Newbie Fan Control Question - Antec Solo and Gigabyte 965P

darren · Post by **darren** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:14 pm

I'm not looking for anything elaborate, but it would be nice to have the speed of the Tri-cool case fan of my Antec Solo be controlled by the system rather than just by the 3-setting switch that is attached.

Unfortunately, the Antec Tri-Cool fan has a standard peripheral 4-pin power connector, rather than the small 4-pin connector that would fit the motherboard's SYS fan 4-pin layout.

Is there an adapter that will go from the motherboard SYS Fan connector to the 4-pin power connector? Will this allow the system to control fan speed? Is there any concern about pulling extra current from the motherboard by doing this?

It seems like the BIOS supports this kind of monitoring and control, so I'm hoping I wouldn't need a replacement fan if a simple adapter will do. For reference, I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Rev2 motherboard, Antec Solo case and Corsair HX620Watt supply.

Thank you!

Rory Buszka · Post by **Rory Buszka** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:39 pm

All you need to do is wire on a 3-pin connector or use a 4-pin to 3-pin cable. If you wire on your own 3-pin connector, make sure to use solder on your joints, and be doubly sure to check for short-circuits with a multimeter.

darren · Post by **darren** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:32 pm

It seems my motherboard has both a 3-pin (PWR_FAN) and a 4-pin (SYS_FAN) connector. From what I gather, the 4-pin one has a control signal for adjusting fan output, perhaps a PWM signal like the CPU fan has. I'm guessing that this is not compatible with a 3-pin to 4-pin adapter that goes from the Molex to the small motherboard connector. Plus, I'm still not sure the tri-cool is a reasonable choice for using under motherboard control anyway. From the reviews, it appears to require a lot of current on "High" and it may not be suitable for startup on "Low". Not sure about "Medium" switch setting.

That leaves me with a couple options-

1) Buy a 120mm case fan with a 4-pin motherboard PWM connector and hope it works with the 4-pin SYS_FAN connector. I see JMC has one and Arctic Cooling supposedly has one but I can't find it for sale anywhere.

2) Buy a top 120mm case fan with a 3-pin motherboard connector (say a Noctua 1200) and hope the motherboard can control the voltage on the PWR_FAN connector. Will the motherboard still use PWM for the CPU fan but recognize and use voltage control for the case fan on this connector? The motherboard manual doesn't detail this but the BIOS does have a vague "Auto" setting for fan speed control but seemd to indicate this setting may only apply to the CPU fan.

I'm currently using the standard Intel 4-pin CPU fan from a retail QX6700 kit. I have a Gigabyte 956P-DQ6 motherboard using the BIOS "Intel QST" fan control method. With the Tri-Cool fan on low, it's reasonably quiet overall so the third choice is to go with it as is.

Any comments from the experts or is this stuff so new that no one really knows for sure?

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:40 pm

Page 44 of the manual says you can control both 3-pin and 4-pin PWM fans, the BIOS should autodetect which fan type is used.
You might want to ditch the Tricool and go for a 3-pin Nexus.

darren · Post by **darren** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:19 pm

Tzupy wrote:Page 44 of the manual says you can control both 3-pin and 4-pin PWM fans, the BIOS should autodetect which fan type is used.
You might want to ditch the Tricool and go for a 3-pin Nexus.

That section of the manual is talking about CPU fans specifically. Have you tried a PWM fan on the 4-pin SYS_FAN connector? Does it work with BIOS PWM control?

darren · Post by **darren** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:36 pm

Since no one here had an answer, the only way was to try it. I replaced the Tri-cool with a Arctic Fan 12 PWM. Hooked up the 4-pin connector to the 4-pin SYS_FAN connector on the motherboard. Works perfectly with RPM control from the BIOS. It's much quieter at idle (spins around 600RPM) than the Tri-Cool on the medium setting. Under a gaming load, it speeds up and is about the same volume as the Tri-Cool on medium. So, a nice upgrade overall.