[SOLVED] 3-Pin Fan Controller?

Jan 23, 2019
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So I have quite a few 3 pin fans, and of course they are running at full speed and of course they are noisy. I cant control the voltage through my motherboard, but i have seen that people recommend getting a fan controller. I cant find a fan controller for 3 pin that just controls using voltage. Anyone know where or if they exist?
 
Solution
OK, ignoring the CPU fans, we concentrate on the seven case fans. I gather they are a mix of 3-pin and 4-pin models, but all of them are connected to a fan Hub. Now, almost all Hubs on the market require connection to a 4-pin mobo fan header that actually uses the new PWM Mode so that the Hub can get a PWM signal to share out to its fans. Further, that Hub can only share out that signal, so it depends on having only 4-pin fans attached to it, because that is the only type that can use the PWM signal to control speed. In that scenario, any 3-pin fan attached to that same Hub will always run full speed.

Your mobo has three CHA_FAN headers. If I read the manual correctly on p. 73, each of them can be configured on a few items, including...



Thank you! Wow, those are both expensive, haha who knew making my fan go slower would cost so much. But it is good to know any controllers that have two wires are ones i can use!
 
I just picked one I knew of. I'm sure there are more out there.

If you don't have speed control anyway, a simple way to get slower fans is to have the positive lead connected to 12V, and the negative lead connected to 5V. This results in 7V or roughly half speed for most fans.
 
More info, please. How may is "quite a few" 3-pin fans. And of those, how many are for case ventilation, and how many used solely for CPU cooling? Then, exactly what maker and model is your mobo? With that info we can look up specs and see what control is possible from your mobo only. OR from a Fan Hub.

IF those ideas do not work out, a third-party fan controller module may be needed. You should understand that, although most such units have only 4-pin male output headers on them, they are NOT using the new PWM Mode to control their fans. It is that PWM Mode that cannot control 3-pin fans. Most fan controller modules actually use the older Voltage Control Mode. If you have a particular controller you are considering, tell us its maker and model, and we check its specs.
 


I have 7 total 3 pin and 4 on a hub, all of those are case ventilation and then i do have some CPU fans but they are 4 pin. My mobo is a Asrock X370 Gaming X.
 
OK, ignoring the CPU fans, we concentrate on the seven case fans. I gather they are a mix of 3-pin and 4-pin models, but all of them are connected to a fan Hub. Now, almost all Hubs on the market require connection to a 4-pin mobo fan header that actually uses the new PWM Mode so that the Hub can get a PWM signal to share out to its fans. Further, that Hub can only share out that signal, so it depends on having only 4-pin fans attached to it, because that is the only type that can use the PWM signal to control speed. In that scenario, any 3-pin fan attached to that same Hub will always run full speed.

Your mobo has three CHA_FAN headers. If I read the manual correctly on p. 73, each of them can be configured on a few items, including whether it uses PWM Mode or the older Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode) to control its fans. Thus, the solution is to split up how our fans are connected. You leave all the 4-pin fans connected to the Hub as they are, and that Hub is plugged into a mobo CHA_FAN header that is set to PWM Mode. Then you disconnect from the Hub all your 3-pin fans and need a way to connect them to a different header that can be set to use the older DC Mode instead. To do this the simpler way is to use SPLITTERS, not a Hub, because Hubs do not work with 3-pin fans. In doing this you have a limit to consider. Any mobo CHA_FAN header can supply up to 1.0 A max current to the fans connected to it. So you need to look up the specs on all the 3-pin fans involved here and get their max current pull. If you need help on that, post back here how many 3-pin fans you have and what their maker and model numbers are. Once you have that info, you need to arrange one or two groups of those 3-pin fans so that the total current max for each group is less than 1.0 A. For example, if you have 3 fans and each uses 0.25 A max, that means you need only one group (0.75 A). If you have five of them, you would need 2 groups.

Now, for each of those groups you need a Splitter, like one of these

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-168-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-160-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._re=coboc_fan_splitter-_-12-423-163-_-Product

The first is a 3-pin unit, the second is a sleeved 4-pin unit (but that works with 3-pin fans), and the last is a sleeved 4-pin unit with three output arms instead of two.

With your 3-pin fans connected together using Splitter(s) into one or more groups, now you plug the Splitter(s) into CHA_FAN header(s). Boot your machine directly into BIOS Setup and go to Hardware Health Event Monitoring - see p. 72-73 in the manual. For EACH of those headers you are using for the 3-pin fan groups, set Fan Control Mode to DC Mode, set Fan Setting to Standard Mode, and set Fan Temp Source to the sensor on the M/B (motherboard). IF you are using the CHA_FAN3 header, there's also an item to set that you want it to function as CHA_FAN3 mode, and not PUMP mode. When done, click on Exit at top right to get to the exit screen, then use SAVE and EXIT to preserve those new settings.

If you do this, your 4-pin fans on the Hub will continue to be controlled as before. The 3-pin fans now will also be under mobo control because you have set their headers to use the Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode) they require.

Now, IF your fan current specs and number of fans means that you cannot fit all of the 3-pin fans into small groups and make this work, there is another special Hub that can help. I suspect you won't need that, but if you have a problem, post it here and we'll find the way around it.
 
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