Noctua fans (NF-A14 140mm) and the fan control of Phantek P400A

BenH · October 23, 2020

Hi,

So this is my first time to build my own PC.

I have a question about the connections of the Noctua fans and the fan control at the front of the P400A (non RGB) case.

I want to be able to control the fan speed with that fan control button, I disassembled the front fan that came with the case, it has a 3 pin cable that connects to that fan control, after installing the 2 Noctua fans on the front I found myself a bit confused to how they're supposed to be connected to the fan control?
The Noctua fans have 4 pin connectors while the cable that is coming out from the front of the case has 3... and by my understanding these fans need to be connected to the motherboard to the 4 headers...

I hope I was clear enough explaining my confusion

Appreciate any help !
Thanks !

Bombastinator · October 23, 2020

A 4pin fan is pwm with the 4th pin (usually on a yellow wire) being the fan speed sensor. A 3 pin fan is the same thing but without the speed sensor wire, which you won’t need anyway because you’re manually controlling fan speed. To connect a 4 pin fan to a 3 pin connector you just leave the 4th pin hanging off the end (unless there’s no way to do that in which case there is a problem). If that happens you could get some 3 pin extension cables which will allow it to hang off the end.