Cooler Master N520 only has 3 pin

rob11rod

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May 6, 2010
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Hey everyone

I bought a Cooler Master N520 for my cheap rig. Then I just found out that it only has 3 pin to power both fans (push/pull). I need a 4 pin so the mobo can control the cpu fan speed depending on the cpu temp. It's too loud right now because it's doing 100%. Is there an adapter or something to deal with this?

Thanks a lot
 

arterius2

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May 11, 2010
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4pin fans = PWM
3pin fans = DC

both are backward compatible , you just need to set fan type to DC in the BIOS, or enable Q-fan/smart-fan.

you do NOT need a 4-pin connection for controlling the speed of your fan
 

rob11rod

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May 6, 2010
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Arterius2,

I have already tried to enable the SMART fan in the BIOS, but it's still running at full speed @ 1800RPM. There might be something wrong with my motherboard. It's a Gigabyte G41M-ES2L and I'm using a Core2duo E7500 2.93GHZ @3.6GHZ

Thanks
 


I learnt something new today. Thanks for the info, I'm going to see if I can control my ridiculously loud Sickleflows.
 

arterius2

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yes, the extra pin on the PWM fans is to allow your mobo to control fan speed through a "pulse" method, that turns your fan on and off, on and off, thus reaching a specific rpm that way. this method is more energy efficient and creates less heat.

DC fans do that not have this, and the only way to control fan speed is through voltage adjustment, lower voltage = slower rotation, higher voltage = higher rotation.
 

inspector71

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Aug 2, 2008
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Thats a nice cooler why would you put it in a cheap rig.