Questions about case fan installation

[sapped]

Hey guys

I bought 2x Corsair ML140 case fans hoping to cool down my system further, both of these fans are using 4 pin PWM connectors and is connected to my motherboard via a Y cable from Noctua:
https://noctua.at/en/na-syc1

However there’s a warning message on there saying the following:
Common mainboard fan headers support up to 9.6 or 12W (check your mainboard manual for detailed information). Please thus make sure that the combined power draw of the fans connected to one fan header using NA-YC1 adaptors does not exceed this value!

Although when reading through the manual of my motherboard (ASRock Z97 Extreme6), there isn’t any mention of how many Watts the fan header supports.
http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Manual/Z97 Extreme6.pdf


What I’m wondering is, will my motherboard have sufficient capacity to handle all the fans I’m using?

I currently have 2x Noctua NF-A15 140mm fans cooling my CPU and connected to the two Mobo CPU Fan Connectors. Along with 2x Corsair ML140 cooling the system which are connected to the one Mobo Chassis Fan Connectors via a Y-cable.

(I also have 2x Fractal Design fans connected to my case’s fan controller directly but don’t think this will have an effect.)

Anyway appreciate any help that can be given on this matter!

P.S. The ML140 fans I installed are REALLY loud, more than 3 times the amount of noise of my original fans. Is this an indication something might be wrong as these are supposed to be quiet fans? Sorry about this, I am really new about all these.

 

[Campy]

You don't need to worry about how much power your fans are pulling. You're correct in being careful when plugging several fans into the same connector, but two should be alright as the fans you're using are not high power fans. The vast majority of PC fans don't pull a lot of power these days.

Corsair ML fans have a quite high maximum RPM and if they're spinning at full speed they will be noisy. Control them through BIOS or software to spin at 50-60% speed and they should be fine.

 

[Paperdoc]

Campy is right. To be more specific, the Corsair ML120 Pro PWM fans are spec'd at 0.225 A each, or a total of 0.45 A max current draw, against a limit of 1.0 A available from your mobo header.

Regarding the noise issue, you have not told us your mobo, so we can make a reasonable guess at what you can look for. Go into BIOS Setup where the fan headers are configured, and go to the particular header those two fans are connected to. Ensure that their Profile is set to "normal" or "standard" or some such workd so that they ARE under automatic control. They should NOT be set to "Turbo" or "MAX" or something that forces full speed, nor should they be set to a fixed slow speed. Since they are 4-pin fans, they should be set to use PWM Mode, and not DC Mode. IF the header offers you a choice of what Temperature Sensor to use, choose the main one on the Motherboard, and NOT the one inside the CPU chip. After making any changes, remember to SAVE and EXIT.

 

[sapped]

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for all your replies, this really helped clearing up my questions, sincerely appreciate the help!

Although something important I noticed just now, my motherboard only have 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin). However both of my CPU cooler fans are 4-pin and are connected to these two connectors.

My question is, what’s the difference and is there any disadvantage that one of the 4-pin PWM fan is connected to a 3-pin Connector on the Motherboard?

Cheers

 

[Paperdoc]

Don't worry about that. The backwards compatibility features of the new 4-pin PWM fan design mean that it CAN be powered AND speed controlled by an older 3-pin fan header that uses Voltage Control Mode. From a technical perspective this means that fan cannot benefit from a couple of advantages of the PWM control system, but those are minor. Both fans will run just fine.

 

[sapped]

Ahh thank you so much for this!