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Hello...I have a few questions rega 4

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ska4reak

Technical User
Oct 19, 2002
20
US
Hello...I have a few questions regarding fans when you're building a PC out of scratch..I thought it'd be easy but it's turning out to be a nightmare...Would very much appreciate it if somebody could help me out...
How many fans( of what magnitude(?)) do I need if I'm building a PC on an Intel D845EBG2 motherboard with a P4 2.5G chip with a power supply of 400 Watts? How do you decide how many fans you'll be needing? Does it depend on your power supply?
 
Well, generally if you have a 400W PSU the fan in it will be good enough to cope with that, the Processor fan will most likely come with the processor (unless your overclocking this is fine). Really you just want 1 half decent 3.5" fan for general case ventilation with those, 2 if your extremely paranoid or like in the sahara.
 
Like before except a few other points...
when you get a power Supply try to get one with a fan built into it as the Step Down Transformer on it will get fairly "warm"....and burn up like mine did!!
Also remember that the fan runs off 5V(red and black) wires,most PSU's come with more than enough Jumper Cables so you can Splice any of the lines to run the fans.

Hope This Helps!
 
Sorry but I have to disagree with crwpulsar's information, it is both incorrect and misleading "sorry mate"
All P4 PSU's that I know of have at least one fan built into the unit, some have two and these are the type to go for given the choice. So finding one "with a fan" isn't an issue.
The fans DON'T run off the 5Volt feed, they are 12Volts.
Most 3 wire fans (99%) follow:
Black= earth/ground
Red= +12Volts
Yellow= speed sensing wire
****BUT*** the wires in a standard power connector on the PSU harness are DIFFERANT as far as colour coding goes compared to the fan wires.
Black is still ground BUT!
Yellow is 12 Volts and
Red is the 5 volts.
SOOOOOOO if you use the RED and BLACK wires to power your 12 Volt fans they will go VERY slooooow! (5V powering a 12V fan***)
Anyway, getting back to your original question ska4reak, I would fit TWO extra case fans, one 80mm in the front lower, sucking IN cool air and one rear top EXHAUSTING out warm air.
Retail P4 fans as you have probably noticed are MUCH bigger than there Athlon XP equivellants so P4 cooling doesn't tend to be as critical as XP's, heat transfer and general cooling issues also tend to be more sorted on P4's, but I would still say TWO extra 80mm case fans.
Martin

Please let members know if there advice has helped any.
 
Thankyou for your advice Grenage, crwpulsar...I'll take everything into account this weekend and see what happens...Thankfully there's already a fan hooked up into the power supply crwpulsar...and Grenage says it should be good...So i'll see what happens (after i assemble everything) when I start it up and let you all know if anything goes weird...
Thankyou again...
 
Thanks Martin...I guess I'll get two more etxra 80mm fans now...only I don't know how I'll be able to load all the "things" that i already have into this (now creepy) green box...looks like it's gonna be a long holiday already...
 
Sca4reak,
Most of these standard 80mm case fans have a male/female power cable connector on them so you don't loose out on the number of plugs available for other devices.
Just check the size of the fans you require first because just ocassionally the mounting points/grilles in the case are for a 90mm fan and not 80mm. Martin Please let members know if there advice has helped any.
 
Sorry ska4reak,I did give you the wrong info regarding the colours for the Voltage Lines.But you have the now!Thanks for pointing this out paparazi.
 
MOST new motherboards have a fan header on the motherboard for the exhaust fan and the CPU fan. Sometimes enough for 3 or 4 fans. If you use the headers on the motherboard you can monitor the fan with software. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
 
Thankyou all for your help...that's no probs. crwpulsar...at least i got some feedback..plenty actually...so i can carry on confidently now...
Thankyou for the info ceh4702.
 
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