Help with Trow's cooling modz

[Hafnour44]

I just got my fans to do trow's cooling mods 1 and 2. I bought 3 thermaltake smart case fans 90mm. one for the front intake and two for the rear exhaust. I also bought the Zalman multiconnector like trow suggested. I have a gen 3 and i am having a problem finding extra power supply plugs to plug the fans in. I am new to modding but when i was playing around with my old computer there were extra power plugs. In my gen3 i have no extra. now each of the fans came with a power supply plug adapter that can connect to a 4 plug power suppy. The fan power supply adapters havemale and female connections. My question is can i plug the front intake fan into my dvd drive then plug the two rear fans into each other and then in to the front then put the power from the psu into the back of all three fans. Will that cause problems. Again i would be powering 3 fans and my dvd drive all from one plug coming off the psu.

[TRow]

This item would solve your problems. Using the Molex from a Bay device is a good idea to power your fans, Ive inline powered most of my fans using the bay and HDD extensions....but I had leftovers.

www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cab-03.html

The item would make life a WHOLE lot simpler, plus your fans came with a inline 3 to 4 pin adapter didnt they? Hopefully others Gen3 user's will have some input as well....sorry I got a new card today, Im wiggin right now!

TRoW

[Hafnour44]

Thanks for you help trow. I am going to just inline power them for now. I just wanted to make sure there wouldnt be any problems before i did it. I will get the splitter next time i place an order.

[crusier]

Per the information in the XPS Service manual and tracing my power supply wiring.
Hdd1------HDD2 use 12vdcA
Hdd3------BAY3 use 12vdcA
BAY1-------BAY2 use 12vdcB
Mthrbd aux uses 12vdcB
Mthrbd power uses 12vdcB
I haven't seen anything specifying the current for each of the 12vdc legs.
For a short answer: yes....plugging things into the various dc power connectors can cause issues via current loads, voltage/current spikes, and noise injected onto the power lines. You can usually reconfigure the connections to the voltages (a-b-c) to get around any problems. I repeat.....USUALLY

[Hafnour44]

Are you saying that i shouldnt be powing my fans with the same power supply going to my DVD drives?

[Hafnour44]

if someone can tell me how to post pics i will take pics of what i did.

[TRow]

1. Have your Photos on your PC

2. Go Here

3. Upload Photos using "Browse" Button

4. Then Copy the URL that is Assigned to your Photo, and Paste it on a Notepad.doc for later use.

5. Press the "Picture Icon" on this Forum during a Post, and Paste Your Assigned Photo URL over the "URL" in the brakets. You can always edit if need be.

Hope this helps,

T.RoW

[crusier]

Using the dvd power connections (BAY1/ BAY3) would be powering the fans off the 12vdc used to power the motherboard via another route other than the fan connectors on the motherboard (which use the 12vdcB routed through the motherboard). It's probably preferable to power them off the HDD1/HDD2 and/or BAY3/HDD3 connectors (which uses the 12vdcA). The different 12vdc strings can be seperate runs from a common point in the power supply or from totally different sources in the power supply. I've intended to pull the power supply out and the covers off of it to determine which is which, but I haven't to date. By all means don't get the two 12vdc lines tied together! That could lead to some very undesirable results depending on the afore mentioned diffferent wiring possibillities in the power supply.
If you run into intermittant HDD errors you could then relocate them off the BAY1/BAY2 power connectors. You may experience intermittant errors on the cdroms/dvds using that option. As an alternative you could split the load (fans based on their power ratings between the above options).