Easiest Way To 12v The Fans!, Includes Instructions for 7 and 9 volt. Options

[Grim187]

i know a lot of you are still cutting the + wire on the fans and just wiring it to a 12v spot on the board, altho this dose work there is an easier way that doesn't require modifying the fans.

for a lesser fan speed cut the ground of both fans and run both ground wires to a power source (after doing the 12v fan mod).
for 7v ground to this point: Xenon, Zephyr/Falcon/Opus/Jasper
for 9v ground to this point: Xenon, Zeyphr/Falcon/Opus/Jasper

V1.0 Xenon:

Bottom of the Board:
Yellow=12v Black=CPU Red=GPU

If your Having Trouble Understanding Click the Picture.

Top of the Board:
Bridge Black for CPU, Bridge Red For GPU.



V2.0 Zephyr, V3.0 Falcon, V4.0 Opus & V5.0 Jasper:
The Zephyr, Falcon, Opus and Jasper Board have the same voltage line to both fans
so it wont be possible to 12 or 7v just one fan w/o cutting the wires.

Bottom of the Board:


Top of the Board:


Note: Sunon and Nidec Fans have Reversed Power Wires.

If you plan to use a potentiometer to manually adjust the fan speed here is one
that is close to the right strength and here is how it should be used.

This post has been edited by Grim187: Nov 28 2008, 08:09 AM

[brandogg]

That looks like a very easy mod to do, as well as a very easy mod to reverse if need be. My system runs very cool now, but I may check that out as well, since it looks like it would be so easy to reverse if I couldn't handle the additional noise.

[G0t M4xx 21]

this is a very easy and safe way to do a 12V mod.

Basically, that transistor connects the fan line to 12V on and off many times a second, creating a voltage on the fan somewhere between 0 and 12v.

Shorting the transistor essentially turns it on 100% of the time, so the fans will be at 12V. It does no damage to the transistor, simply bypasses it.

This will also make your fans work if the transistor is blown (fans don't spin).

Another idea: if you put a potentiometer across the pins of the transistor, then you would be able to control how much you are "boosting" the fan speed. Potentiometer at highest resistance = stock fan speed, as it drops to zero the fans will speed up more and more, until resistance = 0 and the fans are at 12V.

[plowmanjoe]

i like this new info. i've been thinking of doing the 12v fan mod for awhile now and now i think i do this one but i have a few questions.

i want to have variable fan speed control using a potentiometer but i have no clue what kind to get. i'm looking at radio shack's web site and there's a bunch of different ones, does it matter what i get?

also, what is a good way/ location to place this potentiometer? i already have one on/off switch for my xcm core cooler mounted in the back and i had to take out some clips that hold the case together to make it work.

[tinker77]

Great info guys, thanks!!

[Eddie_the_Hated]

Very cool, it's far simpler than mucking about with the fan wires!

Thanks!

[Grim187]

i like this new info. i've been thinking of doing the 12v fan mod for awhile now and now i think i do this one but i have a few questions.

i want to have variable fan speed control using a potentiometer but i have no clue what kind to get. i'm looking at radio shack's web site and there's a bunch of different ones, does it matter what i get?

also, what is a good way/ location to place this potentiometer? i already have one on/off switch for my xcm core cooler mounted in the back and i had to take out some clips that hold the case together to make it work.

a 5 or 1 k would be the best, im not sure you can find a 1k in the huge size, you want it to be as big as possible that way you can mount it inside but have a knob on the outside.

remember you can always cut the ground wires and put them to a 5v source to do the 7v fan mod (except on the v2 and v3 board)

which brings me to the v3 board, i finally got around to modifying the cooling system on a falcon i got in a couple months ago and it turns out if you wire the fans ground to 5v it will throw 0001, also the board is designed differently so the points to solder for 12v are different, if i have time i will take it back apart and take pictures, if not i will get some posted of the next one i get.

[tinker77]

I have a falcon board too, so I'll wait for you update. Meanwhile, you think I would safely be able to use "T-tap's" or "12V Case Fan Power Adapter" to do the 12v fan mod? ...both from llama.com, I like the T-tap's thingy but I don't know how well it works...What would u recommend? Thanks in advance!

[plowmanjoe]

i did this mod with a 5k potentiometer earlier today. soldering to those points was really hard for me but i did it. it works and all but now how i want it to. turning the nob doesn't do anything until the end. and at the end it shoots up to full power. so there's not too much control. i'm thinking maybe i wires the potentiometer wrong. there's 3 spots on it to solder to. and i soldered the wires to the middle one and one of the outside ones. is that right? i just guessed, i'm not sure why there's 3 points

This post has been edited by plowmanjoe: Jan 18 2008, 07:18 AM

[ReaperX_BR]

I didn't understand the pics

[Rictorious]

Heh, well im guessing a part of the motherboard is zoomed in, its location showed by the little red lines eg. on the top side of the board pic, the middle part is zoomed in and the 4 small red lines shows its location

And you just have to solder the area shown by the thick red line to create the bridge. Please correct me if im wrong though cause im a noob

This post has been edited by Rictorious: Jan 18 2008, 07:42 PM

[tinker77]

A nice detailed tutorial of this mod for all the n00bz here would be awesome!...

[Grim187]

I have a falcon board too, so I'll wait for you update. Meanwhile, you think I would safely be able to use "T-tap's" or "12V Case Fan Power Adapter" to do the 12v fan mod? ...both from llama.com, I like the T-tap's thingy but I don't know how well it works...What would u recommend? Thanks in advance!

don't use t-taps, if you really want to do it right now there's a big mosfet right around the same spot on the underside, just wire one of the legs to the head.

i did this mod with a 5k potentiometer earlier today. soldering to those points was really hard for me but i did it. it works and all but now how i want it to. turning the nob doesn't do anything until the end. and at the end it shoots up to full power. so there's not too much control. i'm thinking maybe i wires the potentiometer wrong. there's 3 spots on it to solder to. and i soldered the wires to the middle one and one of the outside ones. is that right? i just guessed, i'm not sure why there's 3 points

if you want more control put the middle leg to the right side of the onboard transistor and get 12v and 5v from under the power connector that way you should be able to use the pet to go from 5v all the way to 12v.

[Grim187]

Update
Added: v3 Falcon, Simple 7v.


Dose anyone have high rez pix of the V2 Zephyr?

[bugman72]

I don't know if anyone else has had the same results as I did with this mod, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. I was upgrading a friend's 360 for increased cooling and tried this method. The result was not what I expected. While I could tell that there was an increase in the speed of the fans, they still weren't close to what my 360's fan output is by cutting the wires and tapping into the 12V on the mobo. I went back in, removed the jumper, cut the brown and red wires on the fan, soldered to the 12V spot on the mobo and the fans were NOTICEABLY faster with a greater amount of output. Before, the intake grille would barely hold a 3" square piece of paper. After cutting the wires, you could hold the piece of paper about 1/4" from the grille and it would suck to it.

Maybe something wasn't quite right with the contact points on this unit (never RLOD'd newer unit) but I don't think this would be as effective as cutting the wires. Just my $0.02 worth.