Aurora R11, additional front fan

Hi All,

I'm undertaking a spring clean of my Dell Aurora R11 and have recently replaced all of the fans with Artic P12 Max (Black) fans. I have followed the advice here on the forum and have used the sandwich method to improve the air flow through the Corsair pump radiator assembly. Everything works perfectly and I haven't received any BIOS warnings so, as Corsair ML120 Pro fans are becoming increasingly dificult to obtain in the UK, I'm hoping the work I have done with the Artic P12 Max (Black) fans will help others when they need to replace their fans.

I have been considering adding an additional intake fan to the spare bay area at the front of my R11 above the existing fan. This will improve airflow in to the cabinet which, in turn, should reduce the heat from the CPU and GPU. 

I have a question relating to this mod. I have ordered a splitter cable and my plan is to connect this to the existing 'Fan Front' circuit board connection (see red circle in the photo below) for the front fan and then connect the 2 new front fans in turn to the splitter cable.

I have ordered the cable but noted that a recommendation has been made by the seller to cut the third wire of the secondary fan so that only the signal from the primary fan is taken back to the CPU. This does seem to make sense as both fans will be Artic P12 Max (black) devices and so will be capable of being controlled by the one signal feeding back to the CPU. 

However... I haven't come across this modification before and can't find any other references to it on the net so I thought it best to seek colleagues advice here on the Dell Forum before I make the change.

Incidently, in the Alienware Aurora R11, space is quite tight so I am using the disk bay above the existing front fan to make space for the new fan. I have seen various videos advocating using 3M double sided tape to hold the fan in to position but the fan is fitted with silicon corner buffers so I will be using good old cable ties to secure the fan in to position !

One final note that I hope may help everyone looking for a comprehensive bench marking utility. I have been looking for a piece of software that can give me an accurate benchmark for my desktop PC for ages. After a fair bit of research on the net, I finally decided to go for 3DMark (Advaned Version). I tend to purchase through Steam these days and, here in the UK, steam price this piece of software at £29.50 (GBP) for the advanced version (the basic version is free but is limited in terms of its functionality). I trawled the net again and purchased the steam activation key for 3DMark advanced from CDKEYS for £4.49 (GBP). That's a massive saving. So, if you are also looking to purchase 3DMark, this information may help. I should add that I am not being sponsored by 3DMark !!

Best wishes to all from the sunny UK.

Ed