Is it normal my 3 to 1 PWM splitter is missing a pin on 2 connectors?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

First of all really not sure where to post this so I'm posting in general.

 

Here is the pic of all the fan connection on my fan splitter.

It's missing a pin on third for the last 2 but the first one has all pin. Is this normal?

[Samppa221]

It's the pwm pin you cant split it.The other 2 fans will only be running from the 3 pins.

[AresKrieger]

That's normal, only 1 connector can have pulse width modulation, the others will just mirror the thirds rpm speed

[Oberon.Smite]

That's fine, the other 2 are for communicating with the motherboard. If there were 4 of them on all of them there would be conflicts between the two fans.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

That's fine, the other 2 are for communicating with the motherboard. If there were 4 of them on all of them there would be conflicts between the two fans.

 

That's normal, only 1 connector can have pulse width modulation, the others will just mirror the thirds rpm speed

 

It's the pwm pin you cant split it.The other 2 fans will only be running from the 3 pins.

 

So if I use fan control software, will it control all fans?

[Kobathor]

With PWM the computer talks to the fan, it knows its max RPM, ect.

 

When you split it, one of the fans will be a "dummy" fan. The 4-pin coming off of the splitter is the fan that the computer will talk to. The 3-pin will get the same amount of power as the one in the 4-pin, so they are essentially seen as one fan by the computer.

 

If the fans are the same fan then it doesn't matter, but say if the fan in the 3-pin *can* run faster than the one in the 4-pin then it will never be used to its full potential.

 

 

So if I use fan control software, will it control all fans?

If you control the PWM splitter, it will change both fan's speeds to the same amount. You cannot control them individually on a splitter.

[Oberon.Smite]

So if I use fan control software, will it control all fans?

It will control all of them, but here's how it will work. It will control the first fan that is directly in the motherboard, then the second one will run at 'clone' voltage and speed.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

It will control all of them, but here's how it will work. It will control the first fan that is directly in the motherboard, then the second one will run at 'clone' voltage and speed.

 

Ok, perfect, Using it for my radiator fans.

[Grrizz]

With PWM the computer talks to the fan, it knows its max RPM, ect.

 

When you split it, one of the fans will be a "dummy" fan. The 4-pin coming off of the splitter is the fan that the computer will talk to. The 3-pin will get the same amount of power as the one in the 4-pin, so they are essentially seen as one fan by the computer.

 

If the fans are the same fan then it doesn't matter, but say if the fan in the 3-pin *can* run faster than the one in the 4-pin then it will never be used to its full potential.

 

 

 

If you control the PWM splitter, it will change both fan's speeds to the same amount. You cannot control them individually on a splitter.

Sort of, the computer doesn't really talk to the fan in that detail, it doesn't know its max RPM etc. just its current RPM.

Of the 4 pins one is +12V, one is ground, one is sense and the other is PWM.

- +12V and ground are obviously for power.

- Sense is the one that can only go to a single fan because it is a pulsed feedback from the fan that tells the motherboard what its current RPM is, if there were more than one fan connected to this the motherboard would se a lot more pulses than it should and the reported RPM would be incorrect.

- PWM is the signal sent to the fans which tell them to run at 0-100%, what 0% and 100% is determined by the fan itself so if you mixed different fans and the motherboard was saying run at 100% all fans would run at 100% regardless of if one fans 100% is 1000RPM and anothers is 2000RPM however the motherboard will only report the RPM of the fan plugged into the socket with 4 pins.