The Glade 4.0

When I was building my new computer, I noticed that the case fans used Molex disk drive connectors. I think I had to plug in one of the modular cables just to have the connectors to power the fans. This seems rather archaic to me.

The other connector type I see is 3-pin, which connects to your motherboard for power. Are there power supplies that have 3-pin connectors? There are fan controllers that have 3-pin connectors, but that's a separate piece of hardware that takes up space and uses power.

What other options are there? Note, I don't actually need this for my computer, I'm just asking for knowledge sake.

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I've never seen a power supply with 3-pin fan connectors. I've only seen either molex fans, or molex to 3-pin conversion cables, which seem like an atrociously clunky solution to me.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yes, some power supplies have them.
They also make splitters/adapters to convert molex into 3 pin.


Edit: now that I think about it the power supply I saw it on may have just been packaged with the dongle attached and I didn't bother to remove it.

My Seasonic came with molex/3-pin adapters.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Well, my goal was to avoid the Molex connector altogether. My psu does have a Molex connector coming out of the PSU so I didn't have to plug in a modular cable after all.

edit: With drives switching to SATA power connectors, are Molex connectors only being used by case fans at this point?

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I assume you mean 3-pin connectors to power case fans, not the 3-pin PSU fan sensor connector for the PSU itself. In that case, no; I've never seen that. I don't think it's cost-effective to include additional wires just to run low-current devices like case fans. But beyond that, the intention is that any variable speed case fans you have will be plugged in to the 3-pin headers on the motherboard dedicated to that purpose. This enables software monitoring and control of the case fans in response to system temperature sensors, or whatever. If you have more than two variable speed sensor fans, you're SOL with most motherboards, though.

Pretty much, yeah. That and other random powered case accessories mainly.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Ah, I see what you mean.

I just swapped out motherboards and came to the realization that my optical drives were obsolete since SATA was the only option on my board.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

When assembling my case, I had the option of either including a modular Molex cable, or leaving one of my fans unpowered because I'd have nothing to connect the pass-through dongle to. So, yes, in my computer.

However, the notion of a fan controller is one that hadn't occurred to me. I'll have to price one, just to clean up my wiring.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I confess to being one of those people who modifies his fans to use the appropriate 3-pin connectors.

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