Daisy-chain 7 fans off one 12v PSU cable?

[jpinard]

My latest computer case, the Antec 1200 has a LOT of fans. In fact, I can daisy chain all of them directly off one another and run them off just one cable from my Power Supply. Is there any reason to not do this, or should I split them amoungst as many 12v leads from the PSU as possible?

[RyanMichael]

You probably don't need half those fans.

[mlatin]

So this is what the awesome Qt3 jpinard charity memorial giftcards went towards, eh?

[rei]

It was his tax return you fucker.

[Marcus]

I'd get 7 more fans.

[Lunch of Kong]

Roger's Fan Strategy:

Fan 1: at top for overall exhaust.
Fan 2: at rear for CPU exhaust.
Fan 3: blowing/sucking through hard drives array (usually 3-4 drives)
Optional Fan 4: blowing/sucking through secondary hard drive array.
Optional Fan 5: blowing/sucking through tertiary hard drive array.

In my main computer, Fan 3 is actually the exhaust fan in my power supply, so I really only have two actual 120mm fans.

[Sarkus]

Yeah, I don't get where you need 7 fans. Unless you are doing a lot of overclocking or have way too much stuff jammed into that case. A typical PC setup needs just two fans beyond the standard PSU fan and CPU fan and whatever fan (if any) is on the video card.

[wisefool]

12 volt 120mm fan uses 1-3 watts so say 3 watts, that's 0.25 A

7 * 0.25 Amps = 1.75 Amps, far lower than whatever the rail max is (30-40 amps?) so don't worry about that part.

[jpinard]

So this is what the awesome Qt3 jpinard charity memorial giftcards went towards, eh?

I really don't need to justify this, but I'm going to anyways.

I game to deal with pain, avoid thinking about my disease, and have fun. I've had my current dual-core system for a long time and some games (like ArmA2) ran poorly on it since it's extremely CPU bound. The week we found out my wife's job was saved I finished our taxes and wanted to celebrate. We had more than enough so I could upgrade my current computer, try to future-proof it as much as possible, and I would use the swapped out components to upgrade my Mom's computer. My Mom has done so much for me it's impossible to do her justice. Every time I'm sick she's bringing over food, helps us around the house, spends a ton of time with me in the hospital, and is an emotional rock for me. She's always there for us and is one of those people that's selfless. She loves World of Warcraft and her current system is so old it only sports a 2x AGP slot! and she can only play the game at lowest resolutions and graphic settings. Yes, Blizzard has great artists, but he game is darn ugly when you game at 800x600 and everything turned off... yet eve so, she wouldn't make the investment to upgrade her own computer.

So this is a great situation where I get to upgrade my computer, I also get to upgrade hers and we both get to play our favorite games with nearly maximum detail. I could have sold my parts to recoup some of the cost, but giving it to my Mom is more important than adding a bit of extra money to our savings account.

So mlatin, sorry you're so bitter about things.


About the 7 fans. I am overclocking pretty heavily. It's an Intel i720 D0 stepping (default 2.66 GHz), and I've overclocked it to 4.1 GHz. It's prime95 and Linx stable but temps are a tad high peaking at 71c when at max load with these synthetic tests. Why go for so much? As you add MHz to ArmA2 you get a linear increase in performance. Though I haven't tested it, I'm guessing games like Flight Simulator X, Lock-On Modern Combat, The Sim 3, Hearts of Iron 3 will have similar trending.

[Lunch of Kong]

It's an Intel i720 D0 stepping (default 2.66 GHz), and I've overclocked it to 4.1 GHz. It's prime95 and Linx stable but temps are a tad high peaking at 71c when at max load with these synthetic tests.

So to your question, yeah 7 fans on one rail is going to be fine. You could run 70 if you wanted.

But... you'd probably get better results changing your CPU Cooler. Unless you're using a Tuniq Tower 120 already, in which case yeah, your only other option is to increase the air exchange rate. Which means, you need just as many fans blowing out as you have blowing in.

[Lunch of Kong]

Besides, you know, 71C is not bad for such an extreme overlock like you're talking about. 71C is damn fine, actually.

[jpinard]

Besides, you know, 71C is not bad for such an extreme overlock like you're talking about. 71C is damn fine, actually.

Really? Awesome! I'm using the Thermalright Venomous-X.

And the Antec 1200 actually comes pre-built with all those fans. I'd kind of toyed with the idea of turning the cpu cooler 90*... so instead of pushing air towards the back of the case where it's pre-installed with 2-120mm fans, and sinetad, turn those off have the cpu-fan push air towards the top where the case's slower (quiter) 240mm fan can blow it out. But then there'd be no airflow over the mofsets sandwiched between the cpu and the back panel connectors.

[Acid]

I really don't need to justify this, but I'm going to anyways.

No, you don't, Jeff. Fuck the haters. Don't appease them. Not worth your time, my friend.

Sounds like a decent o/c without excessive heat, and you still might not need all those fans. I've got 5 fans and I'm running two Nvidia cards (285 for graphics, 8800 for physx which I'm starting to think isn't worth the heat) plus an overclocked i7 920.

