Artic Cooling's multi-fan FAQ says:
"In most cases, we recommend users to connect maximum 5 PWM fans. With 5 PWM fans running at full speed, the current consumption will still remain within the motherboard specification. Recent mother boards (i.e. P965) supply up to 3.0Amps current from the CPU fan socket. In this case, one Arctic Fan 12 PWM fan consumes 0.13Amp during maximum speed operation. When up to 5 fans are connected: 0.13Amp x 5 = 0.65Amp. It is still far below the specification. Some older boards (i.e. i865) supply 1.8Amp current from the CPU fan socket, still sufficient enough to handle. For more information please consult your motherboard manual to obtain the maximum current your motherboard can supply to the CPU fan."
I am assuming that, as a manufacturer, Artic has access to MOBO data that I don't. I haven't done a really thorough search for specific board info, and am generalizing from the nine or ten MOBO manuals I DL'd and read in the process of eliminating the finalists for my next development system (which will be a Gb GA-X48-DQ6). I certainly could have missed something, as it's a total of more than a thousand pages of PDF's, but it seems to me that actual technical data (unless it pertains to OC'ing) is scarcer than hen's teeth. That said, though, if you think about it, the PWM spec's 1.5A seems pretty likely to be accomodated: my little 'handy cheat sheet' says I can put 1.4A through a 28Ga wire, and that's less than
thirteen thousandths in diameter, or roughly two or three times the diameter of a black human hair! I don't know offhand what the current thickness of board traces is, but I would guess they have at least that cross-sectional area, and therefore at least that current capacity...
If anyone locates these spec's for THEIR MOBO, please post 'em here so we can make some better informed guesses
