I'm trying to wire my Thermalright 360 AIO cooler, but the instructions are pretty sparse. I'm familiar with CPU fan plugs and think that the pump should go into the CPU fan slot on the motherboard. Should I connect the three fans on the radiator together and then plug them into one case fan slot, or do I need to connect all four plugs to the CPU fan slot since the system needs to ramp up cooling as needed? Also, I found some 3-pin cables, which I assume are for ARGB control. The pump has both male and female plugs, and each fan also has two plugs. Do I daisy chain all of these together and connect them to the motherboard? How do I control the RGB lighting—do I need a specific program in Windows? I've never had an RGB setup before, so any tips would be great!
2 Answers
You should definitely connect the pump to either the CPU_OPT or PUMP header on your motherboard to keep it running efficiently. For the fans, it's common to daisy chain them and plug that into the CPU_FAN header. This way, they can run based on your BIOS settings. As for the ARGB cables, yes, you can daisy chain them together and connect them to the ARGB header on your motherboard. You can control the RGB through your motherboard's software or use something like OpenRGB if your board supports it.
Make sure to check your motherboard for dedicated AIO headers, they usually have a label like AIO_Pump. It's typically best to keep your pump and fans on different headers to maintain efficient cooling. And yes, chaining all the ARGB connectors together is the right move – just plug them all into a single ARGB header. You’ll manage the RGB effects through your motherboard's RGB control software, which should be straightforward once it's installed.
Is it common for motherboards to have only one ARGB header? That would mean all my fans and pump would have to connect to that one spot?