More fans than motherboard connectors; D955XBK; SC743T-650;

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have a specific about specific hardware but the problem may be similiar to one that others have encountered.

Intel's D955XBK desktop board provides support for 8 SATA drives.

But the only chassis (e.g. cases) that will support 8 SATA (or IDE or SCSI) drives are SERVER chassis.

I therefore purchased a Supermicro SC743T-650 chassis to use with an Intel D955XBK motherboard. The 650 stands for a 650W power supply which is the most I could get without going to the 760 which is triple redundent and therefore very expensive $$$$.

The chassis has 2 rear fans, 4 mid fans, and no front fans.

The fans are Nidec VA300DC model V35375-33 according to the spec sheet but are actually labelled as V35375-58. I can find neither model number on Nidec's website. The label also says that each fan is rated at 0.6A. All the fans are the same.

The Intel D955XBK has 3 fan connectors: front rated to 1.0A, rear rated to 1.0A, and aux rear rated to 3.0A. Supposely all can be controlled via the BIOS settings.

It would appear that the best option would be to connect one of the rear fans to the front fan connector on the motherboard (0.6A < 1.0A), the second rear fan to the rear fan connector on the motherboard (0.6A < 1.0A), and then connect all 4 mid fans to the aux rear connector on the motherboard (4 x 0.6 = 2.4A < 3.0A). For the 4 mid fans I would need to make a "splitter cable" that would go from the single connector on the motherboard to 4 "dongles" - one for each of the mid fans.

Is this correct?

Are there any other things that I need to consider?

I have looked for commercially available cables / fan controllers that I could use for this but have found none.

Does Radio Shack even carry electrical components like Molex connectors anymore? Where to buy them? Will probably have to shell out $$$ for a Molex crimping tool? Or can I "kluge" it just using pliers?

Any suggestions / recommendations will be appreciated.
 
Fry's has all sorts of cables and adapters. They have Y cables that let you plug 2 fans into 1 motherboard connector and the same for Molex connectors. The also have all sorts of fan controllers. Try Newegg too.
 
Case fans don't all have to be powered by motherboard connectors. Straight from the power supply, use molex to fan connector adapters.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back