Cable Forum - View Single Post

Graham M · 28-05-2005, 11:20

The only thing special about the 3 pin fan headers on the motherbaord is, not only do they supply the fan with power but they also send the speed of the fan's rotation back to the motherboard. Certain motherboards will power down the system if the CPU fan stops for instance and you can use monitoring tools in Windows and the BIOS to see how fast the fans are spinning, some motherboards will even control the fan speeds automatically to keep your PC cool but, when possible (IE low CPU usage, etc.) quiet.

28-05-2005, 11:20	#2
Graham M Inactive Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Poole, Dorset Age: 41 Services: FreeSat+ Tivo V-Box VM 60MBit Posts: 13,365	Re: PC fan connectors The only thing special about the 3 pin fan headers on the motherbaord is, not only do they supply the fan with power but they also send the speed of the fan's rotation back to the motherboard. Certain motherboards will power down the system if the CPU fan stops for instance and you can use monitoring tools in Windows and the BIOS to see how fast the fans are spinning, some motherboards will even control the fan speeds automatically to keep your PC cool but, when possible (IE low CPU usage, etc.) quiet.