What is this

[jago444]

Anyone know what this cable is/does?

[Shimejii]

looks like a broken Molex connector.

[SquintyG33Rs]

old school getto solution. many motherboards didn't have more than 1 or 2 fan headers. so you plugged them directly to PSU with molex plug and they ran a full blast 24/7.

never plug in both at ounce. you will kill the motherboard

[jago444]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

old school getto solution. many motherboards didn't have more than 1 or 2 fan headers. so you plugged them directly to PSU with molex plug and they ran a full blast 24/7.

never plug in both at ounce. you will kill the motherboard

this pc was originally a prebuilt so was always like that, guess the original manufacturer did it

[SquintyG33Rs]

Just now, jago444 said:

this pc was originally a prebuilt so was always like that, guess the original manufacturer did it

yeah i mean getto from a solution perspective because of the risk of user error. it's very common on cheap cases to this day to have fans that have that connector combo.
 

[jago444]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

yeah i mean getto from a solution perspective because of the risk of user error. it's very common on cheap cases to this day to have fans that have that connector combo.
 

should I just take the molex thing off? i’m pretty sure the mobo i have now has enough fan headers

[SquintyG33Rs]

7 minutes ago, jago444 said:

should I just take the molex thing off? i’m pretty sure the mobo i have now has enough fan headers

you can cut it off flush if you want. if you don't use it it's just taking up space anyway.

[jago444]

2 minutes ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

you can cut it off flush if you want. if you don't use it it's just taking up space anyway.

i’m don’t really know what it even does, is it needed for the fan to work or is it just it’s LEDs?

[SquintyG33Rs]

1 minute ago, jago444 said:

i’m don’t really know what it even does, is it needed for the fan to work or is it just it’s LEDs?

well what's at the other end of the wire?
the way it's daisy chained in your picture it's clear it's giving 12v and ground. so it's a use either connector type of situation.
when the connectors power different things they're not daisy chained like that

[jago444]

5 minutes ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

well what's at the other end of the wire?
the way it's daisy chained in your picture it's clear it's giving 12v and ground. so it's a use either connector type of situation.
when the connectors power different things they're not daisy chained like that

it just goes off into the case fans, i’ll just remove the molex because i don’t need it. thanks for the help

[-rascal-]

It's a 3-pin fan header....with only 2 pins actually used....so just Power + Ground (i.e. no speed control).

And the molex with only 2 pins hooked up is the same thing....just Power + Ground.

Basically, you can either power the fan through a fan header or use straight model from the power supply.