Issues regarding LED Case Fans

[Overkast]

I have five 80mm CoolerMaster TLF-R82 LED case fans. 1 of them lights up and stays constant while blowing at top speed. 2 of them light up but pulsate and seem to be blowing only at about 1/2 speed. The remaining 2 don't light up at all and only seem to be blowing at the lowest possible speed.

Here is how I have them setup:

The top speed lit up fan is plugged into a 5v/12v external plug on the back of the PSU.
The pulsating fans are plugged into the mobo directly.
The unlit fans are plugged into "fan only" 4-pin plugs wired directly to the PSU.

My PSU is an Antec TRUEPOWER 550w.

I have a feeling the the pulsating and unlit fans are doing so because of the fact that they are running at 1/2 and minimum speeds.

Can anyone tell me how to make adjustments to my system so all my fans run at top speed and light up without pulsating??? Thanks in advance!

Here is my system specs for your reference:

P4 2.4c w/ stock HSF (not overclocking)
1BG Mushkin 3500 Level 2 RAM
Intel D875PBZ Mobo
2 WD SATA Raptor HDs
Antec TRUEPOWER 550w PSU
NVIDIA GeoForce 4 Ti 4400 128MB
SoundBlaster 5.1
LiteOn DVD-ROM
Samsung CD-RW
5 CoolerMaster TLF-R82 Case fans

 

[Yai]

You should connect all the fans to morel 4 pin from PSU only (not the one with "Fan Only" wire) and that should make all 5 fans run at highest speed.

I'm not sure about the ones connect to MotherBorad, make sure on bios set up to run all fans connect at 100%, some biso have this smart fan controller function. If you do some soft-mod to your fan make sure you connect Red, Black and Yellow/white cable to the right place. Yellow/White for speed monitoring only, Red should be in the middle.

For the ones that connect to "Fan only" cable. This is special feature of True Power in order to run very quiet on your system. That cable with put out only 5-7V thus your fans with spin at half the speed and Led fail to light up. All fans connect to this kind of cable also fans on PSU themself will get higher speed when your system get higher temp.

About Led light up or not, this depend on how many volt you get to that fan. at 12V (fan blow at full speed) led with light up no problem. at 5-7V (fan blow at half speed) led might not light up at all.

 

[Overkast]

Thanks Yai.

Well, I'd like to do the 4-pin connection because that sounds easiest. But I believe I only have 2 4-pin connectors left. That leaves me with 2 fans without 4-pin connectivity.

Is it possible that I can get a Y-cable and connect two 4-pin connections to a single 4-pin connection from the PSU? Or will that only split up the 12v into 6v for each 4-pin?

 

[Yai]

You should be able to use Y-adapter without problems. I, myself, connect one of 4 pin to fan speed controller to run 4 fans from it without a single problem.

 

[Overkast]

Is the fan speed controller built into the mobo, or is it a seperate controller device you bought and installed in your system?

 

[Yai]

this is spereate device I bought and installed. It is Vantec Nexus fan controller.

 

[Overkast]

Hey, thanks for the input Yai... it worked!!!

I went out and bought a bunch of Y splitters and hooked up all 5 Fans to 12v 4-pin plugs. They all light up nice and bright now (no pulsating!) and are running at top speed!