Any RGB fan really is two devices in one piece - a fan motor, and some LED's for lights. Thus it has two cables - one for each device - with different connectors on the ends. Each connector goes to a different place.
The P7-H1 Hub you got really contains two devices, also. One is a 4-pin fan HUB, which is a way to provide power to all the fan motors AND to distribute to them the PWM control signal it gets from a mobo SYS_FAN header. The other is an RGB Controller that provides power to the RGB lights in each fan and does control of the displays, using a connecting cable to a mobo USB2 port and a software utility you download and install. HOWEVER, regarding the RGB lighting effects, you also have another option. Since your mobo has one of the required plain RGB headers on it, you can NOT connect the fans' lighting cables to the Hub, and instead connect them to the mobo header. Then, instead of the Aerocool software, you load the RGB Fusion utility for the Gigabyte mobo you have, and use that tool to power and control the lights.
So let's look at the two options, starting with using only the Aerocool hardware you bought. The HUB part has FIVE output ports for 4-pin fan motors, and TWO ports for plain RGB lights. The Hub comes with three cables to connect to places. One is a standard 4-pin female fan connector and this must go to a mobo SYS_FAN header. After you have everything stet up, enter BIOS Setup and see your manual p. 13 and and p. 12 items 4 (two of them). See p. 25-26 and set the configuration of the particular SYS_FAN header you use as follows:
- Select the correct SYS_FAN header;
- Set its Fan Speed Control to Normal;
- Set Fan Control Use Temperature Input to motherboard, not CPU;
- Set Fan Control Mode to PWM;
- (Optional) Set a Temperature Warning value if you wish; and,
- Set Fan Fail Warning to Enabled.
When all are set, use Esc to return to the Main Menu (p.22), then use the F10 key to reach the Exit menu (p. 37) and choose SAVE and EXIT.
That gets all your fans powered and under mobo automatic control. You also need to connect one cable from the Hub to a 4-pin Molex power output from the PSU for Hub power, and connect another cable from the Hub to a mobo USB2 header so it can communicate with the mobo.
You have three fans. Start with the fan motor connectors. These are standard 4-pin female fan connectors about 3/8" (10 mm) wide with 4 holes, and two ridges running down the side. For each fan, plug it into one of the Hub's FANn ports. I suggest using ports 1 to 3. Then each fan has a two-headed cable with a wider 4-pin connector on it for the RGB lighting units. Of these, one is male (with 4 pins) and one is female. NOTE that each has marks on it, and you MUST match up the one marked 12 VDC wherever you plug two cables together. The design is so that you can connect several fans in a "daisy chain" to a single source port. So plug the female from Fan #1 into one of the two Hub 4-pin RGB ports. Then connect the female of Fan #2 to the male output from Fan #1, etc. That gets power and display control of the RGB lights in all the fans via the Hub. Lastly, you download and install the Aerocool Project 7 software utility. It uses the USB2 connection to send its control information to the Hub, and it also allows you to see fan speeds. For a look at how to use that tool, see this YouTube video.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGVEbnWRAj8
As I said, you also have the option NOT to use the Hub for some of this. But to start, note that you have three fans, but two mobo SYS_FAN headers. If you do not use the Hub at all, you would need at least a simple Splitter to get two fans connected to one mobo SYS_FAN header. OR, you could buy a separate 4-pin fan Hub to connect all three to a SYS_FAN header. OR, you could simply use the Hub you already have for this purpose, and NOT use it for RGB lighting control. Your choice.
To power and control your RGB lights from the mobo instead of from the Hub, do NOT connect any of the fans' RGB cables to the Hub. Instead, plug the first fan's RGB cable into the plain RGB header of your mobo. See the manual, p.12, item 6 labelled LED_C. Note that it has FIVE pins. This is to allow use of a slightly less common system called RGBW in which a fourth colour (white) of LED in used, but you don't have that. Simply plug your four-pin female RGB connector from Fan #1 into this header, making sure the +12 VDC line is matched up, Then the fifth pin of the header just won't be used. Connect the RGB cables of the other fans to the first in the same "daisy chain" arrangement as above. Now download and install the RGB Fusion utility for your Gigabyte mobo, and use that to control your lights.
The main difference between the two methods of power and control of the RGB lights (Aerocool Hub and software, or mobo header and software) will be in the types of displays each can generate, and maybe in the ease of use. Neither has any influence on the FAN motor controls - that is all done by your mobo's automatic fan controls that feed their signals through the Hub to the fans. You may be able to decide which system you prefer by checking out demo videos before installing. OR, maybe just try both systems and decide if you want to delete one software tool and use only the other.
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