Pinhedd :
The three and four pin fan headers are industry standards. If there are four pin fan headers on a motherboard that do not support PWM control then that's laziness on Asus' part.
3 pin = ground, supply (12 volts), tachometer (one pulse per half rotation)
4 pin = ground, supply (12 volts), tachometer (one pulse per half rotation), control (PWM control, 100% duty cycle for highest maximum torque)
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-012074.htm
Yes, those **were** the standards ... the most telling piece of information on your link however is in the lower left
"Created: 03-Jun-2004"
Things have changed and while you still have the option of doing it the "old way" so that info is still good if you want to go that route, we can also do it the "new and improved" way. As time marches on in the PC world, we have seen rapid "progress" and "innovation" Socket 1366 and even Sandy Bridge are almost "antiques" in PC parlance and 3 generations of MoBo since (Z77, X87, Z97) have brought us many new and wonderful things including the ability to provide speed control for 3 pin fans. Also from that era, we see that the problems with PWM have existed fro at least as long as the Intel page
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9340
Here's what Silentpcreview has to say on the subject of Asus Fan Control
http://www.silentpcreview.com/140mm_Fan_Roundup1
For PWM fan speed control, Fan Xpert 2 utility in Asus P8Z77-V Pro motherboard -- A great board to work with to test fans. You'll appreciate the detailed data summary it generates. It also incorporates a voltage regulation circuit for its non-CPU 4-pin headers, which allows 3-pin non-PWM fans to be analyzed using its auto-tune function, and to run the entire test on the fan when appropriate.
Most motherboards are equipped with speed controllers for their fan headers, and monitor fan speeds for any standard 3-pin fans or 4-pin PWM
With Z87 we started seeing 4 pin DC Headers. Only thing I could imagine at the time was that it was a half step to full PWM and that's what we have today. Asus, and everybody else, recognizes that enthusiasts and especially water cooling enthusiasts want fans that can be turned down to low rpms. PWM has the theoretical technical advantage in speed control but is burdened at low speeds by that buzzing, ticking noises .... when ya spend $1 - 2k on water cooling components, you don't wanna be listening to humming, buzzing and ticking which is common to many PWM fans..
I don't see "innovation" and "choice" being lazy.
-You can still control your fans as you could back in 2004 .... if you want to.
-You can choose to control your fans via PWM control or DC control ... where's the downside ?
-Instead of just 1 PWM header, you now get, 6, 8 or more .... where's the downside ?
-instead of limited curve points, you now can select multiple points along the curver, customizing the slop of the curve to minimize noise until temps get critical.... where's the downside ?
-You no longer have to do any of this manually.... we just tell FanXpert2 to 'tune the fans" and it tests the fan for its max speed, min speed, stall speed and what signal is needed in jumps of 10% from 0 rpm to max speed....where's the downside ?
-You can shut the fans off below a certain rpm .... where's the downside ?
-You can control ramp up and ramp down time so fans aren't chasing their tails so to speak.....where's the downside ?
-You can set them to respond to CPU temps, GPU temps, MoBo temps or anything you want by using any of the thermistor inputs . .... where's the downside ?
As each of those eight options and features gives us more choices, more useability, more efficiency, more performance and required a lot of innovation and work effort, I hardly see how the ward "lazy" applies.
Aside from the MoBo folks, Phanteks has made PWM fans virtually irrelevant with their FAN Control PCB
-It takes a PWM signal from the MoBo to the PCB which in turn can control and power up to 11 3-pin fans.
-As the PWM speed control is at the PCB, the motor ticking, humming, buzzing is eliminated.
-You get PWM control down to speeds formerly unattainable with 3 pin fans.
-I saved $7 per fan for 15 fans or $105 while having the best of both worlds, all of the advantages of PWM and none of the disadvantages.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811984004
$5 cheaper on Phanteks site.
http://www.phanteksusa.com/products/phanteks-fan-hub
So yes, speed control of 3 pin fans is most certainly doable with the Asus Hero VII with FanXpert3 and has been widely available for at least 3+ generations of Motherboards with previous versions of the utility.
Under CPU stress testing they also don't break 850 rpm and CPU tops out at about 74C.
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