Fans, sleeving and length

[MonkeyHood]

1)I recently got 3 Yate Loons (D12SL-12) and since I will be mounting my rad outside of my case, I was wondering how to plug them in? The cords definitely aren't long enough to stretch into the case.

2)How do you sleeve wires? Where do you buy sleeves?

[Nate P.]

For sleeving, try Performance-PCs.com

[MonkeyHood]

I guess I should mention I live in a great expanse of ice, I mean Canada.

[Nate P.]

I guess I should mention I live in a great expanse of ice, I mean Canada.

I believe Performance-PCs ships internationally? I could be wrong...

[carholmes]

Yea Performance-PCs ships internationally. Make sure to get some three pin extension cables and two three pin Y adapters so you can plug all three fan cables in to one plug. I have a rad mounted on a radbox outside my case. If you are going to use a rad box its pretty simple, just drill a 1/2in hole in you case somewhere by the rad put the fan cables in there one by one and use the extensions and adapter cables to plug it in one fan header.
If you rads is further away the you are obviously going to need more fan extension cables.

[septim]

or if you prefer soldering new longer wires, and buying longer 1 length wire sleeves, you may also buy the wires from performance pcs or any local electrical shops selling gauge 20 or 18 stranded TF wires.

[MonkeyHood]

How much does a soldering iron go for? What does gauge mean in terms of wires?

And if I soldered the wires, would I just do it like this? I realize I would have to take off the plastic ends. The squares are just there to represent the plugs.

[shazza]

Here are a few links that might help with respect to sleeving and connecting 2 or 3 fans together for a radiator:

This sleeving guide is very good

This one shows connecting 3 fans for a radiator

A general sleeving guide

Yet Another one

And yet another one...

[nibble]

You'll get a cheapo 30/40w iron for less than €20 in most hardware stores. And you don't really need to solder anyway just twist the wires together and put some heatshrink over the exposed wire.

[Bartflaster]

I believe if you solder them together, you should not connect all the yellow wires.
These are the fan speed sensor wires, so may confuse any rpm monitoring hardware or software... I joined my 3 rad fan wires together to one plug (only leaving one speed sensor yellow wire connected) and then braided them.
Mine are going to a non RPM monitoring fan controller, so the yellow wasn't important, but I did it just for compatability in case ever they do

[Xilikon]

Yeah, with 3 identical fans, the rpm should be within 10 between them so just get one and control all 3. That's what I'm gonna do myself when I will hook it up to the aquaero later.

[MonkeyHood]

lol I don't understand what Xilikon just said. I understand one wire is a RPM monitor, but what do I do?

I just connect 1 yellow wire to the extender and not all 3?

[shazza]

Check out the second link in my post above. It gives instructions and details.

You only need to save the yellow wire on one of the fans you are connecting, and only then if you want to hook it up to an RPM monitor. Easiest thing to do is hook it up to a fan controller, where you adjust the speed manually. Make sure you don't just connect them all together and then plug into one of your motherboard fan leads ... that may cause a problem.

You can mess around with extenders/splitters, but you'll be better off doing it yourself. It's not that hard once you do the first one - it's actually kind of addicting.

[Jedda]

It's not that hard once you do the first one - it's actually kind of addicting.

Aint that the truth!

I make up everything to the right length and layout now. A good soldering tool and pair of clinching pliers for the plug pins and away you go.

[MonkeyHood]

Check out the second link in my post above. It gives instructions and details.

You only need to save the yellow wire on one of the fans you are connecting, and only then if you want to hook it up to an RPM monitor. Easiest thing to do is hook it up to a fan controller, where you adjust the speed manually. Make sure you don't just connect them all together and then plug into one of your motherboard fan leads ... that may cause a problem.

You can mess around with extenders/splitters, but you'll be better off doing it yourself. It's not that hard once you do the first one - it's actually kind of addicting.

Thanks. To be honest, the second link confused me a lot. After reading the first link, it was much clearer.

Ok, so I also finally found a place that sells a soldering iron. How much power (current and amperage) do I need to solder the wires?

Will the first result do?
http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Se...iron&pagenum=0

Edit: Blah, it's an RPM monitor, not a RPM controller. Was getting the two a little confused. Yeah, I guess it makes sense that I only need to extend 1 yellow wire.

[Xilikon]

Yeah, save just 1 yellow wire and trim off the 2 other. shazza explained it better than me