December 21, 20196 yr Do I only need to connect the case fans to the motherboard? That seems to be the case in my current PC, but the fan connections that are included with my new PC case are a bit confusing. They seem to have a 3 pin (female) connection into a small adaptor, and then two bigger 4 pin connectors (one male and one female) attached to that. My current PC case fans seem to have those 3 pin female connectors fixed into the motherboard, but I only seem to have one of these three pin EXT FAN connections on my Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard. All of the others are 4 pin connectors. Can I attach one of the three pin case fan connectors to one of these 4 pin connections on the motherboard? Christopher Low AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme UK2000 Beta Tester
December 21, 20196 yr Sure. You can also buy adapters or splitters to run more than one fan from a connection. See https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=case+fan+adapters for examples. Gigabyte x670 Aorus Elite AX MB; AMD 7800X3D CPU; Deepcool LT520 AIO Cooler; 64 Gb G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 6000; Win11 Pro; P3D V5.4; 1 Samsung 990 2Tb NVMe SSD: 1 Crucial 4Tb MX500 SATA SSD; 1 Samsung 860 1Tb SSD; Gigabyte Aorus Extreme 1080ti 11Gb VRAM; Toshiba 43" LED TV @ 4k; Honeycomb Bravo.
December 21, 20196 yr Author Are you saying that I can attach one of the three pin connectors to the four pin connection on the motherboard? Christopher Low AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme UK2000 Beta Tester
December 21, 20196 yr Case fans with 3-pin connectors are straight DC fans--they run at full speed unless you connect them to a separate fan controller that controls the voltage to reduce the fan speed. The two larger molex connectors are standard 4-pin peripheral power connectors that can be connected directly to the power pigtails that come off the power supply. There is one male and one female with a tap to the fan, so the adapter could be used to power the fan and still be used for some other device. Fans with four-pin connectors are PWM (pulse-width modulation) type fans that can vary their speed based on the PWM signal on the fourth pin. The first three pins on the motherboard's PWM fan headers are the same as a DC (three-pin) fan, so you can plug the small female three-pin connector on a DC fan onto the 4-pin header and the fan will run as a DC fan at full speed. Bob Scott | President and CEO, AVSIM Inc ATP Gulfstream II-III-IV-V Sys1 (MSFS20+24/XPlane12+11): AMD 9800X3D, water 2x240mm, MSI MPG X670E Carbon, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, nVidia RTX4090FE Alienware AW3821DW 38" 21:9 GSync, 2x4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2x2TB Samsung 990 SSD, EVGA 1000P2 PSU, 12.9" iPad Pro Thrustmaster TCA Boeing Yoke, TCA Airbus Sidestick, Twin TCA Airbus Throttle quads, PFC Cirrus Pedals, Coolermaster HAF932 case Sys2 (P3Dv5/v4): i9-13900KS, water 2x360mm, ASUS Z790 Hero, 32GB GSkill 7800MHz CAS36, ASUS RTX4090 Samsung 55" JS8500 4K TV@60Hz, 3x 2TB WD SN850X 1x 4TB Crucial P3 M.2 NVME SSD, EVGA 1600T2 PSU Fiber link to Yamaha RX-V467 Home Theater Receiver, Polk/Klipsch 6" bookshelf speakers, Polk 12" subwoofer, 12.9" iPad Pro PFC yoke/throttle quad/pedals with custom Hall sensor retrofit, Thermaltake View 71 case, Stream Deck XL button box Sys3 (DCS/P3Dv4/ATS/ETS): AMD 7800X3D, MSI MPG X870E Carbon, Noctua NH-D15S, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, EVGA RTX3090 Alienware AW3420DW 34" 21:9 GSync, Corsair HX1000i PSU, 4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2TB Samsung 970Evo Plus, TM TCA Officer Pack, Saitek combat pedals, TM Warthog, TM RS300 FF wheel/pedals, Coolermaster HAF XB case
