Does it matter where each fan is plugged in?

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RipGroove

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Jan 12, 2013
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Does it matter which plugs on the mobo are used for which fans?

Mobo: MSI 990FXA-GD80

So far I have it like this:

SYSFAN1 = 120mm fan in top of case sucking air out
SYSFAN2 = 120mm fan in front of case sucking air in
SYSFAN3 = 120mm fan in side panel sucking air in
SYSFAN4 = 120mm fan in top of case sucking air out
MOLEX = 120mm fan in rear of case sucking air out
CPUFAN = Fan on the CPU cooler

Reason I ask is that I've just bought a new Zalman Shark's Fin blade for the side panel (plugged in to SYSFAN3) and its blowing a lot more air than any of my other fans (generic Zalman), so will was wondering if the different plugs have different power outputs for fan speeds. Have looked in my mobo manual also but no info there.
 
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The only one that makes a difference is the cpu fan. Make sure that one is plugged into the "cpu fan" header on the m/b. Other than that, the header used makes no difference. The Shark Fin is a high volume fan - that's why it's moving more air. If you boot to bios, you can check your fan speeds there.

Mark
 
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All of your system fan headers are 3 pin which provides for power and RPM monitoring, each provides the same voltage (12v). The likely explanation here is simply that the Shark's Fin is a more powerful fan than the others. You can adjust the individual fans through the use of a program such as SpeedFan which changes the voltage input to the fan thereby adjusting it's speed.
 
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There should be no issues replacing all the fans if you choose to, noise perhaps?. One thing to be aware of though is the desire (need?) to keep airflow as laminar (smooth) as possible which, if the case is designed well, will help keep airflow where it needs to be. I might suggest that while monitoring with speedfan (you can use it to monitor temps also), you try various fan speed combinations to see what will provide the best cooling and airflow. You'd likely need to run GPU-z to monitor graphics temps also
 
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To jason katsou:
You should plug into the CPU_FAN port on your mobo ONLY the cooling fan for your CPU, and it really should be a 4-pin fan, since the port is a 4-pin one. This port will control the fan according to the actual temperature measured inside the CPU as a means of controlling the CPU cooling. So it makes no sense to plug a different fan into here.

More importantly, there are some extra protections processes for the CPU that depend on knowing the activity of the fan connected to the CPU_FAN port. If you have some other fan plugged in here instead, the mobo will get the wrong information and may fail to protect the CPU in abnormal circumstances.

4-pin fan ports do their nest job if the fan plugged into them is a 4-pin design. So it is best to keep those features matched.
 
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Yes Jason, yours is a 4 pin PWM fan header that you can use with a 4 pin PWM fan and the motherboard can automatically adjust it's speed according to parameters you set.

Now for an admonishment... What you did here is known as 'high-jacking' a thread and is against the rules of conduct here at Tom's (found in the 'stickys' of every forum category http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/54264-2-read-first ), basically, it's considered rude. The other aspect of that is that you are running a different motherboard and the owners of that board could more easily find answers if not having to read through pages (possibly) of non-related information. A new thread of it's own would've been the way to go here
 
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the only reason i did that was because i was from my ipad and i couldnt upload a thread...
 
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