Cooling fan recommendations needed

[racolvin]

not because there is anything wrong with there fans, its just that they only provide a 3-pin header

I need a fan recommendation that has a 4-pin connector (mobo fan header) that reports RPM and Noctua doesn't have this. How do I know? Cause I bought some and I'm looking at them and they ain't gonna work

Any recommendations out there for a quiet fan that has the 4-pin (w/RPM) tail?

 

[RallyMaster]

You can still plug that thing into the motherboard's 4 pin and it'll still work. It still should provide RPM given that it has a third wire.

The only fans that I know of that come natively with 4 pins are the Arctic Cooling PWM series.

 

[racolvin]

Can't plug it into the 4-pin header because the connector and pin spacings aren't right

 

[gorobei]

the fourth pin is for pwm, the third pin reports fan speed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...nnector_pin_assignment

I have a 3pin scythe ssf21f on a 4pin header so I'm not sure what your problem is.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

A CPU PWM 4-pin plug purposely has an offset tab which fits a 3-pin, "non-PWM" fan.

Frankly, with my 680i Striker board, I get better fan-control for the CPU cooling and other fans off Option Fans 1, 2, and 3 plugs. They work with tape-on sensors - - I use that translucent Sensui/Sek-i-sensu whatever thermal adhesive tape to put a sensor on the center heatpipe right at the heatsink base. Trial and error tells me at which temperature to set the threshold in BIOS, and it is very reliable.

If you're going to use a conventional fan plugged into the CPU_FAN port, you can't manually set a threshold -- at least on my own motherboard, and you're limited to low amperage fans -- typically in the amperage range of the stock Intel PWM fan, or around 0.30 amps. Otherwise -- and I do this, too -- I can use a higher-amperage fan off the CPU_FAN port, but I have to manually set the duty-cycle (between 50% and 100%), and disable the motherboard thermal control.

The way I do it, the option fan ports are good for fans with amperages up to and above 1.0A. I typically use fans in the 0.50A to 0.80A range. If I can thermally control them, and assure that the lowest (low-temperature) setting will at least cause the fan to spin up, then I can have low noise for the most part and only moderate noise when the CPU or other components are under load.

But I've tried running a 0.60A fan off my motheboard's CPU_FAN port, and the fins are constantly "wobbling" but never succeed in spinning up.

Your motherboard may be different. But perhaps this provides some insight.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, the first three pins on a PWM header work fine with standard 3-pin fans the 4th that sort of hangs off by itself is the PWM speed control pin.

.bh.

 

[nastymatt]

I have a noctua 1200 rpm 17db fan sitting in my Thermalright and it does fit into the mobo 4 pin connector and report rpm.

It's a sweet fan. I can not hear it at all and it moves huge amounts of air.

I think you need to take another look to make it fit, I haven't used a better fan in all honesty.

 

[racolvin]

Ok, I'll take you guys word for it When I looked at the 3-pin header and compared it to the 4-pin connector, visually it just does not look like it would work at all. I didn't try to physically put it on since I was not fond of the idea of ruining the fan header on the mobo

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: nastymatt
I have a noctua 1200 rpm 17db fan sitting in my Thermalright and it does fit into the mobo 4 pin connector and report rpm.

It's a sweet fan. I can not hear it at all and it moves huge amounts of air.

I think you need to take another look to make it fit, I haven't used a better fan in all honesty.

Many times I've said on this forum that I -- personally -- prefer fans with beefy motors that can be controlled to run below their top-end RPMs, if they're quality fans with no bearing or motor-whine and dBA specs that only reflect turbulence/white-noise.

But I'm rather surprised at the quality of the Noctua fan that came with the NH-U12P cooler. It just doesn't "fit into my [cooling] plans" for this build. The thermally-controlled Panaflo H1 120x38mm exhaust fan -- pulling air through my blue TR accordian duct from the Noctua cooler -- is more than enough.

Eventually, after building the flat motherboard duct for this (slightly modded) CM Stacker 830 "Evo," I'll post some pictures. The biggest complication with the two 9600 GT cards in SLI configuration, is that I need to build two boxes to cover them as they suck air through their Zerotherm heatpipe coolers. Last year's build with a single 8800 GTS with TR HR-03-Plus was a big enough challenge.

Gotta say, though -- those BFG 9600 GT's really stay cool. Still gotta stress-test them with the Futuremark 3DMark software, but I'm expecting nearly as good load cooling as I have with the 8800/HR-03 combo.

 

[Zepper]

OP,

There are several companies out there that offer PWM models, but you might want to try the Cooler Master fans that are on sale at SVC.com . Regularly $13.00 LED fans with two controllers are at $5.00 each for the current sale period. I've run a pair in my system for some time and just ordered ten more and I still have one spare left from their last sale. Low noise when you want yet plenty of air to spare when you need.

.bh.

 

[Elcs]

If you must have a PWM fan, you can pick up a Scythe Kama 1200rpm.

SPCR, the forerunning website in silent PC operation did several roundups of the Scythe line with the Scythe Slipstream and Scythe Kama involved. They rate the Scythe line of fans quite highly.

I recently purchased a Scythe Kama 1200rpm fan and as Zepper well knows, attempted to mod it with the mini 4-pin PWM connector on my HD4870 graphics card. As of yet, I have not been able to properly test it out as I potentially damaged both the pins and the header in my over anticipation of the event.

My purchase was made based on SPCR's reviews. Ill have 3 Scythe Slipstream 1200rpm, 1 Scythe Kama 1200rpm and 1 Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fans in my case when I am all sorted out and they will all run at around 800-900rpm.