What does 12v 2a mean?

[Quzzu]

Quick question. I was about to buy fan splitters and I found a note saying not to exceed 12v 2a. I was curious what does it mean. Thanks in advance 

[LukeSavenije]

that you shouldn't go over 12 volts with 2 amperes on the fan

[Wufflez]

12volts 2amps
Referring to how much max voltage or amps the fan splitter can take. Kind of hard to get to that high though

[Enderman]

It means don't exceed 12 volts and 2 amps.

Simple.

[ELSknutson]

12 volts 2 Amps 

most fans come in 12 volt or 5 volt and most dont draw that much amperage. So unless you intend on running some industreal fans on your fan header you should be fine.

[Lurick]

Just now, VegetableStu said:

point being you don't want to hook up two blowiematrons on that splitter, even if your motherboard somehow manages to provide that kind of power ._.

You can try though and see what goes boom

[WoodenMarker]

3 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Related to the Intel fan header specification. Most ports can supply more then that.

Most motherboard fan headers support up to 1A. The ones that provide more are generally pump headers. 

[mariushm]

Each fan consumes some amount of power.

Power is the product of voltage (V) and current (Amps).

So for example, if a fan says on the label 12v 0.15A , then you know the fan consumes up to 12v x 0.15A = 1.8w

Just the same, if the label of the fan say 12v 3w, you can simply determine the current by dividing the numbers ... current = 3w / 12v = 0.25A

 

Each fan header on your motherboard is designed to handle up to 1A of current, maybe a bit more.

Some fan headers are a bit more special, they're designed for 2A or more, in case you connect to it a water cooling system, where the pumps can consume more than a fan.

So some fan headers can provide up to 2A.

 

The cable tells you that if you add up the current values for all the fans you use with the splitter, you should not exceed the 2A value. For extra safety, you should try to keep it closer to 1A.