140mm Case fan?

smilodon · December 19, 2013, 12:36:06 AM

I'm planning on adding some additional cooling to my new PC. the case came with three NZXT fans running through a single channel 3 speed switch. I'm not planning on messing about with that but do have three more fan slots (front, top and side) and three four pin fan headers on the motherboard.

First off I'm planning on getting a 140mm fan fitted into the side of the case, to blow air into the case and onto the GPU. The GPU runs at a reasonable temp when under load but I'd like to add a bit off cool air to help it along. I have the option to buy a four pin PWM fan and control it from software or just shove in a 3 pin and (I assume) have it run at a single speed regardless of internal temps etc. TeaLeaf did run through my options and benefits/pitfalls of different fans, but that was based on also running a fan controller an I'm not sure I can be bothered to install one for this Pc which runs nice and cool anyway. I seem to have a lot more choice with 3 pin variants but wondered if using a four pin is a must have.

I assume i can plug a 3 pin fan into a four pin header as well. Any rcommendations would be appreciated, I'm looking at Corsair or Noctua, although the Noctua is ugly as sin!

BrotherTobious · December 19, 2013, 08:08:04 AM

They may be ugly but Damn are they quiet so so quiet

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Sneakytiger · December 19, 2013, 08:36:18 AM

http://www.corsair.com/us/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html

check out the fan on that bad boy 200mm side fan i think it says.

TeaLeaf · December 19, 2013, 08:48:13 AM

A 4-pin is not a must have, particularly if you get satisfactory performance and lack of noise from a 3-pin fan. Yes you can connect a 4 pin fan to a 3 pin (with a bit of adapting), the 4th PWM wire does nothing if it is not plugged in. If you're not worried about a fan controller though buy a 3-pin and plug it in rather than converting a 3-pin to fit a 4-pin! All the 4th pin does is regulate the rate that the fan motor pulses on and off for finer speed control. 3-pin fans regulate speed with voltage change only (assuming you can regulate the voltage) and *some* fans have had problems with the voltage change causing a noise from the fan, hence the preference for 4-pin where fine motor control is a preference.

The Corsair fans are really super quiet and shift a whole bunch of air, try these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=2331&sortby=nameAsc&subid=1816&mfrid=10

The Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition is a 3-pin fan (afaiaa Corsair do not do a PWM version in that size, PWM versions of AFxxx QE fans are available in other sizes).

The AF Quiet Edition (note the 'Quiet Edition', other versions of the AF exist) fans are real quiet, you heard my PC when you visited recently and it was whisper quiet with all 11 AF fans running at max speed.

If you're looking at other sizes you'll also come across the SP range but these are more for pushing air through a radiator so the AF Quiet Series is the default series to choose so long as you have a 3+cm gap in front of the blades. Anecdotally, whilst people swear by their particular favourite brand, when I did my research I found a lot of Noctua users had moved to Corsair once they'd tried the AF Quiet Series in direct comparison.

TLDR
A 3-pin fan will do you fine.

Tutonic · December 19, 2013, 09:37:00 AM

QuoteTLDR
A 3-pin fan will do you fine.

I endorse this message.

If you're after some professional advice, I've found the folks over at Quiet PC to always be very knowledgeable and helpful.

smilodon · December 19, 2013, 01:16:48 PM

Cheers, in an ideal world I'd have a sexy fan controller in a front drive bay individually running each of the six fans with temp sensors at strategic points. But in reality it's overkill for a rig with a mild over clock that already runs quiet and at acceptable temps. So I'll grab the corsair and maybe a couple of 120s for the top and front.

So do I have it right that the 3 pins just push on to the 4 pin headers leaving the 4th pin clear?

Cheers all

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TeaLeaf · December 19, 2013, 03:50:45 PM

Don't think they push on as they have locating wings either side of the socket, but you can get adapters or file off the wing on the socket. Afaiaa the pins are in the same order, just make sure you file off the correct end on the motherboard socket!

Which kinda comes back to this:

QuoteTLDR
A 3-pin fan will do you fine.

smilodon · December 26, 2013, 01:37:06 PM

Cheers, grabbed a Corsair AF 140. It does indeed just plug straight into the four pin header, and is super quiet. Now for a couple of 120s and I'm done.

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TeaLeaf · December 27, 2013, 07:11:56 PM

Quote from: smilodon;379465Cheers, grabbed a Corsair AF 140. It does indeed just plug straight into the four pin header, and is super quiet. Now for a couple of 120s and I'm done.

Remember the AF140 is not the Quiet Edition (they don't do a 140mm QE), when you buy the AF120 you can choose 'normal' or the Quiet Edition versions.

smilodon · December 27, 2013, 08:00:52 PM

It isn't? The 140 is like a whisper. :-)

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Chaosphere · January 06, 2014, 12:42:00 AM

Quote from: TeaLeaf;379230Don't think they push on as they have locating wings either side of the socket, but you can get adapters or file off the wing on the socket. Afaiaa the pins are in the same order, just make sure you file off the correct end on the motherboard socket!

Which kinda comes back to this:

3 pin fans will plug into 4 pin headers on motherboards fine, no modification or adaptor required.

Many newer motherboards you can use software that comes with them to even set voltage per temperature, giving you automatic fan control.

Not sure what motherboard you have, but for example Asus' Fan Xpert does this - I got rid of my fan controller and now just let the motherboard control my case fan speeds based on CPU temp.

smilodon · January 06, 2014, 01:35:47 PM

That's basically what I have done. The existing case fans run from a single channel three speed switch on the case. The new fan runs from the mobo and through Gigabytes software. The fan speed is set to automatically ramp up as the temp increases. But as my system never gets very hot it just spins along at about 500rpm all of the time.

And yep the three pin plug just pushes straight onto the four pin connector. There's a little grey indicator line that shows which three pins to use. Very simple.

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