Motherboards and Fan Control - Please Explain!

[MattyPGB89]

Hey guys,

I know nothing about this kind of stuff so was wondering if anyone could explain the basics to me...

Im buying a new computer from OCUK, and it will have the Coolermaster CM-690 II case. This case has two extra fan spaces on the side and I intend to install some. The motherboard will be the Asus P6X58D-E. The fans I want to install are some Akasa ones with the PWM speed control thingy.

As there are going to be 4 or 5 fans already in the case, I was wondering does the motherboard control the speed of all these aswell, or will some just be running from the PSU directly at full speed all the time?

The main exhaust and inlet fans are okay to run at full speed, but the fans I want to install I would like the motherboard to control (might aswell if they have PWM), so will the motherboard have all the necessary sockets to control this amount of fans, cos I know it will definately have to have the PSU fan under control.

Also, i notice some fans are 3pin, others are 4pin, whats the difference between connectors, where are they found etc.

Any knowledge you guys could pass on would be greatly appreciated
Thanks for reading!

 

[Philtor]

There's usually only one header on your board that can control PWM fan's and that's for the CPU fan so it can throttle the fan according to the temps rather than it running flat out all the time. As for your other fans... Why not look at getting a fan controller?

 

[R.C.Anderson]

4 pin connectors are PWM, afaik mobos tend to only have a max of 2 PWM connections. A lot of PWM fans will still work if you only plug into 3 pin headers, however not all.

 

[bifday2k]

The Asus P6X58D-E as 2 pwm fan headers 1 cpu/1 normal (near the memory slots at the edge) both are linked to so if the cpu fan ramps up, and u have a fan connected to the other one, it will ramp up too.

I found this out accidentally as i had a case fan attached to the normal one, and for the life of me i could figure out why my case fans where ramping up when my cpu fans where.

So there are 2 pwm fan conntectors, the rest are normal fan headers that can be controlled via the bios/fan expert software. Bare in mind there is a header called pwr, this can not be controlled but can be used, but will have whatever is plugged into it doing 100%.

I currently have 5 fans in my case, 2 on my radiator connected to the cpu header via a pwm cable spliter. And then 3 case fans, 1 in a header by its self, and 2 top ones sharing another header.

I still have lots more head room to add more fans if i need, cable spliters are very handy.