The (new) Official PC building thread!

I have finally started to build my first do-it-yourself pc, and I have run into a problem with hooking up my fans. The motherboard is a gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l and the case is a coolermaster centurion 5. I replaced the stock heatsink that came with the intel e4500 with a coolermaster hyper tx2. The fan wire has a 3 hole connector and I plugged it into the 4-pin cpu fan header. I saw in a previous comment here that I can set the fan settings to legacy and it will still have automatic speed adjustments in spite of the lack of 4 pins. Is this right?

The case came with a 120 mm fan and an 80 mm fan, both with three hole connectors. In addition, I added a 120 mm fan to the front of the case (there was room, and the front of the case is mesh). My question is whether it makes any difference what fan headers I connect to - there's a power fan (3 pin) and 2 system fan headers, 3 and 4 pins. Also, confusingly, the 120 mm fan I added has a connector with a 4 pin power socket that would fit into a 4 pin peripheral connector like an IDE device would take. Do I ignore that power connector and just plug that one into one of the motherboard fan headers as well? Theoretically, I could plug that cable into one of the power cables and piggyback all the fans on that same cable, since there are several 3 pin connectors branching off of it.

I'm thinking that the fan maker (yate loon) just included the 4 pin peripheral connection as an option for people with older motherboards who don't have enough fan headers, and the power supply has 3 pin connectors on one of it's peripheral cables to accomodate more fans (or whatever else needs a 3 pin header). All the extra wiring is confusing, though, and I have an urge to just plug everything in somewhere.

Anyway, any help in sorting out which fan headers are appropriate would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry LP, I didn't see your post before, but I ended up following the same instructions you gave. But it looks like we were wrong about the CPU_FAN issue before. For some reason, the CPU's fan isn't powering up when it's plugged into that lead. When I plug it into the SYS_FAN lead, it works perfectly, controller and everything. Isn't this a little weird? I was thinking maybe there is something in the BIOS I have to turn on, but I can't seem to find anything in there. I'm not really sure what to do at this point, any suggestions would be most appreciated.

I have a Gigabyte P35C-DS3R motherboard, a Tuniq Tower 120 (with the stock fan it came with), and an Intel QX6600 processor.

Thanks everybody.

 

Haha, guess I'm not the only one with fan troubles today. It even seems like we have almost the exact same problem, hopefully somebody can help us out.

 

@hydro
You are getting no power from the cpu header...make sure everything is turned on in bios...if everything is on...but no power...then you most likely have a problem with your M/B...involving that header...

@schpoogle
The 3 pin coming off the P/S is for the M/B to control the P/S fans...its not a power source for a case fan...

Can you post a link to the fan you are talking about?..

Yes that is correct...the 4th pin is also for fan control...but it is for a different type of control...that works better then the 3 pin type...

 

Hydro: Ouch that sucks. I wonder if the Ultra 120 or Ninja will fit, they're all a similar height.
Lp: So you don't believe me? Trust me I've tested them. The 7200.9 has an 8MB buffer and was purchased in June 2006, the same time as my Raptor, which was made back in 2004. A brand new 250GB WD drive was put into that enclosure as a test, and although the seek noise is far lower than both the Raptor and the Barracuda, the 120Hz vibration is louder than both...
The high pitched spindle noise of the Raptor is quite loud (although still quieter than my old IDE drive) when it's outside an enclosure. This would only be a problem for open cases like the Antec 900 where all that separates your ears from the drive are some holes and fan blades.

 

@sam

No...I believe you...Its possible that the seek on one of your seagates could be louder then a Raptor...I still do not think of Raptors...as Quiet drives...The spindle speed has a drawback...and the #1 sited by most reviews is sound...I have never known you to Lie in any of your statements in any thread...we might sometimes have differences of opinions...but...you have always been able to justify your view...which I respect..

 

Haha, well thanks very much! Of course there are far quieter drives than Raptors, but they're really not as bad as a lot of people think.

 

Holy crap man that stuff is expensive. I wonder if you even save power doing that.

 

Solar can take 20 years to pay for itself...thats why hardly anyone has it...doing solar for your water heater can be done fairly cheap...and on your own...but actual power generation is quite expensive...and much more complicated...

 

Unless it's an old family house do people even live in house for 20 years? I was reading on the internet and people were saying it was around 5 years.

 

I lived in mine 31 years...

 

Hey Guys,

I have built my computer, nearly a 6 months ago now, here are the specs for it,

AMD Athlon 64X Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.20GHZ
2GB RAM
GRAPHICS CARD: ATI RADEON X1950 PRO
DIRECTX 9
450W SEASONIC POWER SUPPLY

My MONITOR is VIDEOSEVEN L19WA 192 WIDESCREEN.

My problems have occured with games such as Rainbow Six Vegas and recently Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.

The problems are that a random points in these games my monitor blacks out and displays the message, NO SIGNAL INPUT, but i can hear the game still running, its just my monitor blacking out.

Can anyone help with, maybe what is wrong with my computer, could it be my power supply not giving my video card enough power or my monitor?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks.

 

Oh well then I guess it would have come in handy!

 

shubagh18:
Have you updated the newest drivers for X1950pro? Have you checked the GPU(video card) temperatures when you are playing?

 

@shubagh18,
As k0jootti suggested, it does sound like its overheating and saving itself by shutting down. Have you got enough airflow? Are you overclocked?

Current ATI drivers
Version 7.12, December 20th 2007:
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

 

You know either you've overclocked it to the point where it has to shut it self down or it's overheating.

EDIT: Is it a POWERCOLOR card? Then it might also just be a bad card as I've heard bad things about them.

 

Lp531: Can you post a link to the fan you are talking about?..

Here's an image that can be enlarged:
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556021537.html

and here's a page that shows a drawing with the 4pin connectors:
fan diagram

One of the cables coming out of the power supply has 2 pin connectors and a small 4 pin female connector (for ide drives, if I recall) as well as the larger 4 pin connectors (P7, P8, P9). When you say the 3pin connector coming off the ps cable is to control the cpu fan, does that mean this cable has to be connected to the motherboard? The manual does say that all the fan headers have +12v power already.

What I want to know is, can I just plug the fans into available fan headers on the motherboard and be good to go?

Thanks.

 

@ Ream

Thanks Ream, I placed the order this morning but I am going to have to wait a few weeks for the HD3870's as their currently out of stock.

I have made a couple of late changes to the spec:
PSU will now be the Corsair 620WATT HX SERIES PSU (Sammorris)
For the OS I have only ordered 1 x 150gb Raptor instead of two and 1 x Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200RPM 16MB, I will install a clean OS on each drive with identical software options and find out which of the two drives suits me the best, if its the Raptor then I will order an additional drive.

I will post 3d marks scores as I go.

Happy New Year

 

@schpoogle

No...I said the 3 pin fan style connector that is coming off your power supply...allows the Motherboard...to control the fans...inside the power supply...Not the CPU...not all power supplies have this connector...

As for the connectors on the fan you linked to...you can hook-up the fan to either...a 4pin molex connector...or to a 3pin header off the mother board...but...Not to Both...

The small 4pin connector on the power supply is for floppy drives...

Can you link me to the P/S you have...that way I can see all the connectors that your P/S has...

 

Lp531 -

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize one could have control over the ps fan. Isn't it better to just let it operate automatically? Here's a link to the ps:
Cooler Master 500

The stock heatsink/fan I removed had a 4 pin connector. Would I have had more control leaving that fan on the cpu rather than switching to a bigger 3pin heatsink/fan?

Again, thanks for your help.