I bought a new Vantec Iceberg 4 fan to replace it but the headers aren't the same. I drew a diagram with the perspective of looking at the male plugs with the cords pointing away from from the view:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/976/plugsxc0.png

According to the colors, they obviously don't match. Would I be wise to modify the new HSF to match the old plug (yellow, black red)? Should it be fine as is? Should I leave the yellow one out altogether? I don't want to damage the card.

Do you have a volt meter? Would it be possible to aim a table fan or something at the card while running and find out which pin is 5V and which is 12V (assumed)? Shouldn't take long, you could probably get the readings before Windows booted. Or just enter the BIOS to prevent any real load on the GPU. Well, I guess that depends on how accessible the card's header is.

I think I have a voltmeter somewhere but I don't see how I could use it when the card is actually functioning. Is there any way to test the fan directly?


Edit: I have no AGP 4x/8x motherboards available to me--only 2x (the card is blocked from going in).

The yellow cable is merely for speed control etc.

Just use the black & red - I've done it hundreds of times.

You can either

a) use the plug off the olf fan, and re-wire it to the new one and connect direct to the card (we'll assume black is still gnd, red is +12v)

or

b) dont do anything to the new fan, and connect it to either a mobo header, or get an adapter cable and connect it to a molex

**Edit to add

Reason - fan connectors only have +12v, gnd, and PWM. there is no +5v unlike molex

I was thinking the white one would be the equivalent to Speed/RPM but I don't know. It seems to be proprietary. I took the plastic female connector off the header so the standard size will fit but, from the looks of it, they aren't wire compatible. I guess molex is a possibility if all else fails but won't that encourage it to run loud (higher than necessary RPMs)?

FordGT90Concept said:


I would imagine the connector onthe card is white=pwm black=gnd red=12V but just using a proprietry connector (the connectors directly on vid cards are usually of a very small type, and may be wired differently to a standard fan connector, just like yours is)

So re-wiring should work.

But yes, running it directly off molex will have the fan running at full rpm 24/7.

What you could alternatively do is this = re-wire the connector to run off the 5V line on the molex. You'll be running at less than half speed, so dont know what effect that might have when the card heats up. (though the tornado should be more than powerful enough, even at half speed)

as far as I know if the fan is connected to a power source with a voltage different from what it calls for it will operate either faster or slower depending on weather supplied voltage is higher or lower than spec.

granted if the voltage is too high the fan will run too fast and wear out faster.

DublinGunner said:
Ah, good to know. I mixed up 5V and 12V rewiring a splitter one time and fux0red two DVDRs. Didn't wanna make Ford's problem worse.

Why can't you test the card header's output with your voltmeter when it's running? That's really the only time when it's useful to test it.

That's most likely what I would do, and then just bitch-rig the new fan's wire to the old wire with the old plug.

I switched them around to match the old HSF (yellow, black red). I won't plug it in until I can check the pins with a voltmeter though. I can't do that until an 4x/8x AGP motherboard becomes available..

Ford - plug it in anyway, even if they're the wrong way around, all that will happen is the fan will spin the opposite direction.

They're just a simple DC electric motor, so reversing the polarity shouldnt affect it. (i've done this lots of times)

Even if the speed/RPM is in the wrong one?

FordGT90Concept said:

Well if you plug that one into eith gnd or 12V+, I'd suspect nothing at all will happen (there will be nothing to draw a current, so no damage should occur)

The yellow/white one should be the sensor wire, so only concern yourself with the other 2.