Unexpected problem with fan slots

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Hello guys i need your help again because i found that my motherboard Asus prime B350m-a has only two slots that i can plug my fans to (one for the CPU fan and the case fan) but i don't want to fry eggs in my computer i have to put one more in the front so it can draw air into my case and the back one remove the air (With a quick search i found that is a good way to keep your pc cool,dunno though 😀 ). I read 2 threads and i found that i can use an adapter so i can plug 2 fans in one slot but i don't know which one should i buy and how to connect it :/ . The other thread was saying i shouldn't put to many 4 pin females adapters or too many fans because it will damage my motherboard if i read it correct.Personally i want to put one more extra for now without destroying my motherboard and have my head at ease.What do you think guys, which adapter should i buy for my motherboard and provide safety? Thanks 😀

 

[DRagor]

You need a splitter cable. 2 to 1 to connect 2 fans, 3 to 1 to connect 3 fans and so on (there are even 5 to 1 splitters). However, type of splitter you need and number of fans that can be safely connected to one header depends on what fan models you plan to use.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

You need a splitter cable. 2 to 1 to connect 2 fans, 3 to 1 to connect 3 fans and so on (there are even 5 to 1 splitters). However, type of splitter you need and number of fans that can be safely connected to one header depends on what fan models you plan to use.

The first fan is from the cpu is from Ryzen 1500x, the second one is the one that cougar case MX330-X midi has and i'm planning to buy this one https://www.skroutz.gr/s/7117111/CoolerMaster-Silencio-FP-120-PWM.html.

Can you recommend me what to buy? Thanks.

 

[DRagor]

Your case specification does not have any info what kind of fan is included. Does the fan itself has any info label? Does it have 3 or 4 pin plug?

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Your case specification does not have any info what kind of fan is included. Does the fan itself has any info label? Does it have 3 or 4 pin plug?

I checked it and it has 3 small holes and 3 silvers dots in the side so i'm guessing its 3 pins.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Your case specification does not have any info what kind of fan is included. Does the fan itself has any info label? Does it have 3 or 4 pin plug?

I found this one https://www.ergo-tel.gr/product_info.php?products_id=25566 that i will plug it in the 4 pin that i should plug my cpu cooler and plug the cpu cooler in the one and the front cooler in the other. They are both 4 pin since my cpu cooler is 4 and the front coolermaster is 4. If i'm wrong please correct me because i don't know shit about these stuff and any suggestion are welcome.

 

[DRagor]

Your case specification does not have any info what kind of fan is included. Does the fan itself has any info label? Does it have 3 or 4 pin plug?

I found this one https://www.ergo-tel.gr/product_info.php?products_id=25566 that i will plug it in the 4 pin that i should plug my cpu cooler and plug the cpu cooler in the one and the front cooler in the other. They are both 4 pin since my cpu cooler is 4 and the front coolermaster is 4. If i'm wrong please correct me because i don't know shit about these stuff and any suggestion are welcome.

Eh, nope. What you got is Molex splitter, not the fan splitter. Totally different thingy
Ok, so case fan is 3 pins. Mixing 3 pin fan with 4 pin fan like that CM Silencio you linked earlier on same splitter is not recommended. Considering it takes only 0.03 Amp of power (per manufacturer specification) it should be no problem to link it with CPU cooler. You would need something like this: http://www.pc1.gr/showitem.php?ID=200263673
Now the important part: the headers in splitter are not same. One has 4 pins, the other only 3 (or sometimes even 2). That is as it should be, however make sure you connect CPU fan to the header with 4 pins, and case fan to the other header. It's important not to do it other way around.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Your case specification does not have any info what kind of fan is included. Does the fan itself has any info label? Does it have 3 or 4 pin plug?

I found this one https://www.ergo-tel.gr/product_info.php?products_id=25566 that i will plug it in the 4 pin that i should plug my cpu cooler and plug the cpu cooler in the one and the front cooler in the other. They are both 4 pin since my cpu cooler is 4 and the front coolermaster is 4. If i'm wrong please correct me because i don't know shit about these stuff and any suggestion are welcome.

