How to install or troubleshoot fans in your CLX computer

Sometimes when you get your computer, or after you’ve had the computer for some time, you will run into an issue with one of the fans or would like to replace or add additional fans to your CLX system. This guide aims to make anything fan related relatively easy for you to do.

How to install fans / airflow paths

Installing fans is quite easy, all you need is to screw in the four corners of the fan to the case, and then plug the cables in. This section is going to only cover how to physically install fans, please see the next section if you need help plugging them in.

Fans can use two different kinds of screws, one of which is short, the other is long. The short screws are going to be used in almost every situation. They are designed to be short and dig into the plastic on the inside of the fan, so they can usually be difficult to screw in on the first time. The ONLY time you are going to use a long screw, is if you are directly installing into an all-in-one liquid coolers radiator. If you’re not sure what that would look like, please refer to the picture below. The Radiator is attached with the two large tubes that go up to the front or top of the system.

Although the fans can go on in multiple directions, there is one orientation you must worry about, and it is how the air will travel through the fan. Air will always blow Towards the grill on the fan. The grill is the side that has the back of the fan, with the hub and the brackets that go towards the edges of the fan frame. Linus Tech Tips made a great short displaying how these should be roughly installed: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C0i4VhKB5fE.

Once you have the layout of where you want the fan to get installed, you would put your fan on the inside of your case, and then screw it in through the fan rails on the front of the case. This will require you to remove the front panel of the case, which can be done by gripping the front of the case on the bottom of the front case, and then pulling away from the main chassis assembly. Once you have everything visible, you can put the fan on the inside of the case, line up the four corners of the fan with the fan rails, then screw in those fans from the outside of the main chassis, going into the fan. Here is a different short by GamerTechToronto that goes over installation: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LrbCMKrUv50.

If you are installing a fan into a radiator, you would follow the exact same steps as above, but you also need to position the radiator on the other side of the fan and use the longer screws that go through the fan, and then screw into the radiator’s holes on the other side. It is a lot like a fan sandwich in a way, where the case on the outside and the radiator on the inside are the bread, and the fans are the inside of the proverbial sandwich. Please do not use the long screws to screw the radiator in to the case, if you're mounting the radiator as well. If you use the long fans, it can damage or ruin the radiator.

If you are installing fans and run into an issue with installing them in a radiator, please contact our support team and we would be more than happy to help you with that. 

Fan Cables

There are multiple different kinds of fan cables, but this guide is only going to focus on the main three types of cables: Power, RGB, and Combination cables, as shown on the respective images below.

Power cables that come off the fans are incredibly simple. They are going to either be 3 or four pin fans, that either plug directly into the motherboard itself, or into splitter or extension cables on the back of your case. Regardless of if the fans are 3 or 4 pins, they will always plug into a 4-pin header or connector, which will have a plastic guide sticking up around the main two pins. This is the same for the fan connector; when you’re wanting to plug a fan in, you should line up the guides on the fan cable, with the guide on the fan header, and they should line up perfectly when you plug the cable onto the header.

RGB cables are going to be similar, if not identical to the power cables in how they’re attached to the system. They are either going to plug into other RGB cables that come off other RGB fans you have installed, or they’re going to plug directly into the motherboard itself. These cables are 3 pin cables in a 2-1 configuration, meaning they only go together in one orientation. These cables do not have a locking mechanism, which means there is a decent chance they come undone when other cables are tugged around, make sure that they are secure when you plug them in.

Combination cables are exactly as they sound, they are both an RGB cable, and a power cable tied into one. These are NOT going to plug into the motherboard, as they are going to plug directly into a fan controller that should be in the rear section of your chassis. The fan speed and colors are either going to be controlled by your case, or a remote control that you should have gotten with your computer.

The Fan is either not lighting up or spinning.

If you get a CLX system, and the fans you have are either not lighting up or spinning, or both, the first thing that you should do is check that the cables for those fans did not come unplugged. This is quite easy to do, although you might have to dig around some cables that are tied up in the back of the system.

To do this, you will need to open the rear side panel, which will be opposite the glass panel that allows you to see all the main internal components like the motherboard, graphics card, etc. When looking at the front panel, this “rear” panel will be on the right side of the front of the tower.

Once you have that side panel opened, the cables are going to be coming from the front side of the tower. If you have a dedicated fan controller, it will be either a circuit board towards the top of the system, or it will be a small plastic case that has multiple wires going into it. Go ahead and turn off the computer entirely, and then unplug those cables and plug them back in. If that doesn’t fix the issue, please contact our support team and we will be able to help.

If you do NOT see a dedicated fan controller, do your best to look for small plastic blocks towards the top half of the system, that have wires coming out of each end. These are going to be the RGB or fan power connectors. Make sure that every cable is connected, and if you don’t see any loose cables, please call our support team and they will be able to help. It is recommended that if you contact our support team, you should also take a picture of the cables you’re looking at, and text it to our number: (833)-451-0225 so that we can look at exactly what you’re looking at.

How to control the RGB on the fans

If you want to control the RGB on your fans, there are a couple different ways that can be tried, but not all of them are going to work. Many cases have a button that is dedicated to changing the colors of the lights. This is usually a smaller button, that is near the actual power button. It will either be labeled with an M, a small fan, or for some cases it will be designated as the computer’s restart button.

If that doesn’t work, and you were given a remote control in the system’s accessory box, you should be able to use the remote control to change the colors of the fans in your system.

If you didn’t get a remote, you might need to use software from your motherboard to change the color of those fans. Below is a list of all software, including what motherboard or special fans you need to have for them to work, along with their respective download links. If you contact our support team, they will be able to send you the exact software that you would need to control the RGB.

If you are still having issues with controlling the RGB on your fans, please contact our support team know, and they will be able to diagnose the issue and get you as much control as possible.