Can I exceed fan controller fan limit?

[Rycon]

My inbult fan controller says 5 fans max, and im wondering what would happen if I added another fan on there? Is it simply because there is not enough power? Im daisy chaining all my fans together, and on the fan controller plug it says 5 fans max. The DC input for it has a dedicated power from the PSU (Its not daisy chained with other devices)

Im looking to add another 120mm fan, heheh.

 

[BillParrish]

get ahold of tech support (or find a datasheet that tells you) for your supply and find out what the max output current of that fan lead is. Then look on all your fans and determine the total current, it is written on the fan hub sticker or try the manuf web site. To convert watts to amps divide wattage by 12 for 12V fans.

You risk damaging your supply at worst, at best you risk burning out that fan lead. Just get a molex Y cable and tap off an existing molex or something.

 

[Black-Tom]

I would say from personal experience that adding another fan to the controller will most likely damage the controller itself. I added two fans on one channel of my fan controller and of course, it burnt the stupid channel out, making it that much harder to organize my fans.

My advice is, don't add more fans than what the controller is rated for.

 

[Justintoxicated]

depends on the wattage of the fans, and what the controller can handle. # of fans is not an acceptable specification. theres a huge differnece between a 180mm 20 watt fan and a 120mm 2 watt fan for example.

 

[Rycon]

Gotcha, Im not going to risk the fan controller as im sure the lead is not quality and I will burn it out, im sure im already stressin it with 5 fans (4 80mm and 1 120mm), sure it might be handle one more but its not worth the risk.

I mounted the 120mm and tested it for noise and its actuley pretty quiet so I dont need it on the fan controller, I was concerned about noise, ive now got 7 extra cooling fans (Plus CPU and PS fans)