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3 pin fan 4 pin mobo

kikster500
By kikster500
in Cooling
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Posted

Hello, 

Started assembling my new build today and noticed my coreair 120mm fans have 3 pins and my gigabyte Z170-HD3 has one 3 pin fan header and 2 4 pin fan headers.  So if i plug the 3 pin into the 4 pin connector do i just not get speed control? Also when the manuel says pin 3 is sense does that mean it will be able to tell fan speed just not adjust it? Thanks

 

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Ok i thought it would the manuel just didn't make sense to me. it showed what each pin was in the 4 pin. 1 GND 2 speed control 3 Sense 4 VCC

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I can say from doing this with my own build that it will be fine.

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I pluged my 3 pin fan in the 4 pin header, all works just fine.

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13 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

It will work fine and most mobo's have pwm control for 3 pin fans.

No, motherboards don't usually have pwm control for 3pin fans. The pwm signal motherboards provide are for 4pin pwm fans.

There are pwm hubs that convert the signal from the motherboard to a pwm signal that can control 3pin fans but that's only in a few hubs like this one from Phanteks: http://www.phanteks.com/PH-PWHUB.html

13 hours ago, kikster500 said:

Ok i thought it would the manuel just didn't make sense to me. it showed what each pin was in the 4 pin. 1 GND 2 speed control 3 Sense 4 VCC

Good on you for actually looking at the manual. 

Only the cpu_fan header provides pwm. The rest of the sys_fan headers provide dc and would be fine for your 3pin fan. Sys_fan3 however won't report the rpm. 

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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13 hours ago, kikster500 said:

Ok i thought it would the manuel just didn't make sense to me. it showed what each pin was in the 4 pin. 1 GND 2 speed control 3 Sense 4 VCC

 

VCC isn't doing anything. Gigabyte is just scamming people to think that they have PWM support on all fan headers, not just CPU and CPU_OPT. You are fine and could control fans with 3rd party software (aka Speedfan).

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7 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

No, motherboards don't usually have pwm control for 3pin fans.

Well how else you control the fan speed. Its much cheapder than a dac and a power transitor

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4 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well how else you control the fan speed. Its much cheapder than a dac and a power transitor

3pins fans are usually controlled via dc from the motherboard as opposed to pwm. 

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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11 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

3pins fans are usually controlled via dc from the motherboard as opposed to pwm. 

Thats using pwm. Hook it up to a scope. Its not using a seprate pin, but its using pwm.

 

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1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Thats using pwm. Hook it up to a scope. Its not using a seprate pin, but its using pwm.

How is it using pwm? It lowers voltage and it's why some pwm fans whine when you power them off of a 3pin header providing dc. 

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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Just now, WoodenMarker said:

How is it using pwm? It lowers voltage and it's why some pwm fans whine when you power them off of a 3pin header providing dc. 

Do you know how PWM works?

 

It turns it on and off again. with differerent amounts of time up and down. This is how stage lights are dimmed aswell.

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7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you know how PWM works?

It turns it on and off again. with differerent amounts of time up and down. This is how stage lights are dimmed aswell.

Yes, I know how pwm works. 

So you're saying that the second pin provides pwm as opposed to varying voltage to change the fan speed?

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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8 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Yes, I know how pwm works. 

So you're saying that the second pin provides pwm as opposed to varying voltage to change the fan speed?

Yep It uses pwm to change the amount of power going to the fan

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8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yep It uses pwm to change the amount of power going to the fan

Huh, I didn't know that before. Thanks for the info.

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

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