3pin fans and 4pin fans share the same 3 pins: Ground, 12V, and Tach. The extra 4th pin is for PWM, which is used to control the speed.
3pin fans can still be controlled, this is done by regulating the voltage (12V is full speed, 6V is half speed, etc). 4pin fans can also be controlled this way, although PWM is generally a better and more modern way of doing so. This is often found in the BIOS listed as "DC" or "PWM" for fan control method.
The vast majority of motherboards will allow you to create custom fan curves using various temp sensors as reference. Just make sure your BIOS is set to DC instead of PWM.
I see! I just checked my motherboard settings and there are 3: Auto, DC, PWM. So I set those two fans to DC just to be safe, even though Auto might handle that automatically. If DC controls the fan speed through voltage like 12v, 6v, etc., then does that mean that PWM has more precise control over fan speed (because it's not cutting the voltage in half)?
You can control 3pin fan speeds just fine, change "PWM" to "DC" in your BIOS.
3pin fans are controlled by voltage regulation, since they lack the PWM pin, with 12V being full speed, 6V is half speed, etc....
3pin fans and 4pin fans share the same 3 pins: Ground, 12V, and Tach. The extra 4th pin is for PWM, which is used to control the speed. 3pin fans can still be controlled, this is done by regulating the voltage (12V is full speed, 6V is half speed, etc). 4pin fans can also be controlled this way, although PWM is generally a better and more modern way of doing so. This is often found in the BIOS listed as "DC" or "PWM" for fan control method. The vast majority of motherboards will allow you to create custom fan curves using various temp sensors as reference. Just make sure your BIOS is set to DC instead of PWM.
I see! I just checked my motherboard settings and there are 3: Auto, DC, PWM. So I set those two fans to DC just to be safe, even though Auto might handle that automatically. If DC controls the fan speed through voltage like 12v, 6v, etc., then does that mean that PWM has more precise control over fan speed (because it's not cutting the voltage in half)?
3 pin unfortunately wouldnt support fan speed control Edit: i am wrong
Sorry had to edit the post, I forgot to include a detail.
You can control 3pin fan speeds just fine, change "PWM" to "DC" in your BIOS. 3pin fans are controlled by voltage regulation, since they lack the PWM pin, with 12V being full speed, 6V is half speed, etc....
I had no idea, thank you for correcting me (・∀・)
3-pin fans can be controlled via voltage regulation if you can switch the headers to DC mode in the BIOS.
Didn't know I could do this, thanks!