Modding my laptop, is 5v to 12v step up module safe for motherboard ?

hey guys, i'm not a tech savvy, nor an electrician, barely know anything about pcb and such, so i have old MSi GE60, its already 6 years, monitor breaking up and what not, but the internal hardware still very much working great

my plan is to gut all the hardware and convert the laptop into a family media center, i already planned everything , the custom case etc, the problem is, i want to put another fan on the case, and take the power for the fan directly from the mobo

since MSi GE60 have unused PCie SSD, i'll buy the PCie to USB module, BUT, since almost all fan in market is powered with 12v , i also planning to buy the 5v to 12v step up module to put on the PCie to USB module

my problem is, i don't know if such setup is safe for the laptop motherboard, anyone can enlighten me?

thank you in advance

 

More than likely not safe.

6 years old? It doesn't have an PCIe SSD (or slot) either.

 

What is the power out supported by the PCIe to USB module? Multiply the voltage by amperage to get total wattage out and compare that to the specs of whatever fan you are planning to connect. As long as the fan does not exceed the power supported, you'll be fine. You will want to leave a little buffer room, so don't push it all the way to the max of the port.

For example, USB 2.0 is 5V @ 500mA, which is total power out of 2.5W. A Noctua NF-F12 is rated for 1.2W max, well within safe limits.

 

6 years is exaggeration really, i personally forgot when i bought it, but its indeed have an SSD PCie inside it

oh well.... it really hard (almost impossible) to find 5v 80mm fan here in my country..

 

I recently ordered some connectors to DIY a piggyback connector to run multiple fans off the one 3 pin mobo header, because I think that's the easiest way to do it (and also I have many 5V 3 pin laptop fans hanging around) I will post results in the thread I've got over in the custom mods subforum

I also ran a damaged Asus G51J as a HTPC for three years after I ran it over and wrecked the lid and some internals. If it autodetects HDMI on boot without a panel connected you can remove the lid entirely. It ran very cool since HTPC duties barely stressed it and this thing was a 95C+ fireball during games as it ran a 45W quad + 65W GPU off one fan.

You can find lots of fan size and voltage options on aliexpress/ebay and sites like moddiy.com

 

afaik the output will be normal usb 2.0 output, which is 5v, thus why i plan to buy the 5v to 12v for the additional fan

ah i see...so thats how you calculate it?, i tho the only factor is the voltage, im not yet test the fan, my test fan is a cheap dazumba fan case 12v/0.2A , i'll try to change the input from molex to usb first, i heard that some fan wont even start to spin at 5v, but let see

can you give me your thread link, i would love to read it

and thats the problem with me tho lol, i'm quite impatiant, ordering from aliexpress can take 1-2 months to arrive lol

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/help-me-3-pin-notebook-fan-splitter-cable.802729/

Not much going on ... still waiting for them to come, funny you talked about month long waits lol.

Running 12V fans at 5V usually means they spin really slow, if at all. Some fans come with a "low speed" wiring option that ends up sending about 7V to the fan by switching around the 12V and 5V lines present in a molex. I'd look at splicing a variable voltage fan controller dial into the wiring but unless you really want to mod the thing why not first try one of those ten buck yumcha laptop coolers and adding (cutting/drilling) vents in the bottom case as needed?

 

i actually consider the exact same thing, yes, but i just want to keep my option open, and use laptop cooler (or even gut the laptop cooler and scrap the converter and the fan component) as the last resort

 

I can power 3 Noctua iPPC 3000 fans at 12V off a single USB port on my P870DM3, for what that's worth. Each is rated at 3.6W. But it's wildly out of spec and only works on 4/5 of the ports, and I wouldn't expect it to work on any other laptops without testing it. The in-rush current is also too high, so I have to spin them up at 9V before switching to 12V.

 

doesnt it can burn the usb port sooner or later in that way?

anyway, so its concluded that using 5v to 12v step up module is not safe ?, its something like this : https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...2V-Step-up-Boost-Line/333670_32679700740.html

if not then for playing it safe, i'll buy the 5v fan on aliexpress, even tho it means need to wait it for quite a while

 

Depends entirely on the implementation of the 5V rail that feeds the USB ports. Burning out is unlikely I would say, since the current draw is so low, but it may cut out.