"My router mod" or "How I plan to electrocute myself and burn down my house" Part 2

So, I waited for a reply from the Anandtech forums for all of like 4 seconds then decided I would start my mod now and figure out the amperage thing later. I knew at this point that the title of this post was sounding less like a joke and more like a self-fulfilling prophecy, but my impatience spurred me on.

I remembered that I had an old CPU fan/heat sink laying around somewhere. I dug it out and it looked like it would work great for my router mod. I removed the fan from the heat sink and measured it but discovered it was too fat to fit inside the router chassis, as I had planned. I then criticized it about it's weight and told it that no one could ever love a fat fan. It cried for a little bit but then got angry and started to retaliate. This led us into about 45 minutes of yelling, name calling, and exchanging "your momma" jokes. We eventually called a truce and he agreed to take the gig being mounted on the outside of the router. We remain good friends to this day.

I then again remembered the whole amperage issue. What?... you have no idea what I'm talking about? Then maybe you should have read my post on the Anandtech forums like I told you to in part 1. You just always wanna be the rebel don't you? Maybe if you'd follow directions once in a while you'd be up to speed with the rest of the class. Fine, I'll explain. But this is the last time so take notes!

There are 2 power specs on the router:
12 volts
1.25 amps
Still with me? Good, glad to hear it but stop picking your nose.
Fat Fan McGee also has 2 power specs:
12 volts
0.21 amps
So, do you see the problem? That's right! The amperage on the 2 don't match. Gold star for you!

I assumed this was a bad thing, but after Googleing around and finding several articles on DC power (remember, because I didn't wanna wait for an answer in the forums. Don't you ever listen?) I found out the following: voltage always has to match, but amperage is like a pool that each component pulls from. So as long as the amps collectively used by the components don't exceed the total amount of amps in the pool, you're safe.

Confused? Let me illustrate with something that nerd brains are a little more familiar with: RPGs.

So imagine that your character is a level 12 warrior in a game with level specific armor. If you're level 12, you cannot wear level 11 or level 13 armor, you have to wear level 12 armor. That's like voltage. It HAS to match (well unless your plan is to blow something up, then by all means don your rare level 70 "Helmet of Over-volting" and remember to take pictures!).

However, think of the amperage as you're health points. Say you have 125 HP and you encounter a mob that contains a "Router Beast" and a "Fat Fan McGee". The Beast attacks first and deals 100 HP of damage. Ouch! Then the Fat Fan joins in and deals you 21 HP of damage. You've only got 4 HP left, but you're still in the battle right? You then use your special attack that deals crit damage to all enemies. The Router Beast and Fat Fan McGee are both destroyed (and leave behind some sweet loot!). So as long as the damage they collectively deal to you isn't more than your total HP, you live long enough to annihilate them with that sweet special attack.

BTW, I have no idea how much amperage the router consumes out of the total 1.25 so it's probably best to stick with a low amperage fan.

So what was the point of all that? I should be able to use Fat Fan McGee for my router mod without starting any fires. As for whether or not I can avoid electrocuting myself, that remains to be seen.

Now it's time to crack open the Router Beast and see what's inside. Once I do that I should be really close to a level up. I'll let you know how the battle goes in my next post. :-D