Vic said:
Thanx, Beverly - you've answered my question. Sort of what I thought but
don't have a spare PS to dismantle <g>. Not a problem to spread the load and
actually it's only 4 120mm fans, 2 90mm fans and a water pump. Everything
else is SATA and the PCIx video card which have their own connectors.
Thanx again,
Vic
The Molex disk drive 1x4 connector, is Molex part number 8981-04P or
Tycoelectronics (Amp) 1-480424-0. I looked up the latter of the two
on tycoelectronics.com to get a rating. (Manual line wrapped to suit
my USENET server - it rejects postings with long lines.)
http://ecommas.tycoelectronics.com/commerce/DocumentDelivery/DDEController?Action=showdoc&
DocId=Specification+Or+Standard%7F108-1077%7FO%7Fpdf%7FEnglish%7FENG_SS_108-1077_O.pdf
On page 6 of the document, is a curve for the four position (1x4) connector.
The housing of the connector, melts at 105C. They draw a line on the chart,
at 25C room temp plus 30C of self heating. That line intersects the current
curves. The cable assembly can use various gauges of wire. If a heavy wire
is used, then 12 amps is safe. If a light wire is used, then 8 amps is safe.
Since the room temp could heat up, the nylon housing would still be safe if
the room temperature was 45C. (Cheap wire plays a part as well, and the
insulation on a cheap wire might be getting soft at that point. So the
wire used might even be a limiting factor.)
So, you total all the loads you plan on chaining off one connector, and
see if it exceeds those limits. If the power supply uses substantial looking
wire, then you could use more than 8 amps.
The six fans would be like nothing to that connector. I have a 120mm fan that
draws 1 amps of current, and six of those is still OK. There are "Stealth"
fans, which move much less air, and they take 0.1 amp or less each.
A water pump probably has an ampere rating on the side of it, and you can
judge for yourself, whether a separate connector is justified for it.
Motors draw extra current during startup, but the duration of the
startup is probably not long enough to melt anything.
The SATA connectors on the other hand, are probably gutless in the
current carrying department, so for those people who use SATA to
1x4 converter cables, to get more 1x4's for case wiring, watch out.
HTH,
Paul
Beverly Howard said:
would there be any problem it attaching 10 120mm fans to one
of the connectors as opposed to spreading them out over several? <<
First, you have to take full responsibility for doing anything like this,
but...
If you open most power supplies, you will find that the color coded
multiple wire bundles are all soldered to the same spot within the case,
so the tech answer to your question is yes as long as the single wire
coming out of the power supply is large enough to safely carry the amount
of current totaled up by the ten fans.
Personally, I wouldn't do it with all ten fans... but would at least
create two for five fans.
Look on the fans for the specs... either amps (milliamps) or watts, and
post that here if you can't determine the total amps that ten would
pull... also post the voltage and wire "color" as that will determine if
the fans are 12v or 5v ...which directly relates to the amps...and
directly relates to the recommended wire size.
Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
