Fans OUT of PC

[USchabon]

Kind of a weird but should be easy one here. Everything seems pretty straight forward and simple but I have some questions that I might as well ask.

I am thinking of running 2 fans OUTSIDE of my PC, but off the PSU power so they run when the PC turns on. The fans are PC fans, a 120mm and a 230mm. I am thinking of running both of one pin and soldering the cables.

The questions are:
1. How far can I run the cables without concern?
2. Should I use thick cables or anything will do at this low level?

Thanks

[stj]

Re: Fans OUT of PC

no problem - cable can be many meters long - but not too thin for that 230mm one.

personally i run a bunch of led-strips and a multi-tool (dremel style thing) off mine.

[kaboom]

Re: Fans OUT of PC

The only thing I'd suggest is a small fuse (less than 1A) in series with the +12 lead. That way, if the wires get pinched, you don't have small wires trying to carry fault current to trip the supply, catching fire in the process.


Drill a hole in the back of the chassis and mount a 5.5x2.1 power jack. Put a plug on your fan wiring, then you can easily attach/remove the fans. If you do this, put the fuse inside, before the power jack, since the pin in the jack could short to the shell if something falls in.


While you normally don't "backfeed" power jacks this way, we're talking 12V here, and many LCD monitors that fed power to external amplified speakers did the same thing.


Edit: I've taken this for granted so didn't mention this. AVOID FROZENCPU! The owner went on a drunken, doped rage some time ago, and fired everyone. Then smashed the all company and customer computers.

I almost ordered heatsinks last summer, thinking "gee, they're still around, let's give them a try" and found the story after some searching/foruming.

https://www.reddit.com/r/watercoolin...ua&sh=05edddd5

http://www.complaintsboard.com/compl...m-c462068.html

http://www.overclock.net/t/1540656/o...-its-doors/840



IIRC, a bank or CC company pulled their merchant account for them, so any "payments" you make to them are a scam.

[USchabon]

Re: Fans OUT of PC

Man...... that sucks..... Frozen CPU was my go-to for a long time. Thank you for pointing that out. There should be a way for the government to shut down their online store.

Thank you for your advise about the fans!