P67 Motherboards with 3-pin fan control

Darien

Darien

Darien

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So I had my heart set on an Asus P8P67 Pro, and was going to wait and see if the issues they've been having were sorted before buying.

Problem is I'm going to be using a Noctua U12P cooler with two P12 fans, which are 3-pin CPU fans, and it seems that Asus boards can't control the speed of 3-pin fans, they can only control the pulse-width modulated 4-pin fans.

Can anyone confirm exactly which boards are capable of controlling BOTH 3-pin (with voltage) and 4-pin (with PWM) fans? I'd really rather not have to run my fans at max RPM when I don't need to.
 
While we're on the topic, how is one supposed to control a push/pull configuration these days, given that motherboards only have one CPU fan header and you can't just use a simple splitter with either PWM or voltage controlled fans?
 
My P8P67 Pro is controlling the speed of my Zalman 3 pin fans just fine. At idle They spin down to about 30% (as set in the Asus windows tools) and then they ramp up as needed.

The problem is that, for now at least, it would appear that you only have control over the CPU fan and the chassis fans. The chassis fans are all controlled by the one chassis fan adjustment in the software as opposed to having lots of individual controls.

However, as yet i only have 1 4pin fan while the board supports 2 and then 2 3 pin fans. Until my other PWM arrives I don't know if the options change once it can detect 2 PWM fans or not.

The Asus Pro has both its 4 pin fan slots right next to the chip. There are then 2 3 pin slots. One near the ram and one near the SATA ports.
 
Todge said:
My P8P67 Pro is controlling the speed of my Zalman 3 pin fans just fine. At idle They spin down to about 30% (as set in the Asus windows tools) and then they ramp up as needed.
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Wait, seriously?

I was under the impression the P8P67 Pro couldn't control 3-pin fans at all, since it only did PWM control.
 
Darien said:
Wait, seriously?

I was under the impression the P8P67 Pro couldn't control 3-pin fans at all, since it only did PWM control.
Click to expand...

Holy crap, I didn't know 3 pin fans had speed control! I have a 120mm Asaka Exhaust fan on my case (all the rest are controlled by a top panel controller) that I thought that I couldn't control as it didn't have the 4th PWM pin. I just opened my ASRock AXTU (I have a P67 Extreme4) and set my Chassis fan speed to 40%.

To my amazement, the fan slowed from 1400RPM to 900RPM! I honestly didn't know that was possible. Thanks for the heads-up Todge, that is awesome.

Edit: Well, if this works I don't need my Zalman Fanmate for my CNPS9500A! Yey!
 
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If you want to run more 4 pin fans (that maybe dont do voltage regulated speed) this might help also. I bought a 4pin splitter from OCUK for a couple of quid. It gets power from a molex and has one connector to put on a 4 pin header on the board. It then has 3 4 pin sockets for fans that will all be controlled by the one PWM port on the board.

Both my cpu fans are controlled by this now and my chassis fans are just off of the motherboard chassis headers. Just menas that at all times my cpu fans are in sync.
 
todge, i've just got the same splitter cable and am wondering how to set it up? i want to control the two 3 pin fans supplied with my nh-d14.
 
Hmm, I have just learned something new, again.

My Zalman fan on my CPU cooler was connected to the CPU1 fan header (A 4 pin connector) on my motherboard, and wasn't responding to AXTU telling it to slow down. I just changed it to the CPU2 header, which is only a 3 pin one, and now it does.

I now am enjoying the near silence of my CPU fan at 1700RPM (Slower than it was using the Fanmate too) and my other chassis fan at 530RPM. I can finally use this PC for the iPlayer without having to hear it!
 
danjone5 said:
todge, i've just got the same splitter cable and am wondering how to set it up? i want to control the two 3 pin fans supplied with my nh-d14.
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That splitter won't control 3 pin fans afaik. 3 pin fans are regulated by voltage. Since this lead gets all its voltage from a 12v molex everything runs at full tilt.

The lead has 1 molex connector for power, 3x 4pin connectors to plug fans into and 1x fan connector to plug into a header on the board. That 1x connector supplies the pulse wave modulation that controls PWM fans.

I could be wrong as I dont have any 3 pin fans in my setup. However if you have plugged it all up in the only physical way possible and you are only getting 100% speed then its because its a PWM connector and not voltage one.

With the patience and a little fiddling you could remove the power leads from the molex, insert them into the 4 pin connector to plug into the motherboard and that should then control your 3 pin fans so long as your board can do voltage regulation on a PWM socket. The P8P67 Pro can which is what i have. I have no idea if all boards can though.
 
Hi,

I have just bought the P8P67 motherboard and a noctua 9B cooler with two fans. Will be going into a silvestone LC17 case with two rear fans and one front fan.

What is the best configuration of fans/cables etc? I'm replacing the rear fans in the LC17 with Noctua ones, and the front will be noctua as well. So 3 pin all around I think.

The noctua cooler comes with a splitter so you can connect it to a single fan header, so I have no issues with that part (I assume, current requirement should be way less than the board will supply)

Sounds like the chassis connectors can control 3-pin fans via voltage, but not the CPU one? Can you connect the chassis header to the CPU cooler fans? The BIOS seems to let you change the chassis fan speed based on CPU temperature, so that should work ok.


Or should I just go 'stuff it' and wire them all off the PSU and run them full speed, just using the LNA if its too loud for me? After all they are designed to be quiet.
 
mrklaw I'm planning to just run them all at constant RPM. Noctua fans are very quiet, and your chassis fans/PSU are likely to be louder anyway, so just try different LNA's until you find an RPM you can't hear from outside the case.
 
My p8p67 controls the fans ok, it has about four predifined settings and then a user one where you can set the cpu and chassis fans to whatever you like.
I have them idling away at 30% and if the temp goes above 45c they start to ramp up steadily.
Like todge says there are more options in the asus utility than in the bios.
 
mrklaw said:
Or should I just go 'stuff it' and wire them all off the PSU and run them full speed, just using the LNA if its too loud for me? After all they are designed to be quiet.
Click to expand...

Any fan at full speed that is quiet isn't shifting enough air. Obviously there are different levels of quiet, but most will be nearly silent at slow speeds around 600-1000 rpm. When you crank up the speed the volume rises too but so does cooling performance.

as far as I am aware the P8P67 boards should be able to control 3 pin fans from the CPU header just fine. It works fine from the other 4 pin header on the board so i see no reason that it wont from the CPU one.
 
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