Can I connect a 3 wire fan to a 4 wire connector?

1 Answer. Apparently a 3-pin fan can plug directly into a 4-pin socket. Two of the pins provide power to the fan, the 3rd provides an RPM pulse to the motherboard to read the speed.

Can you plug 3 pin fan into 4 pin header?

Please Note: You can connect a 3 Pin Fan to a 3 Pin or 4 Pin header on the motherboard. The fan will function normally no matter type of fan header is used. The fan connector will have two guides (1) and these will need to line up with the tab (2) that is on the motherboard fan 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.

What is the difference between a 3-pin and 4 pin fan?

The significant difference in practice is that 4-pin fans allow for RPM to change based on the need for cooling temperature, this reduces noise and power consumption. While 3-pin can control the voltage, but the voltage can’t turn to change the fan RPM at all and accurate as much as 4 pin fans.

Where do you plug in fans on a motherboard?

How Do I Connect Fans to My Motherboard? As typical motherboard fan connector is a three or four-pin connector attached to the end of a PC fan’s wire. This is attached to the three or four-pin fan header on the motherboard. There’s no trick aside from lining up the notch on the connector with the guide on the header.

Can I connect a PWM fan to 3 pin header?

FAQ: Can I run 4-pin PWM fans on 3-pin fan headers? Yes! PWM fans come with a 4-pin connectors for fully automatic speed control via your mainboard’s 4-pin PWM fan headers. When connected to 3-pin fan headers, the fan will run at full speed (unless the mainboard supports voltage based speed control).

Can a 3 pin fan be PWM?

Pulse width modulation (PWM) fans are DC fans with an extra wire for PWM. PWM fans are 4-pin fans where the fourth wire sends a PWM signal to the fan motor. The PWM signal is the control input of the PWM fan….PWM Fans or 4-Pin Fans.