how do i set up a good fan cooling system?

[eeh857]

I just recently bought and assembled my new computer. I have a Aspire case with a 350W power supply and it came with 2 small cooling fans. These 2 fans are directly hooked up to the power supply. The motherboard I have is a MSI "K7N2 Delta-L" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset and I know that there is one system fan port on it. Is there any way for me to hook up these 2 fans to the motherboard so that they can be controlled as to when they are on and off? Also, since there is only one port on the motherboard, is there some sort of splitter I can hook up to connect multiple fans to be controlled? Any ideas/suggestions would be great. I am pretty open to anything right now cause the 2 fans that came with the case are always on and not the quietest ones out there. Thanks a lot.

[Catweazle]

You can purchase quite inexpensive Fan controller units which are used to alter the speed of up to 8 fans. They can be obtained to fit a 3.5" or 5.25" drive bay, use one molex connector for all fans, and are the best choice to use.

You'll have to find a vendor near where you live, of course, but here's an example from my own local vendor:

http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod647.htm

If at all possible, avoid running case fans off motherboard connectors, because the power in your motherboard is best left for vid card, RAM etc.

[alc6379]

You can purchase quite inexpensive Fan controller units which are used to alter the speed of up to 8 fans. They can be obtained to fit a 3.5" or 5.25" drive bay, use one molex connector for all fans, and are the best choice to use. You'll have to find a vendor near where you live, of course, but here's an example from my own local vendor: http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod647.htm If at all possible, avoid running case fans off motherboard connectors, because the power in your motherboard is best left for vid card, RAM etc.

I concur.

Not only should you avoid running case fans off of the motherboard connectors because you need that power for the CPU, RAM, and vid card, etc, but some higher power fans draw more current than you should be pushing across your motherboard. Personally, I like fans like the Vantec Tornado. Granted, it's loud as a hair dryer, but it's got a 4-pin molex connector for power, but it's got the 3-pin header so you can still use the motherboard header for fan speed monitoring.

One of my favorite stores for PC cooling stuff is http://www.sidewindercomputers.com . They have pretty decent prices, and all of the stuff I've bought from them (rounded cables, thumbscrews, fans, fan guards) have been great. I'm thinking of eventually picking up some Artic Silver from them soon, as I'm going to be building a new box eventually, and I plan to redo the thermal paste on my current CPU as well. I just don't feel right using el-cheapo thermal goop on my Barton 2500 with a Swiftech MCX-462V...

[eeh857]

Excellent. Thanks for the tips guys.