Wiring Second fan on my heatsink

[calza]

Just picked up a hyper 212 evo which has rather nicely came with two fans.

One looks like a female 4 pin plug, the other a female 3 pin plug. That's rather confusing for a start ... is there not a universal standard for fans?

Obviously I know there is one fan power socket on my motherboard for the standard cooler, but the other fan I have will need power too. What's the protocol here since there are no spare power pins on my mother board?

I'm in the UK if you have any links of what I should buy

Cheers!

 

[ahmeday2012]

You should get an adapter that lets you connect two of the fan cables to an adapter that will connect the other end to the CPU fan pin on the motherboard. That way it will control both the fans at the same time.

 

[calza]

Oh I see, that sounds pretty simple.

So the adapter will have a 3 pin female and a 4 pin female on one side of the Y, then whichever is required on the other? (Is there a standard for this 3/4?)

 

[ahmeday2012]

Oh I see, that sounds pretty simple.

So the adapter will have a 3 pin female and a 4 pin female on one side of the Y, then whichever is required on the other? (Is there a standard for this 3/4?)

That is one option and you could also get 2x4 pins on one end since the 3 pin fan CAN also work on the 4 pin adapter.

Hope this helps you

 

[WyomingKnott]

One looks like a female 4 pin plug, the other a female 3 pin plug. That's rather confusing for a start ... is there not a universal standard for fans?

There isn't a single standard. It's pretty much down to 3 or 4 pins now. 3 pin fans have the speed controlled by the voltage across two of the wires and use the third to report how fast the fan is spinning. 4 pin fans have the speed controlled by "pulse width modulation" and also dedicate one wire to indicating fan speed. To make it more fun, a three-pin fan will work (but not be speed-controlled) when plugged into a 4-pin power socket.

And good old Widipedia to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWM_fan#Fan_types

 

[calza]

Ok so I checked and my motherboard is a 3 pin socket. Will this mean both fans can be speed-controlled then?

(for example with this ...http://www.scan.co.uk/products/sharkoon-3-pin-y-cable-(install-x2-fans-to-one-connector))