Eh, nope. What you got is Molex splitter, not the fan splitter. Totally different thingy
Ok, so case fan is 3 pins. Mixing 3 pin fan with 4 pin fan like that CM Silencio you linked earlier on same splitter is not recommended. Considering it takes only 0.03 Amp of power (per manufacturer specification) it should be no problem to link it with CPU cooler. You would need something like this: http://www.pc1.gr/showitem.php?ID=200263673
Now the important part: the headers in splitter are not same. One has 4 pins, the other only 3 (or sometimes even 2). That is as it should be, however make sure you connect CPU fan to the header with 4 pins, and case fan to the other header. It's important not to do it other way around.

I knew something was off with the first one that i linked xDD,so i found this one https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/4976 and this one it says how many pins the slots have.If you scroll down it says "slot A 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Female and slot B 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Male , 1 x 3-Pin Male" i don't know what these males and females are but i hope its fine,it has 1x3 pins for the case fan and 1x4 for the cpu cooler or front fan.What do you think?

EDIT: The motherboard i have i think it has 2 4 pins to plug the adapter, i can plug it in any of the two i want?

 

[DRagor]

I knew something was off with the first one that i linked xDD,so i found this one https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/4976 and this one it says how many pins the slots have.If you scroll down it says "slot A 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Female and slot B 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Male , 1 x 3-Pin Male" i don't know what these males and females are but i hope its fine,it has 1x3 pins for the case fan and 1x4 for the cpu cooler or front fan.What do you think?

EDIT: The motherboard i have i think it has 2 4 pins to plug the adapter, i can plug it in any of the two i want?

Yes, that one should do too.
Nope, you have to plug splitter into motherboard header named CPU-FAN if you connect CPU fan to the splitter. The other header (probably named CHA_FAN or SYS_FAN) should be used to connect the 3-pin fan that came with case.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

I knew something was off with the first one that i linked xDD,so i found this one https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/4976 and this one it says how many pins the slots have.If you scroll down it says "slot A 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Female and slot B 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Male , 1 x 3-Pin Male" i don't know what these males and females are but i hope its fine,it has 1x3 pins for the case fan and 1x4 for the cpu cooler or front fan.What do you think?

EDIT: The motherboard i have i think it has 2 4 pins to plug the adapter, i can plug it in any of the two i want?

Yes, that one should do too.
Nope, you have to plug splitter into motherboard header named CPU-FAN if you connect CPU fan to the splitter. The other header (probably named CHA_FAN or SYS_FAN) should be used to connect the 3-pin fan that came with case.

The cpu fan slot is in a little upper right as i saw in some videos and the other is somewhere left closer to the back fan (not sure which one, i hope that is while like the cup fan with 4 pins because it has some black with 3 pins). Then should i plug the cpu cooler alone in the cpu slot and plug the adapter in the other one and plug the case fan and the front fan or the other way around? 😀 Thanks!.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

I knew something was off with the first one that i linked xDD,so i found this one https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/4976 and this one it says how many pins the slots have.If you scroll down it says "slot A 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Female and slot B 1 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Male , 1 x 3-Pin Male" i don't know what these males and females are but i hope its fine,it has 1x3 pins for the case fan and 1x4 for the cpu cooler or front fan.What do you think?

EDIT: The motherboard i have i think it has 2 4 pins to plug the adapter, i can plug it in any of the two i want?

Yes, that one should do too.
Nope, you have to plug splitter into motherboard header named CPU-FAN if you connect CPU fan to the splitter. The other header (probably named CHA_FAN or SYS_FAN) should be used to connect the 3-pin fan that came with case.

https://imgur.com/a/D68c4yZ here's a photo of my motherboard. The number one is where i see the most people plug their CPU (i hope that's the right one 😀) the other where it is? i pointed 2 possible plugging slots but i'm not sure,you have any idea which one it is?

