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Fan header questions

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Please excuse me for my ignorance, this will be my first ever PC build.

So i was looking at an ASUS P8Z77-V LK motherboard for use in conjunction with a Rosewill Blackhawk case.
The case itself comes with 4 pre-installed 120mm fans and 1 pre-installed 140mm fan.
I'm a little worried about the motherboard because the page says it only has 3 chassis fan conectors.
Would i be forced to just plug my additional fans into molex plugs on my power supply, or is there another alternative?
I would really rather not have the fans plugged into my power supply and be running at 100% all the time.

Here are the links to the parts:

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If for some reason you need more specs on my future build, just ask me for them.

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Well that was awesome, the forum just ate my post. *sigh*

Let me try that again: Something you may not have considered is that the included case fans are almost definitely not 4-pin PWM fans, so the motherboard would not be able to regulate their speed anyway. They would be running at full tilt whether plugged into the motherboard or directly into the PSU.

I suppose you could replace all the included case fans with 4-pin PWM fans, but another simpler (and probably cheaper) option you might consider is just picking up a 3rd party fan controller that fits into a 5 1/4" external bay, like this NZXT Sentry or this Zalman MFC1 for example. A fan controller works with standard 3-pin fans because it actually adjusts the voltage going to the fans instead of requiring a PWM compliant fan with that extra 4th control pin.
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^ Believe you would still need to replace all your included fans with PWM fans for that adapter to work and not just run all the fans at full speed.

Could be wrong, but that's my understanding of it.
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Motherboard Authority

The case itself comes with 4 pre-installed 120mm fans and 1 pre-installed 140mm fan. he got 5 fans and only 3 connector on the board also he do not want to use the psu to have them all full speed

ckholt83 said:
Well that was awesome, the forum just ate my post. *sigh*

Let me try that again: Something you may not have considered is that the included case fans are almost definitely not 4-pin PWM fans, so the motherboard would not be able to regulate their speed anyway. They would be running at full tilt whether plugged into the motherboard or directly into the PSU.

I suppose you could replace all the included case fans with 4-pin PWM fans, but another simpler (and probably cheaper) option you might consider is just picking up a 3rd party fan controller that fits into a 5 1/4" external bay, like this NZXT Sentry or this Zalman MFC1 for example. A fan controller works with standard 3-pin fans because it actually adjusts the voltage going to the fans instead of requiring a PWM compliant fan with that extra 4th control pin.



So with that fan controller wouldn't i still need enough Motherboard ports in order to plug the controller in? I don't really understand how the fan controller connects i guess.

Speaking of the NZXT one, by the way.

No, the fan controller plugs directly into the PSU and then allows you to manually set your fan speed by regulating the voltage which then goes out from the controller to the fans themselves.

Someone Somewhere may also be correct in stating that the motherboard can control a 3-pin fan by regulating voltage in addition the the PWM method, I guess I just haven't ever tried that as far as I can remember. So his cheaper adapter might do the trick.
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