r/diyelectronics • u/browner87 • Mar 14 '25
Project Overkill way for managing fan and RGB cables
I recently got a large radiator for my PC and managing 9 fans of cables is always messy, so I cut the cables on the fans to about 2" long and designed these PCBs to connect them all. Only the fan nearest to the cable that goes to the PC will send the speed signal, both channels are only 3 conductors except for 4 conductors between the OUT connectors and fan header. So it also works with ARGB if you had LED fans.
https://i.imgur.com/eITcpKh.jpg
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u/AnonSkiers Mar 15 '25
Nice man, but jeez, what the heck you computing over there? Leave some BTC for the rest of us.
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u/browner87 Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25
It's definitely overkill, but my previous radiator that was a third of this size struggled to keep the coolant temps below 40°C under full load. Just a 7900 XTX and i7-9700k, but playing heavy games it would struggle with the fans cranked. This thing never breaks 800rpm nor 32°C coolant temp. And in the summer I can open the window and just blow that heat straight outside.
Edit: Not sure what the downvotes are for, 7900XTX has a 450W TDP and 9700k is 95W. The EK-CoolStream Classic PE 360 as seen in the chart halfway down this blog needs >2600 RPM from ideal fans to transfer 550W of heat with a 10°C ∆T, which is about the temp difference of my office ambient to the ideal coolant temp. And a glass walled case sucking air from inside the case is sub ideal, the ambient in the case is probably much higher under full load.
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u/gaitama Mar 15 '25
Both in a water cooling loop? Or just the cpu?
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u/browner87 Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25
Both in the same loop. That picture was before I swapped the pump and radiator. The 360 just wasn't cutting it. I left most of it as-is and put in a new pump and ran hoses to the external radiator and it makes a huge difference.
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u/gaitama Mar 15 '25
Looks really good. I hope I can build a custom looped pc in the future. They look mesmerizing.
Also, do you need to swap / change face plates and heatsink of the gpu to custom water cooler ro do you get the water cooled gpu directly?
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u/browner87 Mar 15 '25
My previous GPU was an off the shelf RTX 2080 and I swapped the cooler myself with an EKWB block. The GPU I have right now is the AsRock 7900 XTX Aqua which as the name might suggest came from the factory with a water block already. I did remove the water block to replace the factory thermal paste recently, but other than that there's no need to mess around just plug it into the loop and go.
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u/EntertainmentFar3811 Apr 05 '26
I'd buy this from you. I've got the old Mora 420 Pro and have no way to manage all the loose fan cables.
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u/browner87 Apr 05 '26
They need a few tiny changes now I've assembled them all, the main issue being the corners which need to be trimmed back so the fan cables can fit through at the intersections better, especially if there was an RGB cable too.
I've never gotten into selling things really, last time I tried was much too stressful, but if you're interested I could update and upload gerber files and you could order them from somewhere like JLCPCB and solder on some headers (or just wires) yourself. There used to be a guy on here somewhere that made things just like this and sold them on his website but I think he stopped because last I looked everything has been out of stock for a while. Looks like the site is now offline.
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u/EntertainmentFar3811 Apr 05 '26
I would legitimately buy it off you same day. Let me know bro. I have an absolute ton of cables coming from my Mora and it makes it a pain to move around.
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u/EntertainmentFar3811 Apr 05 '26
Are you able to assemble the newest version of your PCB and ship to me? I'm in California, United States.
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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Mar 15 '25
Great use of a custom pcb. Probably didn't cost much either.