Adapting a VGA cooler

[Hokiefyd]

I have a nice Zalman VGA cooler that came off an ATI card that I'd like to use on an nVidia card. The cooler itself has a universal mounting bracket; I can physically mount the cooler to the nVidia card. But the nVidia card just has a small 2-wire fan (red and white wires). The Zalman cooler has a much larger 3-wire fan (red, white, and black wires). I assume the 3-wire fan has the capability to step the fan speed, and I also assume that it can be run using only 2 of the wires, but at full speed only, is that correct?

 

[dparm]

Based on what I've seen with CPU fans, that seems to be the case. There are adapters, and some motherboards/fans have unique connectors that can take both.

 

[Colt45ws]

Actually a three wire is probably just +12v, -, and RPM sense. The 4-pin fans are the variable; they have a PWM wire in addition to those.
So yes, you can just ignore the extra wire.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Actually a three wire is probably just +12v, -, and RPM sense. The 4-pin fans are the variable; they have a PWM wire in addition to those.
So yes, you can just ignore the extra wire.


Yes, I've found that you are correct. It looks like I want to use the red and the black wire, and ignore the white wire, which is the "tacho" wire.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I installed the cooler last night, red-to-red, black-to-black, white was odd man out. Problem is, the cooler is too tall, and hits another heat sink on the motherboard (BTX board). If I install the card the cooler originally came on (ATI X1950Pro), everything fits, but I need a 6-pin power connection to run that card. Oh well. I'll save it all for later.

 

[Colt45ws]

They make adapters that take two molex power connectors and combine them to a single 6-pin PCI-E connector. I probably have half a dozen of the things; any Mom and Pop type computer shop should have a few laying around.
Or there is always making the heatsink fit Manually if you catch my drift.