 

[DRagor]

Yep, no 1 on picture is CPU_FAN, and chassis fan header is the higher one of the two you marked.
There are two ways to do it:
> CPU fan alone, both case fans on splitter - however, this causes problems because you have different fans. You can try it (it will do no harm), but most likely you will see that 3-pin fan will run full speed all time. This is not necessarily bad thing, but can be noisy. As a workaround, you can just dump a fan that came with case, buy two CM Silencio and connect them with splitter.
> 3-pin fan alone, both 4-pin fans on splitter connected to top header. I would prefer this way if that was my machine.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Yep, no 1 on picture is CPU_FAN, and chassis fan header is the higher one of the two you marked.
There are two ways to do it:
> CPU fan alone, both case fans on splitter - however, this causes problems because you have different fans. You can try it (it will do no harm), but most likely you will see that 3-pin fan will run full speed all time. This is not necessarily bad thing, but can be noisy. As a workaround, you can just dump a fan that came with case, buy two CM Silencio and connect them with splitter.
> 3-pin fan alone, both 4-pin fans on splitter connected to top header. I would prefer this way if that was my machine.

First i would like to thank you for taking the time to help me.

About your last point though, if i throw the case fan that has 3 pins and buy one more CM Silencio how i'm gonna connect it to the adapter? I will have the cpu fan 4 pin alone(good) then i'll have 2 4 pin fans to connect but the adapter has one 3 pin and one 4, i'm not sure if it's possible to connect a 4 pin to a 3 right? Maybe you forgot about it or i don't know shit? xDD

EDIT: should i buy a new adapter with 2x4 pins? The one you showed me how many pins has because it doesn't say.

 

[xhgaerlan]

Thermaltake I know from personal experience is good about not using up too many of the fan headers. Their Riing 120mm or 140mm fans come with both a low-noise cable and a molex power adapter (with passthrough!). Their Riing RGB fans (120mm or 140mm) come with a hub that uses only one of the fan headers to power up to three fans. And their Riing TT Premium (120mm or 140mm) fans come with a controller powered by the floppy connector from your PSU (molex to floppy adapter included).
All of these options can be purchased in single or triple packs.

These may not suit your fance so going with some molex to 3-pin fan adapters or a few 3-pin fan splitters may do you one better if you're not looking to spend a ton on fancy lights which you may or may not want.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Thermaltake I know from personal experience is good about not using up too many of the fan headers. Their Riing 120mm or 140mm fans come with both a low-noise cable and a molex power adapter (with passthrough!). Their Riing RGB fans (120mm or 140mm) come with a hub that uses only one of the fan headers to power up to three fans. And their Riing TT Premium (120mm or 140mm) fans come with a controller powered by the floppy connector from your PSU (molex to floppy adapter included).
All of these options can be purchased in single or triple packs.

These may not suit your fance so going with some molex to 3-pin fan adapters or a few 3-pin fan splitters may do you one better if you're not looking to spend a ton on fancy lights which you may or may not want.

Holy shit,all that sounds so complicated for a guy who has no idea about pc's :S. So you are saying instead of buying MC fans to buy the 2 Thermaltake fans of 3 pins and buy an adapter 2x3 pins and plug them there? But i don't want them to run full speed all the time..

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Yep, no 1 on picture is CPU_FAN, and chassis fan header is the higher one of the two you marked.
There are two ways to do it:
> CPU fan alone, both case fans on splitter - however, this causes problems because you have different fans. You can try it (it will do no harm), but most likely you will see that 3-pin fan will run full speed all time. This is not necessarily bad thing, but can be noisy. As a workaround, you can just dump a fan that came with case, buy two CM Silencio and connect them with splitter.
> 3-pin fan alone, both 4-pin fans on splitter connected to top header. I would prefer this way if that was my machine.

Holy spaghetti i think i found the right one!!. Give it a check.
https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/9897?ref=bestprice.gr
so i will put the cpu on the white 4 pin cpu fan alone, i'll buy 2 MC fans and i'll plug the adapter on the other 4 pin and then i'll plug the MC fans on the 4 pin adapter. if you scroll down like the other it says it's specs and say it has 1x4 female and 2x4 males, the males are the ones that i'll plug the fans right? Let me know if this one is good one 😀.

 

[DRagor]

First i would like to thank you for taking the time to help me.

About your last point though, if i throw the case fan that has 3 pins and buy one more CM Silencio how i'm gonna connect it to the adapter? I will have the cpu fan 4 pin alone(good) then i'll have 2 4 pin fans to connect but the adapter has one 3 pin and one 4, i'm not sure if it's possible to connect a 4 pin to a 3 right? Maybe you forgot about it or i don't know shit? xDD

EDIT: should i buy a new adapter with 2x4 pins? The one you showed me how many pins has because it doesn't say.