December 21, 20196 yr Author Thanks, Bob. I am not sure what you mean by "power pigtails", but it seems that I do not need to know since I will just plug one of the 3 pin connectors into a 4 pin connection on the motherboard. I have no problem with running the case fans at full speed at all times. Christopher Low AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme UK2000 Beta Tester
December 21, 20196 yr 3 minutes ago, Christopher Low said: Thanks, Bob. I am not sure what you mean by "power pigtails", but it seems that I do not need to know since I will just plug one of the 3 pin connectors into a 4 pin connection on the motherboard. I have no problem with running the case fans at full speed at all times. I'm referring to the power cables that come off the power supply. It used to be that most peripherals (hard/floppy/CD/DVD drives, fans, etc) were powered by the PSU via those 4-pin connectors. Most storage devices now use the SATA type power cables, and most fans, as you have observed, use the small 3/4-pin header blocks now. Bob Scott | President and CEO, AVSIM Inc ATP Gulfstream II-III-IV-V Sys1 (MSFS20+24/XPlane12+11): AMD 9800X3D, water 2x240mm, MSI MPG X670E Carbon, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, nVidia RTX4090FE Alienware AW3821DW 38" 21:9 GSync, 2x4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2x2TB Samsung 990 SSD, EVGA 1000P2 PSU, 12.9" iPad Pro Thrustmaster TCA Boeing Yoke, TCA Airbus Sidestick, Twin TCA Airbus Throttle quads, PFC Cirrus Pedals, Coolermaster HAF932 case Sys2 (P3Dv5/v4): i9-13900KS, water 2x360mm, ASUS Z790 Hero, 32GB GSkill 7800MHz CAS36, ASUS RTX4090 Samsung 55" JS8500 4K TV@60Hz, 3x 2TB WD SN850X 1x 4TB Crucial P3 M.2 NVME SSD, EVGA 1600T2 PSU Fiber link to Yamaha RX-V467 Home Theater Receiver, Polk/Klipsch 6" bookshelf speakers, Polk 12" subwoofer, 12.9" iPad Pro PFC yoke/throttle quad/pedals with custom Hall sensor retrofit, Thermaltake View 71 case, Stream Deck XL button box Sys3 (DCS/P3Dv4/ATS/ETS): AMD 7800X3D, MSI MPG X870E Carbon, Noctua NH-D15S, 64GB GSkill 6000/30, EVGA RTX3090 Alienware AW3420DW 34" 21:9 GSync, Corsair HX1000i PSU, 4TB Crucial T705 PCIe5 + 2TB Samsung 970Evo Plus, TM TCA Officer Pack, Saitek combat pedals, TM Warthog, TM RS300 FF wheel/pedals, Coolermaster HAF XB case
December 23, 20196 yr On 12/21/2019 at 2:13 PM, Christopher Low said: but I only seem to have one of these three pin EXT FAN connections on my Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard. All of the others are 4 pin connectors. Can I attach one of the three pin case fan connectors to one of these 4 pin connections on the motherboard? The EXT fan header is not for a fan. It's for the Asus fan extension card. It's usually 5 pin not 3 pin though. The 4 pin headers on your board will also accept 3 pin fan connectors. 4 pin fans are PWM fans and 3 pin fans are DC controlled fans. You do NOT need to use a fan controller to control the RPM of 3 pin fans attached to a 4 pin or 3 pin header. Your Asus motherboard is perfectly capable of controlling fans in both PWM and DC mode. Set accordingly in your BIOS or via Asus Fan Xpert. The settings in the BIOS are manual, PWM and DC. You will also find a H_AMP_FAN header that can be used for a fan and is ideal for multiple fans from one header. It can be set to automatic control in the BIOS.
December 23, 20196 yr Author Thanks for the clarificatiion, Martin. I will move the front case fan connector to one of the 4 pin connections on the motherboard. Christopher Low AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme UK2000 Beta Tester
December 24, 20196 yr 23 hours ago, Christopher Low said: Thanks for the clarificatiion, Martin. I will move the front case fan connector to one of the 4 pin connections on the motherboard. No probs, hope all goes well with the build. You should try Asus Fan Xpert, its within Ai Suite. I always use it for fan control. The same features are available in the BIOS though. You can set up your fan curves either way, through BIOS or Fan Xpert. Happy Christmas. 🙂
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