Fan Control with 3 Pin Fans?

Thinh

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Jun 10, 2015
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I have an Asrock H97 Performance and a couple 3 pin fans connected to it. I've been looking through the downloads for my mobo to see if there was something specific for fan control.


Is there a program that can control 3 pin fans?
 
Solution
Sorry, you can't do that. Your mobo has 5 fan headers in total - see manual p. 21-22. The two CPU_FAN headers are only for use with a CPU cooler. You use ONE of these, depending on whether your CPU cooler is a 3-pin or a 4-pin fan. There is a 3-pin header called PWR_FAN1 whcih is not designed for use to control any case fan. Then there are two 4-pin headers called CHA_FAN1 and 2. The labels on their pins clearly indicate that these are true 4-pin fan headers operating only in PWM Mode, and the brief details on p. 80 do not indicate anything different. Now, you can NOT control any 3-pin fan with that type of fan header. A 3-pin fan connected there will always run at full speed no matter what you do. The ONLY fan type that you can control...

Thinh

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Um all of my case fans are 3 pins so yeah.

Sorry if I wasn't specific, is there a way to control 3 pin case fans that are connected to my mobo?
 

Thinh

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Increase and decrease fan speed, I just want to have control over them. So two questions:

1. How would I change it through the BIOS?

2. Is there software that can control case fans? So i don't have to go into the BIOS.


 

Thinh

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Hmm, no luck with F-stream tuning, can't seem to get it to decrease. Thank you though.
 

Paperdoc

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Sorry, you can't do that. Your mobo has 5 fan headers in total - see manual p. 21-22. The two CPU_FAN headers are only for use with a CPU cooler. You use ONE of these, depending on whether your CPU cooler is a 3-pin or a 4-pin fan. There is a 3-pin header called PWR_FAN1 whcih is not designed for use to control any case fan. Then there are two 4-pin headers called CHA_FAN1 and 2. The labels on their pins clearly indicate that these are true 4-pin fan headers operating only in PWM Mode, and the brief details on p. 80 do not indicate anything different. Now, you can NOT control any 3-pin fan with that type of fan header. A 3-pin fan connected there will always run at full speed no matter what you do. The ONLY fan type that you can control using those headers is a 4-pin (aka PWM) fan.

If you replace those two fans with 4-pin models, those CHA_FAN headers can do automatic control of the fans for you (they are set this way by default). That means that the mobo will constantly check the temperature at a sensor built into the mobo itself and alter the fan speeds up or down as you work, to keep the temperature inside your case at a target value. You do not need to do any adjusting when you let it do that for you.

Your mobo also will allow you to stop using automatic control and set your fan speeds manually if you want to for some reason. See your manual, p.80. To do this you would need to set each CHA_FAN mode to Manual and then specify a speed. To get Automatic control working, set the mode back to Standard. Again, this can only work if you are using 4-pin fans.
 
Solution