Can I plug a 4 pin fan into a 3 pin splitter?

If you plug a 4 pin fan into a 3 pin socket, the fan speed will be controlled by voltage and it’ll still work. The plugs are keyed so you can’t get the pins around the wrong way.

Do motherboards have 4 pin fans?

Your motherboard has five 4-pin fan connectors. Two of them are for the CPU and three are for the case fans. 4-pin connectors offer the ability to control fan speed via pulse width modulation (PWM).

How do you know if a fan is 3 pin or 4 pin?

A four pin connector is a little different than the three pin connector since it has the extra (fourth) wire used for controlling and sending signals to the fan, which likely has a chip on it that tells it to slow down or speed up (in addition to the other wires the three pin connector has).

How do I connect extra fans to my motherboard?

A fan header splitter is the simplest and the cheapest way to connect more fans to your motherboard header. The number of fans that can be connected via a splitter is contingent on the amperage of the fans as well as that of the motherboard header. A motherboard fan header is usually rated at 1 Ampere.

How many fans do you need for one header?

4 fans
Most motherboard headers will provide 1 A, so do not connect more than 4 fans to one header.

How many 4 pins does a motherboard have?

Usually motherboards should have at least 1-2 4 pin connectors for the CPU, as well as a couple of 3 or 4 pin connectors for case fans.

How does a 4 pin fan work?

A 4-pin fan is designed for control a different way, by giving it a fixed voltage supply and then a special signal called PWM on Pin #4. The 4-pin fan has its own internal circuit to apply that PWM signal to its power supply to adjust its speed. This means of control is called “PWM Mode”.

Can you connect 4 fans to header?

Yes, you can daisy-chain all those fans together to run off one header’s signal and power, BUT the actual limit to the number of fans you can use depends on how much amperage the motherboard can provide through the header. Most motherboard headers will provide 1 A, so do not connect more than 4 fans to one header.

Where do 3-pin fan connectors go?

3-pin fans will plug directly into a 4-pin motherboard header without any additional adapters. 3-pin fans still have an RPM sensor on them, and most mainboards can still vary their speed based on temperature. 3-pin fans use simple voltage control for adjust the fan speed.