Case fan- 3pin or 4pin?

[newz54]

Is it better to plug the case fan into the motherboard or the powersupply? I understand the fan might slow down when the operating system goes into sleep mode. Which number of pins do I want for an athlon atx box?

 

[Dan]

I prefer going straight off the power supply myself. It's just my hunch that it's better to do that rather than routing from the power supply through the motherboard to the case fan/s.

 

[Shmorq]

The reason why I'd go with the 3 pin version is so that my motherboard can monitor the RPM's of the fan. Having said that, all my fans, other than the CPU, plugs into the standard power supply plugs.

 

[SaturnX]

You can always wire up the Positive/Ground wires into a molex and then the RPM wire into the MB Header, get the best of both worlds =)

--Mark