[SOLVED] Sharkoon Shark Blade - Control fan speed of 3pin fans with splitter?

Jun 17, 2020
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Hello,
I have a MSI b350m pro-VDH and would like to connect my four 3Pin Sharkoon Shark Blade fans to one pin (the other one is used with a 4 pin pwm fan). The question I have is whether a y splitter could control all the four fan speeds (with one I can control the speed) and whether I have to buy a 3 pin or 4 pin splitter. The thing I have thought of is this:https://www.amazon.de/Phobya-Y-Kabel-3Pin-Molex-60cm/dp/B00414ROKU. All the other Links are below. Thank you!


Mainboard: https://de.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B350M-PRO-VDH#down-manual
4x Fans: https://www.amazon.de/Sharkoon-Shark-Blades-RGB-Gehäuselüfter/dp/B07MCVFQTN
Monitor Fan Pins: https://prnt.sc/t19f1o
 
Solution
Yes. That is the correct way to power and control 3-pin fans. Of course, to get them under mobo control, you will need to configure the mobo fan header to use the older Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode), and not the new PWM Mode.

Just a few notes when you do this, FYI - not a problem warning.
  1. When you use a Splitter, all the fans get exactly the same signals, so (if they are identical) they all will run at almost the same speed.
  2. You can use either a 3-pin or a 4-pin Splitter for this. The electrical connections are very similar, and a 3-pin fan merely does not make any connection to Pin #4 that carries the PWM signal it cannot use, anyway.
  3. Any mobo fan header can deal with the speed signal returned to it from only ONE...

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
Yes. That is the correct way to power and control 3-pin fans. Of course, to get them under mobo control, you will need to configure the mobo fan header to use the older Voltage Control Mode (aka DC Mode), and not the new PWM Mode.

Just a few notes when you do this, FYI - not a problem warning.
  1. When you use a Splitter, all the fans get exactly the same signals, so (if they are identical) they all will run at almost the same speed.
  2. You can use either a 3-pin or a 4-pin Splitter for this. The electrical connections are very similar, and a 3-pin fan merely does not make any connection to Pin #4 that carries the PWM signal it cannot use, anyway.
  3. Any mobo fan header can deal with the speed signal returned to it from only ONE fan. So the Splitter will have all of its pins in one of its male outputs, and be missing Pin #3 in all the others. This means the header cannot read the speed of all the fans - it can read only the one from the all-pins output. This has NO impact on ability to control speed. It does mean, however, that all the fans whose speeds are NOT "seen" cannot be monitored by the header for fan FAILURE. So you should check from time to time that they all still are working.
  4. When you use a Splitter, the power for all of the fans on that Splitter / header comes only from the header. Most headers can supply up to 1.0 A max current. So you need to add up the max current specs for your fans and ensure the total does not exceed 1.0 A. In your case, the fan specs say each pull at max 0.15 A, so you could connect up to 6 of those to a single mobo header.
 
Solution