PWM or not?

Myranda · 24 Sep 2013 at 18:40

Have a Corsair 350D that I want to cool as quietly as possible.

Long term I'd love to water cool it, but between rads and waterblocks I've not quite got the money yet... so for now fans only.

Now, my motherboard has a pile of 4 pin PWM headers so I thought PWM fans...

Is there a disadvantage to this?

Myranda · 24 Sep 2013 at 19:20

I'm pretty sure I'm too lazy/forgetful to monitor and adjust things manually... automatic sounds a lot better

Myranda · 24 Sep 2013 at 19:47

As for 3 pin fans...

I've got 3 - one very very dusty inside and I can't get the fan off to clean it, one 140mm VERY noisy fan and 1 good 140mm one.

So looks like I've not got an abundance of spare fans to put to use... seems time to make a fresh PWMy start to things

Myranda · 25 Sep 2013 at 13:44

How would one know?

Myranda · 25 Sep 2013 at 17:09

It's written slightly differently (is Asus so Koreans might label pins in a slightly different way?)

Chassis fans:

Pin 1 Ground
Pin 2 CHA Fan pwr
Pin 3 CHA Fan in
Pin 4 +5V

CPU fan:

Pin 1 GND
Pin 2 CPU Fan pwr
Pin 3 CPU Fan in
Pin 4 CPU FAN PWM

Myranda · 25 Sep 2013 at 20:42

Though I can adjust min and max speeds of the chassis fans within the bios... surely if the voltage were a constant non-adjustable amount I would only be able set a speed or a voltage... but instead I can set variable speed ranges which react to thermal changes.

Myranda · 25 Sep 2013 at 21:02

So PWM can't be powered by the header? Does that mean the CPU fan isn't a PWM after all?

Myranda · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:03

And still confusing