I have 2 4-pin fan headers. One goes to a 3 pin case fan, the other through a y splitter to 2 fans on my heatsink. Recently, I found one of the fans rattling. Thought it was because it wasn't getting enough power, but at full blast, which helped me isolate it, the rattling speeds up, while the other doesn't. I have a 4 pin pwm fan. Can those be controlled on the same y splitter? Thinking of whether to tolerate it, or put one heatsink fan and case fan on the splitter, while the 4 pin goes straight to the motherboard.
Can 4 pin fans be controlled by 3 pin voltage?
- Thread starter Rockbox
- Start date
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There will be no loss or change in voltage between 3 and 4 pin headers.
The 'power' pins are 1 and 2 on both.
pin3 is the speed sensor
pin 4 is for pwm control
The 'power' pins are 1 and 2 on both.
pin3 is the speed sensor
pin 4 is for pwm control
Your fan rattle is most likely not the result of PWM control. As already said, it's most likely either bad bearings or loose mount.
Just because motherboard has 4-pin header does not mean it's PWM.
It's not at all uncommon to have a 4-pin header that is variable voltage with pin-4 connected to nothing.
It's also not uncommon to have 4-pin headers that can be set in bios to be PWM or to be variable voltage.
It's also not uncommon to have 4-pin headers that can be set in bios to be PWM or to be variable voltage.
There is not problem running 4-pin PWM fans on 3-pin variable voltage fan headers.
Pin-2 is variable voltage on variable voltage controlled 3-pin and 4-pin fan headers when using variable voltage control.
PWM fans default to variable voltage control when there is no signal on pin-4. This means a 4-pin fan on variable voltage control header becomes s variable voltage fan.
Pin-2 is 12v on PWM controlled 4-pin headers and pin-4 is PWM control to pulse pin-2 power to fan for speed control.Shortening / lengthening 12v pulse slows /speeds up fan speed. The slower / shorter the 12v pulse the slower the fan spins.
Hi. We talked earlier about me replacing my stock NH-D14 fans with DeepCool ones. I switched them back and got better performance, but the F14 has a faint but noticeable rattling sound. Let's hope it's a bad mount, but like I said in my other thread, I have a Noctua F12P(WM) ready to go if it isn't. My question was whether I could run both a F12 4 pin and P12 3 pin off a splitter, while the mobo controls fan speeds, and you seem to imply that I can.
Took the 140mm fan out. It rattles on its own. Tried the pwm fan on the splitter. While it works, it isn't quiet, so it can't accurately control voltage and pwm fans, which is what I wanted to know. What I'll probably do is hook my 3 pin case fan to the y splitter, and have the f12p on a board of its own. It's quiet IMO, and I heard 140mm fans spill over heatsinks designed for 120mm.
Some motherboard fan headers can be set as variable voltage or PWM in bios. Look in your motherboard manual to see if fan headers can be set for PWM or variable voltage.
If fan header is PWM header and one fan / both fans is/are 3-wire variable voltage it/they will run at full speed. If one is 4-wire PWM on PWM fan header it will be speed controlled. If fan header is variable voltage than both fans with be speed controlled.
If fan header is PWM header and one fan / both fans is/are 3-wire variable voltage it/they will run at full speed. If one is 4-wire PWM on PWM fan header it will be speed controlled. If fan header is variable voltage than both fans with be speed controlled.
I see, good to know. Unfortunately there's a new problem. The F12P is indeed louder than the P12. It's not accoustically tuned to the D14, and the out-of-sync sound is worse than the whirring from thr P14 when under load.
Is it a good idea to oil the fans? I have sewing machine oil, which I was told works great on fans. But I don't want to ruin the P14. I feel like a monitor enthusiast with a sub-par panel, that has to decide risking a return and getting a worse panel.
Good thing I didn't take the clips off the P14 yet, and I assume I have to replace both the P14 and P12 to get harmony? Replacing just the P14 with something like an A15 will presumably give me the same sound issue.
Is it a good idea to oil the fans? I have sewing machine oil, which I was told works great on fans. But I don't want to ruin the P14. I feel like a monitor enthusiast with a sub-par panel, that has to decide risking a return and getting a worse panel.
Good thing I didn't take the clips off the P14 yet, and I assume I have to replace both the P14 and P12 to get harmony? Replacing just the P14 with something like an A15 will presumably give me the same sound issue.
Noctua P14. But now there's another dilemma. It's quieter under load, but there would be other noises going on during that time. When web browsing, both are quiet, minus the clicking from the P14. So the F12P might be drowned out by other noises when needed. I'll probably give it a day to see how I adjust.
I'm assuming your "Noctua P14" is NF-P14 Flex and "F12P" NF-P12 as original fans on NH-D14?
Ed Hume (ehume on Overclockers.com) tested many fans on NH-D14 years ago.
https://www.overclockers.com/pwm-fans-nh-d14/
He also tested NH-D14 and NH-D15 comparison testing.
You can see with same fans at similar speeds NH-D14 cooled 0.7c better than NH-D15.
Ed Hume (ehume on Overclockers.com) tested many fans on NH-D14 years ago.
https://www.overclockers.com/pwm-fans-nh-d14/
He also tested NH-D14 and NH-D15 comparison testing.
You can see with same fans at similar speeds NH-D14 cooled 0.7c better than NH-D15.
Sorry, yes. P14 is NF-P14. P12 is NF-P12. F12 is the successor to the P12 and F12P uses PWM instead of voltage.
I take it that the hunk of metal they chopped off the NH-D15 to allow more RAM clearance allowed the D14 to cool better, although it's within error. So long as I'm using low-profile RAM, clearance should never be an issue. However, after replacing those Deepcool fans, I've now seen the importance of fan quality. My Bitfenix, Cougar and Coolermaster fans might not cut it anymore.
Okay, reason I was verifying is Arctic has fans model number P12, P14, F12 and F14 with only company name added usually before model number, so can be easily confused with NF-P14, NF-P12, etc.
6x to 7x heatpipes isn't a huge change, s clipping out some fins could balance them out. NH-D15 was best cooler against other top coolers because of it's 1500rpm fans when other like Silver Arrow SBE and IBE were using 1300rpm fans. Slow D15 fans to same dB level as other top tier coolers and was not better than Silver Arrows', Dark Rock Pro3/4, PH-TC14PE, R1, etc. Often not as good.
I'm not saying D15 and D14 are not very good cooler cus they are. Just saying they are not any better than many other similar size and design are.
6x to 7x heatpipes isn't a huge change, s clipping out some fins could balance them out. NH-D15 was best cooler against other top coolers because of it's 1500rpm fans when other like Silver Arrow SBE and IBE were using 1300rpm fans. Slow D15 fans to same dB level as other top tier coolers and was not better than Silver Arrows', Dark Rock Pro3/4, PH-TC14PE, R1, etc. Often not as good.
I'm not saying D15 and D14 are not very good cooler cus they are. Just saying they are not any better than many other similar size and design are.