Which MoBo headers to use to connect fans

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Hi guys

I have a Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 MoBo. It has a good selection of headers including one for a custom loop pump. I have two 360 rads, one loop. I have two fan splitters to get these down to just two fan connectors one for each rad. Where would you recommend I plug them in?

I was going to use, CPU header for my top rad, a chassis header for my front rad and the dedicated pump header for the pump. The manual says this isn’t a controllable fan header though and just runs at full speed.

does this sound correct? If not what would you recommend I use?
 
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Asus cheaped out in past but I thought that stopped with after the Z87 or Z97.

The issue was their Mobos had two proper PWM headers for CPU and CPU-Opt (which are both linked) and the rest were not and were simply 4pin DC Voltage Controlled.
 
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No they are all controllable apart from the dedicated custom loop pump header and the AIO pump header.

Which should I use then?
 
Soldato
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Easy answer: don't run that many fans off motherboard headers, end of.

Get yourself a cheap powered splitter PCB and run all your PWM fans off that instead. Slap a SATA power connector onto it, connect the PWM signal to any one of your PWM headers and control all your radiator fans together. Something along these lines
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xspc-8-way-pwm-splitter-hub-sata-powered-white-v2-wc-469-xs.html

Unless you want to go full-on fan controller like an Aquero.
 
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Why would you do that? Does the motherboard not have enough power to drive 3 fans from one header?

I thought they'd be ok with them spinning at a low rpm.
 
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What about something like the Corsair Commander fan controller? Would that work?

Those Aquero seem to need a cd drive bay and I don't have one.

Cheers
 
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What about something like the Corsair Commander fan controller? Would that work?

Those Aquero seem to need a cd drive bay and I don't have one.

Cheers

You can get the LT(lite) versions which are quite small and can be placed anywhere essentially.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aqua-computer-aquaero-6-lt-usb-fan-controller-wc-31j-aq.html

Other than that if you have a controllable 4 pin header you can get an Ekwb splitter which will run all those fans to a single 4pin powered by a molex.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-cable-splitter-4-fan-pwm-extended-wc-9cq-ek.html

Aquaero is much better though as it can be controlled by liquid temp, gpu temp so you don’t have either a set fan speed or erratic fans controlled by cpu temp.
 
Soldato
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Does the motherboard not have enough power to drive 3 fans from one header?
Not really. A fan header on the board is rated at 1A. More than 2 fans could draw more than that. Why risk burning out the fan headers for the cost of a simple splitter?

Also bear in mind BIOS control can vary between motherboards. Some times it's fine and dandy, other times it's erratic. And also usually set off CPU temperature which doesn't necessarily reflect the cooling required (or not) for the entire loop.

Proper fan controllers have the benefit of more accuracy and granular control (and a whole host of other things). But then if you don't need that level of control, a powered PCB splitter for a tenner can't be beaten.
 
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Thanks guys. I don't really need fine control. I'll just buy that XSPC fan splitter and use the mobo.

Which header would you recommend I plug into? Just the CPU?
 
Soldato
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CPU fan header will be mapped to CPU temperature so if that's the metric you want then that's the header you need.

Not sure what other temperature sensors you'll have access to, poke around your BIOS.
 
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