Corsair Air Series Fans Review SP120 AF120 Review

[airdeano]

guys, you know your PSU has 5-volt and 7-volt power, right?
12-volt is the yellow and paired black
5-volt is the red and paired black
7-volt is the yellow and red paired.
convert some of those old molex extensions you have lying around into power taps for the different
voltage outputs. no controllers, no hot resistors, and can be ganged for PSU wattage output.
cost, nada! maybe some gray matter and cold drinking... but nada!

airdeano

 

[cerbrus2]

guys, you know your PSU has 5-volt and 7-volt power, right?
12-volt is the yellow and paired black
5-volt is the red and paired black
7-volt is the yellow and red paired.
convert some of those old molex extensions you have lying around into power taps for the different
voltage outputs. no controllers, no hot resistors, and can be ganged for PSU wattage output.
cost, nada! maybe some gray matter and cold drinking... but nada!

airdeano

Yeah just what we all need in are Cases. More bulky horrible Molex connection to try and hide.

 

[jamesriley94]

Yeah just what we all need in are Cases. More bulky horrible Molex connection to try and hide.

Well you need it any way in order to power your fans?
Assuming you arent gunna overthink this and think he means 1 molex connector per fan?

Although, for the effort required, plus the fact you'd need to be buying the extenders and then fan splitters on the end of that, you'd be better off buying http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-102-BX

Considering it's only a fiver, even having 2 of those would still be cheaper than a fan controller, and can 'control' 6 fans in total.

I personally use one of those, and then a 7v reducer with another x3 splitter in that, so I can control 6 fans off 2 molex. Since I dont use an optical drive, or anything in the drive bays, I have all my fan cables in there. I know it sounds bad, and it does look a mess - but you cant see it at all through the window, and it makes the cabling on the back a lot neater

 

[cerbrus2]

Well you need it any way in order to power your fans?
Assuming you arent gunna overthink this and think he means 1 molex connector per fan?

Although, for the effort required, plus the fact you'd need to be buying the extenders and then fan splitters on the end of that, you'd be better off buying http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-102-BX

Considering it's only a fiver, even having 2 of those would still be cheaper than a fan controller, and can 'control' 6 fans in total.

I personally use one of those, and then a 7v reducer with another x3 splitter in that, so I can control 6 fans off 2 molex. Since I dont use an optical drive, or anything in the drive bays, I have all my fan cables in there. I know it sounds bad, and it does look a mess - but you cant see it at all through the window, and it makes the cabling on the back a lot neater

all 8 of my fans, And the pump are powered by the Motherboard fan headers. all the wires are hidden away. and are unnoticeable due the the fan headers all being placed on the very edge of the MB. I dont have a single Molex connector coming from the PSU. And I don't need any resisters or Fan controllers. As the motherboard can control the fans from 20% to 100% Makes life so much easier. Plus I have to say Fan controllers look so tacky. Hate them with a passion.

 

[jamesriley94]

lol, I agree with that about the fan controllers. I did own one, as I bought the NZXT Sentry 2 when I was 14/15 cause I thought it looked cool Got rid of it a couple of months ago, cause I never adjusted the fans anyway, and it was just a mess.

I dont have enough fan headers coming off the motherboard, and they arent at the edge so I cant do that, but my case is very tidy (IMO ) so I'm currently very happy with the resistors.

 

[airdeano]

Yeah just what we all need in are Cases. More bulky horrible Molex connection to try and hide.

yeah, it is what everyone needs in their case.

and everyone has fan adjustable 3/4-pin headers on their motherboards? NOT!
look not everyone has the ability to control their fans on a motherboard like you
can (which the amp draw and current for those small traces wasn't designed
for). so an alternative is yes, molex connections. and managing a molex connector
is not that hard, so please.
boasting your fan control is great.. but not everyone has that luxury.

airdeano

 

[B NEGATIVE]

yeah, it is what everyone needs in their case.

and everyone has fan adjustable 3/4-pin headers on their motherboards? NOT!
look not everyone has the ability to control their fans on a motherboard like you
can (which the amp draw and current for those small traces wasn't designed
for). so an alternative is yes, molex connections. and managing a molex connector
is not that hard, so please.
boasting your fan control is great.. but not everyone has that luxury.

airdeano

QFT.

No overclocker in their right mind would load the mobo VRM's with fans on the mobo headers.
So many fans on one header can only go one way....south.

 

[Vicey]

QFT.

No overclocker in their right mind would load the mobo VRM's with fans on the mobo headers.
So many fans on one header can only go one way....south.

:huh: Overclocking works fine with a bunch of fans connected.

Really you would use more power by just adding an extra Graphics Card than you would using every PWM header on the motherboard. But overclockers do that and they don't have any issues. All the records today are set by boards with four cards installed that use 100x more power than using all the headers on the Motherboard.

It really doesn't affect overclocking to run fans on the headers. The motherboard makers aren't silly they design these connectors with appropriate power delivery just like all the other components.

If you have a source for what you're saying I'd like to read it.

 

[airdeano]

+1 for B-

i really dont have to ask a motherboard manufacturer whether a 2.5a or more load on a fan header
is good or bad. just look at the .005" micro-trace on the PCB. it wasn't meant to handle large
gangs of Y-splittered fans. and especially for under-volting. those doing it are lucky now, but
when that header is crap.. we will know what caused it for an RMA...

"But overclockers do that and they don't have any issues" that you know of...

i'll use a molex, just fine..

airdeano

 

[Vicey]

Y Splitters? Who said anything about running Y Splitters. Get a motherboard with enough fan headers for your fans. Personally I use a fan controller because my external radiator has 9x120mm fans on it. I run those off a single channel on my beefy fan controller which I now have hidden behind an aluminum plate in my case so you can't see the controller. Using molex would be a pain in the ass.