[Fugitive]

Seven fans? Pffft...

http://i43.tinypic.com/2vlwims.jpg (http://www.2dayblog.com/2007/11/23/the-super-cooler-for-pc/?lang=en)

[Adree]

Seven fans? Pffft...

http://i43.tinypic.com/2vlwims.jpg (http://www.2dayblog.com/2007/11/23/the-super-cooler-for-pc/?lang=en)


I imagine there is a ball of dust in the center hardened into a diamond.

[Adree]

About the 7 fans. I am overclocking pretty heavily. It's an Intel i720 D0 stepping (default 2.66 GHz), and I've overclocked it to 4.1 GHz. It's prime95 and Linx stable but temps are a tad high peaking at 71c when at max load with these synthetic tests. Why go for so much? As you add MHz to ArmA2 you get a linear increase in performance. Though I haven't tested it, I'm guessing games like Flight Simulator X, Lock-On Modern Combat, The Sim 3, Hearts of Iron 3 will have similar trending.

Oh hey, what the fuck is wrong with you? If you need someone to design complex deathtraps for you to live in give me a call and let the professionals handle it.

[Lunch of Kong]

Really? Awesome! I'm using the Thermalright Venomous-X.

Oh, yeah, totally.

I mean, here look:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-venomous-x_5.html#sect0

The coolest these guys who test fans and CPU overclocks for a living can get their computer under load is 71C, and they're not even overclocking as high as you are. You're way ahead of them with 71C. You did good.

[chequers]

Of course the CPU might be hard throttling at 75C...

[jpinard]

Of course the CPU might be hard throttling at 75C...

I haven't come across this term. What does that mean?

[rei]

it clocks itself down to a lower speed at x temperature in order to lower temps to prevent itself from frying.

[jpinard]

I have a different board in than the one I was testing (as I'm trying to find one that doesn't produce high pitched CRT tube noise) and the current mobo is boggling my mind.
I've run 8 hours of Linx and Prime95 stable @ 4.22 GHZ, 10c COOLER than my last setup. 65 was my max temp! So my new goal to run in two modes:

1. General Purpose - 4.2GHz lowest voltages possible and temps stay way 65c.
2. Gaming - Bump it up to 4.35-4.4GHz with a max of 70c for when I'm gaming. Not hitting anything above 70 for such a high overclock (on air) is a dream for me (unless I'm delusional and realtemp is mis-reporting my temps).

[Adree]

http://i39.tinypic.com/f5d9u.jpg

[Hunty]

Are there even any games available that would tax an i7 of that speed at the standard clock settings, let alone your super-mega-HAL9000 overclock? I'd be very surprised. Overclocking it so heavily seems like the opposite of future-proofing, since you're likely to nuke the bastard thing in about a year.

[Gendal]

Are there even any games available that would tax an i7 of that speed at the standard clock settings, let alone your super-mega-HAL9000 overclock? I'd be very surprised. Overclocking it so heavily seems like the opposite of future-proofing, since you're likely to nuke the bastard thing in about a year.
Surprise!
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=58697

[Hunty]

Those results are interesting, but I'm still not sure I'd say that they show Far Cry 2 taxing it particularly, just that certain other CPUs perform better. Although that site is so heinously fugly and poorly laid-out I might well be reading the results incorrectly.

[rei]

all i know is far cry 2 runs a lot better and scales a lot better than crysis.

on my i7 930/hd-5850 i chug when i run at 1920x1080p and 4x FSAA at max settings in crysis.

[jpinard]

This really shows the results of how much benefit OC'ing a quad-core processor can do (so to answer your question - ArmA2): http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,687620/ArmA-2-tested-Benchmarks-with-18-CPUs/Practice/ This game is so cpu intensive because a lot of cpu power is being directed towards each AI you have on the battlefield within a certain area. They behave very human-like, so when you go from 16 opponents in a small skirimish, to 500 AI it's a drastic drop in fps. When I'm in a massive battle and the frame rate is just 18 fps, getting another 2 fps by adding .2 GHz is huge.

Watch the following (AMAZING) video. This is what I want to experience! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KK6Fo3Y0AU

[wisefool]

Are there even any games available that would tax an i7 of that speed at the standard clock settings, let alone your super-mega-HAL9000 overclock? I'd be very surprised. Overclocking it so heavily seems like the opposite of future-proofing, since you're likely to nuke the bastard thing in about a year.

Dwarf Fortress. Since it seems to only use one core, all the Mhz you can get will help the dwarves pathfind towards their doom faster.

[jpinard]

Dwarf Fortress. Since it seems to only use one core, all the Mhz you can get will help the dwarves pathfind towards their doom faster.

I still haven't played Dwarf Fortress, but I do know it's all in ASCII text. So why would it need or be able to utilize so much processing power?

[Pogo]

Because it's calculating unique names for each individual strand of hair and piece of bone in the game world.

[jpinard]

Because it's calculating unique names for each individual strand of hair and piece of bone in the game world.

Oh wow, cool.

[Chris Nahr]

I'm having this awful feeling that Jeff thinks you're serious...

[Pogo]

I'm still not sure if he's being sarcastic. TBF, he doesn't visit the DF thread.

[jpinard]

LOL, I'd heard it was super detailed, so I thought the hair was a joke, but the bone comment was real.