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Maximus VIII Impact Fan Extension Card Question

cltang
Level 7
About the pins of the fan extension card that comes with the M8I, EXT_FAN1-3 is pretty straightforward,
and so are the associated EXT_TSI1-3, POWER_IN and EXT_FAN_IN pins.

But what is the other FAN_IN 4-pin connector (placed on the side of EXT_FAN_IN) used for?
Don't see any apparent use for it.

Also, I've got to rant (just a little bit) about:
(1) How scanty the fan extension card is documented in the manual, and
(2) Despite seemingly capable of using a total of 4 thermsistors, the board package includes only one.

Still great board though, just a few small things that could have been better 😉
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8 REPLIES 8

Chino
Level 15
The FAN IN header allows you to connect the extension card to a chassis fan header on your motherboard. Whichever setting you use for that particular chassis fan header will be applied to the 3 fans connected to the extension card.

AKBAAR
Level 9
sorry if i revived this old post, but I tried to install the asus extension card without the FAN IN beacuse i dont have cable for it.

but i still didnt get it to work in AI 3

JustinThyme
Level 13
It doesn't work like that. Read the previous post. The cable comes with the board in the MOBO box. If you are using it with the fan in instead of the cable you cannot use AI suite to control the EXT fan profile. What happens is you just made it into a splitter for which you can get far better solutions that take up less space. You also cannot use the thermal monitoring with it either. without the digital signal cable its nothing more than a splitter, end of it. If you want to control everything that is connected to it you must do it as you would the by using a single fan plugged into a chassis port. Scroll through AI fan expert until you get to the fan header on the MOBO you have it plugged into. Thats your control point for all the fans you have connected to it. They will all run on the same profile and same speed with only the first one providing speed information back to the MOBO.

Connecting it to fan in you essentially have the same functionality as one of these but one of these looks better, is more compact and easier to mount. It also has 8 ports instead of 3!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999309&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-...



“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, I'm not sure about the former” ~ Albert Einstein

JustinThyme wrote:
It doesn't work like that. Read the previous post. The cable comes with the board in the MOBO box. If you are using it with the fan in instead of the cable you cannot use AI suite to control the EXT fan profile. What happens is you just made it into a splitter for which you can get far better solutions that take up less space. You also cannot use the thermal monitoring with it either. without the digital signal cable its nothing more than a splitter, end of it. If you want to control everything that is connected to it you must do it as you would the by using a single fan plugged into a chassis port. Scroll through AI fan expert until you get to the fan header on the MOBO you have it plugged into. Thats your control point for all the fans you have connected to it. They will all run on the same profile and same speed with only the first one providing speed information back to the MOBO.

Connecting it to fan in you essentially have the same functionality as one of these but one of these looks better, is more compact and easier to mount. It also has 8 ports instead of 3!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999309&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-...


Thanks, but I realy dont have the extra female to female cable in the box am sure of it. i checked twice nothing there

this is what I have exactly same as the pic


I connected the molex power, 2 DC fans, and the 5 pin connector that goes to the motherboard. When I turn the PC on, the fans connected to it will run but they don't show up in the fan settings in the bios and in AI Suite. My question is, am I supposed to connect the 4 pin-In connector to something like the CPU_opt to make it show up? because It's just strange because they didn't include a 4 pin connector for it to go to the motherboard.

The 5-pin connection should result in the extra 3 fans that are connected to the extension card to appear as individual fans that can be independently controlled through ASUS software/bios. am I right?

AKBAAR wrote:
Thanks, but I realy dont have the extra female to female cable in the box am sure of it. i checked twice nothing there

this is what I have exactly same as the pic


I connected the molex power, 2 DC fans, and the 5 pin connector that goes to the motherboard. When I turn the PC on, the fans connected to it will run but they don't show up in the fan settings in the bios and in AI Suite. My question is, am I supposed to connect the 4 pin-In connector to something like the CPU_opt to make it show up? because It's just strange because they didn't include a 4 pin connector for it to go to the motherboard.

The 5-pin connection should result in the extra 3 fans that are connected to the extension card to appear as individual fans that can be independently controlled through ASUS software/bios. am I right?


The multipin cable in the pic is what is supposed to connect to your MOBOs EXT fan control header. Connect that and and the fan expert will control them individually. Unless your mobo doesn't support it. Only other input should be from the PSU. Everything else is fan out with temp sensor connections in between.

Here is a diagram of my fan connection on M8E assembly. Note the EXT fan header that is not a fan connection, its a data connection. If you dont have this header you cant use that function. If you do then it should work. I havent looked in the BIOS to see if there is an enable/disable for it.

Also have you tried running the wizard or whatever it is that spins them up and down to optimize the fans?
Also make sure you dont have the data connector plugged in wrong. Shouldnt be possible but I can tell you from experience when I first connected to my mobo I had it backwards.

61339



“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, I'm not sure about the former” ~ Albert Einstein

AKBAAR wrote:
Thanks, but I realy dont have the extra female to female cable in the box am sure of it. i checked twice nothing there

this is what I have exactly same as the pic


I connected the molex power, 2 DC fans, and the 5 pin connector that goes to the motherboard. When I turn the PC on, the fans connected to it will run but they don't show up in the fan settings in the bios and in AI Suite. My question is, am I supposed to connect the 4 pin-In connector to something like the CPU_opt to make it show up? because It's just strange because they didn't include a 4 pin connector for it to go to the motherboard.

The 5-pin connection should result in the extra 3 fans that are connected to the extension card to appear as individual fans that can be independently controlled through ASUS software/bios. am I right?



after you plug in everything, run the " FAN TUNING " button in your ai suite program and he will run some diagnostic about your fans and sensors and than it will work

GotKevlar
Level 7
i love my header..it works perfect for my M8I in my mini itx case. Granted it was a challenge to find a location to mount it but i do enjoy the fan control and i am using all 3 headers plus the 2 on the board.

AKBAAR
Level 9
thank you for your time, Maybe I figured my EXT_FAN 5 Pin signal control cable is damaged

this is my motherboards fan pins