Modding wire gauge for fans

[bluc]

Hello again making some more progress on my mod I was wondering about splicing 3 120mm fans onto a single run of 3 conductor dual shielded electrical wire and was wondering what the amp rating and gauge the wire would have to be. Having 4 triple 120mm radiators total of 12 fans and only 25mm of space to run the wire something has to give was thinking for neatest wire management and smallest amount of wire through my frame if I splice each group of 3 fans onto a single run of 3 conductor wire down at the rad then crimp a 3 pin housing on the fan controller end I will have enough room for all the wire. Help appreciated and thanks in advance Work log coming soon.:-)

[geebles]

Depends on the current your fans are drawing, i'm going to assume that youre NOT using Deltas, so they'll probably be in the region of 0.15-0.25 mA? If so then 3 of them are going to draw a MAX (note this is max, typical usage with a fan controller will make them use less) of about 0.75 mA or lets say 1A max.. In my personal opinion a standard fan cable will probably work just fine for these loads..

A quick and dirty test is to rig it up, and run the fans at 12v and monitor the speed of one of them, if with 3 fans in parallel results in a slower speed than just a single fan, then the wire is probably a bit 'thin'.. a variation of 100rpm isn't probably the end of the world! But we're not looking at high loads so as long as the wire isn't tiny and thin then its probably alright! :P

If anyone else has any comments more than welcome to hear them

[Plodder]

12 fans, depending on what fans of course and the speed youre running them at, will probably be about 60 watts and 5 amps max (little bit more on spinup to overcome the initial inertia). You can probably find the information for you particular fans on the packaging.

I was told in one of my threads that pci-e cables use 16 awg and the rest (molex etc) is 18 awg. I think 18 awg would be more than adequate.

ps. I am an electrical noob so probably best to confirm this

edit: @geebles I'm pretty sure the wire gauge would have no effect on the speed of the fans, worst case scenario is it would melt.

[bluc]

Ok cheers yea was thinking 18awg. Its hard to find fans that have the amp rating up on the net. Wont be using deltas just a decent fan that fits with my colour scheme. Found this fan controller http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=18626 was thinking since it can handle 50w per channel I couuld have 2 channels for fans 6 off each channel. Then the other two channels could run the pumps two pumps off each channel. That way I only need one fan controller.

[TaRkA DaHl]

What fans do you have in mind? Sure someone will know/be able to find info on them.

Personally, I have a Delta fetish now... 12 Delta's would be interesting considering how insane it is using them in push/pull at the minute.

[bluc]

My rads are swiftech mcr320 qp looking at something decent preferably white in colour for good affect under UV light. Going to have a fairly hefty lighting presence in my case bother UV and rgb led strips controlled from pc dmx interface :-) Are these fans any good http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=15441

[bluc]

Originally Posted by TaRkA DaHl

What fans do you have in mind? Sure someone will know/be able to find info on them.

Personally, I have a Delta fetish now... 12 Delta's would be interesting considering how insane it is using them in push/pull at the minute.

:-) they definately are the most extreme case fan out there!