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Making external USB PC fans

post #1 of 4
5/3/12 at 11:46am
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So I made a few PC fans into external usb powered fans which is pretty cool considering summer is coming. My only issues is that the fans do not get enough current to even spin at half speed. Is there anyways I can get more voltage to these things so that they spin faster or am I just going to have to deal with the fact that USB is a fixed voltage? I bought a really nice, huge 220mm fan to make a sweet usb fan out of and the voiltage is low through the usb that it is isn't even worth it to hook it up which really bummed me out.

Any advice would be much appreciated... thanks!
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post #2 of 4
5/3/12 at 11:50am
I think USB is 5 volts so you can't get any more out it. You do get 5 volt fans tho.
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post #3 of 4
5/3/12 at 11:52am
You could try soldering a USB wire to a Fan header wire from an old fan, then route that out of your case some how. Then you get 12 volts, and if your motherboard supports it, you could control the fan speed from your PC!
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post #4 of 4
5/3/12 at 12:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ampt View Post

You could try soldering a USB wire to a Fan header wire from an old fan, then route that out of your case some how. Then you get 12 volts, and if your motherboard supports it, you could control the fan speed from your PC!

I was thinking about doing that in the first place, but I thought it would be really cool to h ave portable usb fans haha. Anyways I am going to try and get my huge fan connected straight to the 12v via molex... just have to patch it in and make sure I have the length to get it to where i want.

Edit: Just got this 200mm fan cooked up via molex and it is pushing some good amount of air. I can't wait till it gets a bit warmer here so I can use my custom exterior pc fan lol.
Edited by Exostenza - 5/3/12 at 1:02pm
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