Does anyone know of a way to power a standard internal pc fan with an external power supply? Are there any products out there that would make this simple? What I am doing is I have a lot of external hardware in a homemade case to provide portability. I have created an array of fans in the rear of it but need a way to power them without running them from the PCs internal supply. Any help would be great
Powering internal PC fans
Jan 17, 2007
6 Replies
On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:42:38 -0800, cybermonk Has Frothed:
If they're all 12 volts, add the current needed for each fan together and buy the appropriate power supply. The current ratings are usually listed on the fan body.
Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004
COOSN-266-06-25794
Sure, just use one of those cheap "wall wart" bricks that puts out 12vdc.
You can buy a 12 volt regulated wall warts from jameco, just a bit more than the unregulated model. Also small and light weight.
greg
If it's unregulated (most are unregulated), make sure the 12v output is at the total needed current. I had an unregulated wall wart rated at 12v @ 500mA that I was running only at about
300 mA. The output was actually a little over 13v.
A little over 13v will be fine for PC fans, they're not terribly sensitive and will run fine as high as 15V or so without issues.
Unless noise is an issue (since they will be at a higher RPM.)
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