Upgrading case fans

SirChumpalot · 4 Jun 2013 at 16:14

So, in a bid to make things a bit more quiet (and hopefully shift more air through the case) I'm upgrading the stock Silverstone 120mm fans with a couple of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-021-SY

The whole thing runs relatively cool anyway and for the time being I'm not taxing it too much (though 20 minutes of Prime95 last night saw my temps reach around 60'C). As a result these fans will mostly be run at their lowest speeds.

I was planning on connecting these to the 4-pin outlets on the motherboard. Does anyone see a problem with me doing this? There are 3 plugs for chassis fans on the motherboard and I just wanted to get some confirmation that everything would be OK before going ahead and getting these.

Thanks very much.

David

SirChumpalot · 5 Jun 2013 at 11:50

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I just need to know if these particular fans will run off of the 4-pin headers on the motherboard.

Thanks

olivier renault · 5 Jun 2013 at 16:22

3 pin fans run on 4 pin headers, the problem is, they will always run at 12 volts, since that's what the three pins do.

dfour · 5 Jun 2013 at 17:48

These are good

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-038-BX&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4

They are pwm so will be fully controllable from the motherboard and cheaper/quieter than the sythe's.

olivier renault · 5 Jun 2013 at 23:39

Hang on a sec though. Some motherboard can do voltage control (VC) on PWM headers. Meaning, they can control the speed of the 3 pin fans. Not sure your motherboard does, have a look in the bios.

SirChumpalot · 6 Jun 2013 at 23:50

olivier renault said:
Hang on a sec though. Some motherboard can do voltage control (VC) on PWM headers. Meaning, they can control the speed of the 3 pin fans. Not sure your motherboard does, have a look in the bios.

See, I thought it did :confused:

I'll take another look at the manual.

SirChumpalot · 6 Jun 2013 at 23:50

dfour said:
These are good

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-038-BX&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4

They are pwm so will be fully controllable from the motherboard and cheaper/quieter than the sythe's.

Thanks, if it doesn't work out with the Scythe's I'll check these out.

SilverTongue · 6 Jun 2013 at 23:55

SirChumpalot said:
Thanks, if it doesn't work out with the Scythe's I'll check these out.

I can confirm hat these are amazingly quiet, have 4 of them in my BitFenix Merc case running off 3-pin headers and even running @ 12 volts they are virtually silent

SirChumpalot · 6 Jun 2013 at 23:55

So the Asus board has something called "Q-Fan" control which looks as though it may be able to regulate the voltage to the fans according to this page: http://www.asus.com/999/html/events/mb/qfan.htm

?

SirChumpalot · 6 Jun 2013 at 23:57

SilverTongue said:
I can confirm hat these are amazingly quiet, have 4 of them in my BitFenix Merc case running off 3-pin headers and even running @ 12 volts they are virtually silent

Thanks for the recommendation

olivier renault · 7 Jun 2013 at 19:33

SirChumpalot said:
So the Asus board has something called "Q-Fan" control which looks as though it may be able to regulate the voltage to the fans according to this page: http://www.asus.com/999/html/events/mb/qfan.htm

?

Doesn't look like it. Gigabyte has the option for voltage control on some of their motherboards, but AFAIK, and reading this, Asus only has PWM control.

Anarch · 8 Jun 2013 at 08:46

P8z77-M only supports Fan Xpert+, medium-higher end Z77 Asus boards support Fan Xpert 2 which has 3pin fan control in addition to PWM.

I have Z87 Sabertooth and controlling 3pin pans from mobo works perfectly.

Olivier - from my research i know that Gigabyte fan control is rubbish, and at least on Z77 doesn't support 3 pin fan control. I've contacted Gigabyte support and asked whether Z87 lineup can control 3pin fans. After aswer I got I went for an Asus mobo.

dfour · 8 Jun 2013 at 13:17

Just buy the spectres I linked to. I use them in my cases and are almost silent at max rpm and use the 4 pin so you will have no problems with fan control on your gigabyte mobo.

spixelspixel · 8 Jun 2013 at 13:33

I'm pretty sure all Asus z77 motherboards allow control of 3 pin fans on 4 pin headers. It was like that with my p8z77-v . They wouldn't have put the chassis fan headers as 4 pin if it wasn't possible.

SirChumpalot · 12 Jun 2013 at 11:11

Just a quick update:

I've replaced the stock Silverstone fans with some Scythe Slipstream 1200's. They do push more air than the Silverstone fans but when installed the noise level difference is negligible.

I have a feeling this is more down to the metal grid on the actual case impeding the airflow. I'm now thinking of cutting this out and installing a dust filter in it's place.

Good idea?

dfour · 12 Jun 2013 at 11:15

cutting the metal grid out should reduce the noise floor but adding dust filters will reduce the airflow.

SirChumpalot · 12 Jun 2013 at 12:02

dfour said:
cutting the metal grid out should reduce the noise floor but adding dust filters will reduce the airflow.

Thought as much, thanks.

I have them plugged into the headers on the motherboard so they're completely controllable.

Thanks again.