The splitter allows to connect two 4-pin fans - it's just that it's headers have different number of pins. Why? Because one of the pins is used for getting info back form fan about it's speed. If both headers would have 4 pins, then motherboard would be getting 2 signals where it expects (and can use) only one. That would simply not work, and that's why splitter headers have different number of pins. You thought that 3 pins in header means it is only 3-pin wide (so 4-pin plug would not fit in) - but instead it is 4-pin wide with one or two pins missing.

 

[DRagor]

Holy spaghetti i think i found the right one!!. Give it a check.
https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/9897?ref=bestprice.gr
so i will put the cpu on the white 4 pin cpu fan alone, i'll buy 2 MC fans and i'll plug the adapter on the other 4 pin and then i'll plug the MC fans on the 4 pin adapter. if you scroll down like the other it says it's specs and say it has 1x4 female and 2x4 males, the males are the ones that i'll plug the fans right? Let me know if this one is good one 😀.

Yeah, look at its picture - you see the left header has one pin missing? That's what I mentioned in previous post. All 4-pin splitters look like this. That one will work too, and it's quite long so it will help (after all, you try to put fans at the opposite ends of case).

 

[xhgaerlan]

Thermaltake I know from personal experience is good about not using up too many of the fan headers. Their Riing 120mm or 140mm fans come with both a low-noise cable and a molex power adapter (with passthrough!). Their Riing RGB fans (120mm or 140mm) come with a hub that uses only one of the fan headers to power up to three fans. And their Riing TT Premium (120mm or 140mm) fans come with a controller powered by the floppy connector from your PSU (molex to floppy adapter included).
All of these options can be purchased in single or triple packs.

These may not suit your fance so going with some molex to 3-pin fan adapters or a few 3-pin fan splitters may do you one better if you're not looking to spend a ton on fancy lights which you may or may not want.

Holy shit,all that sounds so complicated for a guy who has no idea about pc's :S. So you are saying instead of buying MC fans to buy the 2 Thermaltake fans of 3 pins and buy an adapter 2x3 pins and plug them there? But i don't want them to run full speed all the time..

If you're wanting to control the speed of the fans as well, 4-pin fan splitters work as well. Just be sure that the splitter you would get has a 4th pin. Some cables fit the 4-pin fans but don't actually have a 4th pin. The ones to watch out for and not get are the splitters that only plug in to 3 of the 4 pins on the motherboard but still fit the 4-pin fans.

This fan splitter is from a reliable brand. It includes the 4th pin connector.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Holy spaghetti i think i found the right one!!. Give it a check.
https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/9897?ref=bestprice.gr
so i will put the cpu on the white 4 pin cpu fan alone, i'll buy 2 MC fans and i'll plug the adapter on the other 4 pin and then i'll plug the MC fans on the 4 pin adapter. if you scroll down like the other it says it's specs and say it has 1x4 female and 2x4 males, the males are the ones that i'll plug the fans right? Let me know if this one is good one 😀.

Yeah, look at its picture - you see the left header has one pin missing? That's what I mentioned in previous post. All 4-pin splitters look like this. That one will work too, and it's quite long so it will help (after all, you try to put fans at the opposite ends of case).

If one pin is missing i hope there will be no problem because i will buy 2 MC fans of 4 pins and throw the 3 one as you said,but why the one pin is missing and how the 4 pin will fit there with no problems though,one pin is missing xD?

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

First i would like to thank you for taking the time to help me.

About your last point though, if i throw the case fan that has 3 pins and buy one more CM Silencio how i'm gonna connect it to the adapter? I will have the cpu fan 4 pin alone(good) then i'll have 2 4 pin fans to connect but the adapter has one 3 pin and one 4, i'm not sure if it's possible to connect a 4 pin to a 3 right? Maybe you forgot about it or i don't know shit? xDD

EDIT: should i buy a new adapter with 2x4 pins? The one you showed me how many pins has because it doesn't say.

