What is the "Power Fan" thing?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited February 2004 in Hardware
I'm getting my new system ready to assemble. I've got a Powmax case with a 400 watt power supply, twin 80 MM 43 CFM case fans, and an Abit NF7 motherboard.

Since I'm waiting for my processors' eBay auction to finish, I've been reading the manual for the motherboard. In regards to the cooling fan headers, one is connected to the northbridge fan, one is labeled "CPU FAN", one is labeled "Chassis FAN", and one is called the "Power Fan" (PWRFAN).

What is the Power Fan?

Can I connect one of my 80 MM case fans to the Chassis Fan header and the other 80 MM fan to the PWRFAN header, or do I have to get a Y cable and run both 80 MM fans off the Chassis Fan header?

I'd like to get rpm readouts on each fan seperately if possible.

These fans were advertised as 43 CFM fans, and are labeled to use 2.1 watts each, which would be 175 milliamps per fan or 350 mA total. Can one fan header provide enough power for both?

Comments

  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    You can run each fan off of the seperate headers. The power fan is for power suplies that have either and external fan (such as some Dell and Gateway psu's) or rhat have a monitoring line so that you can keep tabs on the psu's fan speed in software.
    Either way with an aftermarket psu that header doesn't really need to be hooked to your psu so use it to power a case fan.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Yes, definitely run the second fan off the PWRFAN header; two fans is likely to be too much load for a single header.
Sign In or Register to comment.