But the 4x140mm fans inside my case I connect to the motherboard and control using AISuites Fan Xpert and I reach OC's of 4.8GHz perfectly fine.

Before I had this board I used a P6T6 and used its fan headers, no problem with overclocking. Then I had a UD5 by Gigabyte, no problem again, then EVGA board, no problem. I've never hit an overclocking wall due to power use always because the chip has reached its limit.

If you can prove to me that overclocking has been hindered by the use of the onboard fans then show me some sources. We hear all the time all over these internet forums about peoples issues and I think if this was a problem we'd have heard something by now but I have never ever heard of this at all apart from B Negatives post.

 

[Lollipop]

Y Splitters? Who said anything about running Y Splitters. Get a motherboard with enough fan headers for your fans. Personally I use a fan controller because my external radiator has 9x120mm fans on it. I run those off a single channel on my beefy fan controller which I now have hidden behind an aluminum plate in my case so you can't see the controller. Using molex would be a pain in the ass.

LOL! :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao:

 

[Vicey]

LOL! :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao: :yelrotflmao:

I don't get it, what's so funny about that?

 

[| raVen |]

I don't get it, what's so funny about that?

I have 14 fans in my case, please find me motherboard with enoooought fan headers LOL
Even if motherboard will have enough fan headers, not all the fans will reach to motherboard and you will have to use extencion cables.
My fan controller start to pissing me off because it makes fans buzzing and clicking, I think even GT A15 starting to buzz a bit.
So I think that the best solution will be molex splitter and resistor like this one form bitfenix.

 

[Vicey]

I have 14 fans in my case, please find me motherboard with enoooought fan headers LOL
My fan controller start to pissing me off because it makes fans buzzing and clicking, I think even GT A15 starting to buzz a bit.
So I think that the best solution will be molex splitter and resistor like this one form bitfenix.

Well I don't know about 14 but my Motherboard has 8. I'm only using 4 though.

I use a Kaze fan controller for my external rad as noted before. It's quite good has 6 temperature probes and 6 channels but I can happily run 9 fans off one channel without any buzzing or power issues. I actually contacted Kaze before I bought it and asked them if it could take that many fans on a single channel and they said yes it would work fine and only be about 70% of the channels total capacity.

 

[Lollipop]

Well I don't know about 14 but my Motherboard has 8. I'm only using 4 though.

I use a Kaze fan controller for my external rad as noted before. It's quite good has 6 temperature probes and 6 channels but I can happily run 9 fans off one channel without any buzzing or power issues. I actually contacted Kaze before I bought it and asked them if it could take that many fans on a single channel and they said yes it would work fine and only be about 70% of the channels total capacity.

It makes it look untidy, because the headers are spread around everywhere instead of gathered in the corner or something.

 

[Vicey]

It makes it look untidy, because the headers are spread around everywhere instead of gathered in the corner or something.

Yeah ok that's valid but I still don't see how using the onboard headers affects overclocking, aesthetics sure.

 

[jamesriley94]

Yeah ok that's valid but I still don't see how using the onboard headers affects overclocking, aesthetics sure.

I'm guessing the thought behind it is that if you're overclocking, you'd need all the available power going into a motherboard going to the chipsets. If you7 connect fans to this, it would take some power away from these - albeit not much, but if you're going for records or anything, it's obviously not something you'd be wanting, even if there was only a small chance it even made a difference.

For general use it doesnt matter at all.

Also Vicey, fancy putting up a pic of the inside of your case? I'm quite interested to see how tidy you've got it using motherboard headers and a fan controller.

 

[Vicey]

I'm guessing the thought behind it is that if you're overclocking, you'd need all the available power going into a motherboard going to the chipsets. If you7 connect fans to this, it would take some power away from these - albeit not much, but if you're going for records or anything, it's obviously not something you'd be wanting, even if there was only a small chance it even made a difference.

For general use it doesnt matter at all.

Also Vicey, fancy putting up a pic of the inside of your case? I'm quite interested to see how tidy you've got it using motherboard headers and a fan controller.

You can view my entire build here: http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=42393

And I still don't think it would make a difference. As I said before if you're going for records you're going to be using four graphics cards or something equally nutty and those use way more power than a few fans, even switching from one card to another can drastically change the power consumption way more than using the fans would.

I'm just saying there is no data to confirm what was said. We can all just say things but lets deal in facts.

 

[jamesriley94]

Good build, cant even see the fan headers from those pictures though.

tbf though, in a build like yours, that's pretty easy to get away with using the fan headers on the motherboard, as there's so much more going on inside the case than a standard computer.

If I were using the fan headers on mine, it would make things a lot harder to do neatly.

Anyway - regarding the overclocking. Does it matter?
You can never actually get the full 12v of power form the motherboard header for a fan though, so if fans in your case are playing a big role and you need them going as fast as possible, then you are gunna be better off going through molex as you'd be able to get them to shift more air like that.

I dont really think it makes much of a difference. But I know unless you get a perfect motherboard layout for it, then it could make it hard, and ugly to do.
Also, a lot of motherboards dont support controlling on the on board headers.

Yours is also not a conventional case remember - and in my CM 690 II, it's far easier for me to hide the cables straight behind the motherboard tray, and run the fans through a molex behind there and completely out of sight.

Can we just say it depends on the motherboard and case - and user for that matter, and leave it there?

 

[Vicey]

I conceded earlier that it's not best aesthetically. I just think we shouldn't just be saying stuff without facts, the overclocking thing was just a bit silly to say in my opinion. There is no problem with using onboard fan headers, if you don't want to use them for aesthetics fine but lets not make up stuff to get others not to use them.

Molex, Fan Controllers, Motherboard Headers: All fine options.