The splitter allows to connect two 4-pin fans - it's just that it's headers have different number of pins. Why? Because one of the pins is used for getting info back form fan about it's speed. If both headers would have 4 pins, then motherboard would be getting 2 signals where it expects (and can use) only one. That would simply not work, and that's why splitter headers have different number of pins. You thought that 3 pins in header means it is only 3-pin wide (so 4-pin plug would not fit in) - but instead it is 4-pin wide with one or two pins missing.

Holy spaghetti i think i found the right one!!. Give it a check.
https://www.eworld.com.gr/products/details/9897?ref=bestprice.gr
so i will put the cpu on the white 4 pin cpu fan alone, i'll buy 2 MC fans and i'll plug the adapter on the other 4 pin and then i'll plug the MC fans on the 4 pin adapter. if you scroll down like the other it says it's specs and say it has 1x4 female and 2x4 males, the males are the ones that i'll plug the fans right? Let me know if this one is good one 😀.

Yeah, look at its picture - you see the left header has one pin missing? That's what I mentioned in previous post. All 4-pin splitters look like this. That one will work too, and it's quite long so it will help (after all, you try to put fans at the opposite ends of case).

Now i read this reply,so it wont be a problem but i will be able to control the speed of both 4 pin fans? The one that i plugged in the 3 pin will run at full speed all the time?

 

[DRagor]

Now i read this reply,so it wont be a problem but i will be able to control the speed of both 4 pin fans? The one that i plugged in the 3 pin will run at full speed all the time?

Nope. Both fans will be controlled exactly same way - means they will run at same speed. Motherboard can only control one fan at one header - but the way splitter is build makes it so motherboard 'thinks' it controls one fan but it controls both.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Now i read this reply,so it wont be a problem but i will be able to control the speed of both 4 pin fans? The one that i plugged in the 3 pin will run at full speed all the time?

Nope. Both fans will be controlled exactly same way - means they will run at same speed. Motherboard can only control one fan at one header - but the way splitter is build makes it so motherboard 'thinks' it controls one fan but it controls both.

Thanks a lot for your help, it took 4 hours xDD.

So to check this once more all i have to do is plug at the white four pin the cpu fan alone and plug the adapter at the black four pin at the left and plug the 2 MC fans and i'm done right? Also the fans will work at the speed the machine needs or they will go crazy and i'll have to correct them from bios?

 

[DRagor]

Now i read this reply,so it wont be a problem but i will be able to control the speed of both 4 pin fans? The one that i plugged in the 3 pin will run at full speed all the time?

Nope. Both fans will be controlled exactly same way - means they will run at same speed. Motherboard can only control one fan at one header - but the way splitter is build makes it so motherboard 'thinks' it controls one fan but it controls both.

Thanks a lot for your help, it took 4 hours xDD.

So to check this once more all i have to do is plug at the white four pin the cpu fan alone and plug the adapter at the black four pin at the left and plug the 2 MC fans and i'm done right? Also the fans will work at the speed the machine needs or they will go crazy and i'll have to correct them from bios?

Yep, that's right. How fast the MC fans will go depends solely on the motherboard settings. I don't know the details for this motherboard, but I'm quite sure they will not go crazy. But if they will, you can correct it in BIOS or from ASUS motherboard utilities in Windows.

 

[alex.tsakiris1996]

Now i read this reply,so it wont be a problem but i will be able to control the speed of both 4 pin fans? The one that i plugged in the 3 pin will run at full speed all the time?

Nope. Both fans will be controlled exactly same way - means they will run at same speed. Motherboard can only control one fan at one header - but the way splitter is build makes it so motherboard 'thinks' it controls one fan but it controls both.

Thanks a lot for your help, it took 4 hours xDD.

So to check this once more all i have to do is plug at the white four pin the cpu fan alone and plug the adapter at the black four pin at the left and plug the 2 MC fans and i'm done right? Also the fans will work at the speed the machine needs or they will go crazy and i'll have to correct them from bios?

Yep, that's right. How fast the MC fans will go depends solely on the motherboard settings. I don't know the details for this motherboard, but I'm quite sure they will not go crazy. But if they will, you can correct it in BIOS or from ASUS motherboard utilities in Windows.

Thank you dude!.