trying to clean up the clutter inside my case and maximized the use of the MB fan headers....all it did was lead to instability. Now I'm down to my Zalman 9500 fan and the 92mm cooling my HR-03 running off the MB, now there is much rejoicing...although it is messier inside the case.
 
These days the mobo's are protected from current overdraw. In the old days if the fan was to high in current, the fan headers would blow out. These days modern mobos from names like Abit and Asus it's highly unlikely the mobo fan header will blow out, what will happen is the mobo will not boot if the fan is not within specs for the fan header :rolleyes:


But if you have a fan with a very high power draw, just use a molex adapter, and just strip all but the yellow tach wire from the 3 pin fan header, and just plug the tach wire 3 pin plug in the mobo fan header, and the other 2 wires to a molex adapter, this way you can still monitor rpm's if you so choose.
 
If you look in the Manual of the book, page 2-31 it states
"The fan connectors support cooling fans of 350mA ~ 2000mA (24W MAX) or a total of 1A ~ 7A (84W Max) at +12V."
 
Silversinksam said:
These days the mobo's are protected from current overdraw. In the old days if the fan was to high in current, the fan headers would blow out. These days modern mobos from names like Abit and Asus it's highly unlikely the mobo fan header will blow out, what will happen is the mobo will not boot if the fan is not within specs for the fan header :rolleyes:


But if you have a fan with a very high power draw, just use a molex adapter, and just strip all but the yellow tach wire from the 3 pin fan header, and just plug the tach wire 3 pin plug in the mobo fan header, and the other 2 wires to a molex adapter, this way you can still monitor rpm's if you so choose.

If the header is adjustable speed then it will typically have Over Current protection...but not always. With fixed voltage fan headers the only OC protection I have even seen on any make or model of motherboard is when the one of the traces leading to the headers pins blows open at it's thinest point lol.

Viper
 
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