Case fans and fan headers

[msterforks]

I'm building my first computer from scratch, and I'm trying to figure out some of the case fan problems.

 

I'm planning to buy a Corsair 460x, which ships with 3 SP120 RGB fans. I'm adding a fourth one in the back. I bought a Gigabyte Z270 Gaming K7 mobo, which specifies one CPU fan header, one CPU water cooling fan header, two system fan headers, and one system fan/water cooling pump header. I plan on mounting an NZXT Kraken x52 on the front and replacing the default fans with 2 of the SP120 fans of the case.

 

1. Are all fan headers on modern mobos 4pin?

2. Can the CPU fan header double as a case fan header, or do I need splitters to accommodate the additional fan?

3. What's the difference between a water cooling fan header and a system fan header?

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

3 minutes ago, msterforks said:

I'm building my first computer from scratch, and I'm trying to figure out some of the case fan problems.

 

I'm planning to buy a Corsair 460x, which ships with 3 SP120 RGB fans. I'm adding a fourth one in the back. I bought a Gigabyte Z270 Gaming K7 mobo, which specifies one CPU fan header, one CPU water cooling fan header, two system fan headers, and one system fan/water cooling pump header. I plan on mounting an NZXT Kraken x52 on the front and replacing the default fans with 2 of the SP120 fans of the case.

 

1. Are all fan headers on modern mobos 4pin?

2. Can the CPU fan header double as a case fan header, or do I need splitters to accommodate the additional fan?

3. What's the difference between a water cooling fan header and a system fan header?

1. Yes. Even more when you consider your chipset.
2. They technically can, but it's not the best idea to do that.
3. Just found an amazing quora post that answers all your questions (https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-CPU-FAN-socket-CPU-OPT-socket-and-a-SYS-FAN-socket-on-motherboard)