A three pin connector is basically power (5/12volt), ground, and signal. The signal wire measures how fast thefan is moving without any controls for the fan'sspeed. With this type, fan speed is typically controlled byincreasing or decreasing the voltage over the powerwire.
Pulse-width modulation
A PWM-capable fan is usually connected to a4-pin connector (pinout: Ground, +12 V, sense,control). The sense pin is used to relay the rotation speedof the fan and the control pin is an open-drain oropen-collector output, which requires a pull-up to 5 V or 3.3 V inthe fan.To use a Molex will require a 4 pin fan to4 pin Molex adapter. The 4 pin fan cable willplug into this adapter. You only use 2 wire whenplugging into a molex, the black(negative) and Yellow(12vPositive) from the molex.
It is always our recommendation that you buycases with a minimum of 3 fans (or at least slots foradding them yourself) for gaming systems, not counting the powersupply, CPU, and GPU fans.
A heat sink (also commonly spelledheatsink) is a passive heat exchanger that transfersthe heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to afluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where it is dissipatedaway from the device, thereby allowing regulation of the device'stemperature at optimal levels.
Glossary Term: Fan Controller -PWM
An integrated circuit that varies the speed and airflowof a cooling fan using a pulse-width-modulated (PWM)voltage in response to temperature or system commands. Synonyms.PWM Fan Control.The CPU OPT stands for CPU optional.Typically, this is the header that you would use to connect sometype of wiring for a liquid cooling system. Most gamingmotherboards will allow you to control the speed of the heatsinkfan that is connected to the CPU FAN header.
Method 1BIOS Settings
- Start your computer. Press the “Delete” or“F2” keys (or consult your system's manual) while itstarts to boot.
- Search for the fan settings.
- Enable this feature and modify the settings to what youwant.
- Go to the “Exit “ menu.
To connect your fans to yourmotherboard, you'll need to look for the appropriateheaders, such as CHA_FAN above (chassis fan) or SYS_FAN(system fan). Most of your fans will have eitherthree or four-pin connectors, so you'll need to look for thecorresponding headers on your motherboard.
You connect case fans to the motherboard,starting with the CPU_FAN label on your motherboard to yourCPU fan. They should all plug in to yourmotherboard. If your motherboard doesn't have enoughslots you purchase a splitter that attaches to one of your PSU(power supply) cables.
Depends on your setup, how big the fans are, howmuch air they move, etc. Good rule of thumb is 1-2 intakefans on the front, 1 intake fan on the side (if youhave one), 1-2 exhaust on the top, 1 exhaust on the backthough.
Fan blade angle and rotationdirection
The direction a fan blows air is alwaysdetermined by (A) the shape of the blades (sometimes calledpropellers) and (B) the direction they turn. If a blade isangled down and the fan turns in the same directionas the blade angle, it will blow forward.When mounting case fans, air flows across theopen side towards the side with the protective grille, like so: Sothe open side of the fan should face outside the casefor intake fans on the front or the bottom, and it shouldface inside the case for fans on the rear ortop.
If both fans are rotating in the same direction,you get so much turbulence between the two thatyou might lose some airflow. If the two fans rotatein opposite directions (with reversed blade angles, so thatthey both push in same direction), and you get thedistance between them just right, they will blow moreair.
"Chassis" is another term (usually used by geeks)for a PC case. "Chassis Fan" is a fan thatmounts on a PC case's carcass: either from inside at thefront, on the door, at the back (exhaust of the hot air), at thetop, or (very rarely) to the bottom or the back wall of thecase.
The front of your computer is the Front Panel. The areaof contact pins on the motherboard, that the main wires from theFront Panel go to, is the Front Panel header. JFP1 is the FrontPanel header. JFP2 is an additional header.
Apply a thin line of thermal pastedirectly down the center of the IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) andthen allow the pressure of the CPU cooler to spread thepaste as you secure it.
The third wire gives your computer ameasure of control over that. It reports the speed of thefan back to the computer's processors, which allowsthe motherboard to control the speed of the fan by raisingthe voltage – and speeding the fan – when theextra cooling is required, and lowering it when it's notneeded.
A 3-wire fan has power, ground, and a tachometric(“tach”) output, which provides a signal withfrequency proportional to speed. A 4-wire fan has power, ground, atach output, and a PWM-drive input. The tach signalindicates whether the fan is running and its rate ofspeed.
A computer fan is any fan inside, orattached to, a computer case used for active cooling.Fans are used to draw cooler air into the case fromthe outside, expel warm air from inside and move air across a heatsink to cool a particular component.
A heat sink is an electronic device thatincorporates either a fan or a peltier device to keep a hotcomponent such as a processor cool. Sometimes these types ofheat sinks are referred to as an HSF, which is short forheat sink and fan. Passive heat sinks are 100%reliable, as they have no mechanical components.
Connect the green wire to your householdground wire (copper/bare wire). Connect yourwhite wires together and secure with wire nut.Connect the red wire in the ceiling to theblack wire in the light kit and the black wire in theceiling to the black wire in the fan. Turn thepower back on and test the fan.
The fan has 4 wires (yellow, black, white,red) but the power supply has just two wires.
