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3-pin fan DC speed control support??

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ermylistru View Drop Down
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    Posted: 24 Jun 2016 at 4:36am

Does ASRock H110M-ITX/ac motherboard or any other ASRock intel board supports 3-pin fan DC speed control option? 

Can it control 3-pin fans speed with changing voltage supplied to the fan?

Does anyone know?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Boltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Jun 2016 at 10:09am
Indeed, although the UEFI settings are pretty cryptic. I can only comment on the ASRock boards I've used previously (not including yours unfortunately), with 3 pin header fans that all worked fine, They don't however change the voltage to the fan, they use PWM to limit it.

On each of the boards I've used I'd setup the fans like this:

Set the fan speed to Automatic
Set the target CPU temp to the lowest possible (in my case this is 45C)
Set the Level to manual, this gives you a PWM duty cycle input from 1 to 255. Experiment with this value until you find the lowest setting where the fan is turning, but is essentially silent.

This of course assumes ASRock use an accumulative error amplification algorithm for the fan PWM setting, I assume that because only a complete moron wouldn't use it, and I'd think ASRock don't employ moronic coders.





Edited by Boltar - 24 Jun 2016 at 10:39am
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ermylistru View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2016 at 4:03am
Thank you.
So you mean that on Asrock motherboards, which you used, you managed to make boards control the speed of 3-pin fans depending on CPU temperature?
On small load fans were silent and on high CPU load their speed was higher?
Is it what you mean?
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ermylistru View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2016 at 4:09am
Cause if fan is 3-pin and not PWN - it doesn't have the 4th PWN pin - it has only ground pin, voltage pin and speed info tachometer pin - how can board control it with PWN signal? It can only control it with voltage change, no?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2016 at 7:27am
Oh, read a bit about the thing - looks like they use now not voltage change on fan voltage pin, but low-frequency PWM - switch voltage on and off to reduce fan power. I see..
So AsRock supports this speed regulation for 3 pin fans?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2016 at 8:15am
Originally posted by ermylistru ermylistru wrote:

Oh, read a bit about the thing - looks like they use now not voltage change on fan voltage pin, but low-frequency PWM - switch voltage on and off to reduce fan power. I see..
So AsRock supports this speed regulation for 3 pin fans?


Yes, of course it does! Controlling the speed of three pin fans with voltage control has been available for years on ASRock boards.

The sophistication of the fan speed control available on an ASRock board depends upon the model of board, it is not identical for every model of ASRock board. More expensive boards have more extensive fan speed control options and settings.

The description given above by Boltar is correct for some older ASRock boards. That particular configuration scheme has not been used for several Intel processor generations.

Any of the fan headers on most ASRock boards, whether three or four pin headers, will control the speed of three pin fans. Only the four pin CPU fan header, or the CPU_FAN1 header, when two CPU fan headers are provided, will only work with four pin PWM controlled fans. Actually, I've never tried a three pin fan on the four pin CPU fan header, since I prefer PWM fans.

Many new model ASRock boards have mostly or all four pin fan headers for the Chassis fans. Those fan headers can control the speed of both PWM and three pin voltage controlled fans.

Some models allow some or all of the fan headers to monitor the CPU or mother board temperature to change the fan's speeds. Do NOT assume all boards will have this feature, check the specifications for "Smart Fan Speed Control".

Why would you think ASRock would not have three pin fan speed control in their products?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 7:49am
Actually I am particularly interested in ASRock H110M-ITX/ac. Want to buy it, but there is very fue info in the manual about 3-pin fan speed control. For example, Gigabite and MSI very clearly write about it and even give pictures of the fan pins with indication of every pin and info on which voltage control is present.
Also many people here on the forum have problems with 3pin fans control.
Just want some clear information on the mobo i want to buy.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 9:44am
Originally posted by ermylistru ermylistru wrote:

Actually I am particularly interested in ASRock H110M-ITX/ac. Want to buy it, but there is very fue info in the manual about 3-pin fan speed control. For example, Gigabite and MSI very clearly write about it and even give pictures of the fan pins with indication of every pin and info on which voltage control is present.
Also many people here on the forum have problems with 3pin fans control.
Just want some clear information on the mobo i want to buy.


Many people have problems with three pin fan speed control? I disagree. I have at least 10 ASRock mother boards, and I have never had a problem controlling the speed of a three pin fan on any of them. Or four pin PWM fans too. I have so many different fans that I use and then change for another, I don't know how many fans I really have.

Show me these problems with three pin fan speed control please.

If you see a thread whose title is about a problem with controlling the speed of a fan, does that mean it is true? Did you read threads like that, to see what the outcome was? Meaning, was there really a problem or not, and if so, was it fixed?

Was the fan being used incompatible with (any) mother board fan header, as was the case with the 180mm Silverstone case fan, in a fairly recent thread. Silverstone stated in the fan specifications that they should not be used with mother board fan headers.

The only fan speed control problem recently was related to the stock Intel Skylake CPU cooler, that had a certain model of fan. That fan is a four pin, PWM controlled fan. The problem happens ONLY with that one model of PWM fan. That situation is still under investigation, by me personally too.

If you just read the thread title, or first post in the thread, you do not know if there really was a problem or not.

Well, not much to explain on a board like the H110M-ITX/ac. From the specifications:

1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)

1 x Chassis Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)* All CPU/Chassis Fan Connectors can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
*

Otherwise, the pin assignments of mother board fan headers are made to match the industry standards of three or four pin fans. Any difference on a mother board would serve no purpose, and make the fan headers worthless.

Fan speed configuration in the UEFI/BIOS is done in the H/W Monitoring screen. The manual gives an overview of the capabilities:



What you can't see in the manual is the Fan-Tastic Tuning screen that allows you to configure fan speed vs CPU or mother board temperature, with a GUI type interface.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 6:13pm
Thank you for a good and clear answer.. ))
Now i see that asrock can control 3-pin fans.
Maybe i spent not so many time on reading the problems threads, and all of them were due to incompatible fans or occasions with some single model.
But i should point out that info in the manual anyway is very limited and tricky - yes, it says that 4-pin header can control the chasis fans and auto detects if its 3 or 4 pin fan. But does it mean that it auto detects it to apply different method of speed control or it auto detects it in order to control 4 pin ones and ignore 3 pin ones??
I think adding a couple more words to state it clearly won't make any problem, don't you think so?
That is just a note and advise to those who write these manuals, if they read this forum. ))
But anyway thank you for your answer, you perfectly clarified the topic for me. ) great.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ermylistru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Jun 2016 at 5:27am
Ohh.. you are saying you never had problems controlling 3-pin fans with AsRock?
I asked a couple of my friends and it happened that one of them has AsRock 970 Extreme 4 mobo.
Not very old and very cheap one. And it doesn't have any 3-pin fans control as he says.
I checked its manual - exactly - no 3 pin fan voltage control, there they at least state it clearly, giving normal pins drawings for each fan header.
So unfortunately its difficult to say for sure what you encounter when you buy one, will it have control or not, and it is strange.
I would prefer a normal clear human statement in the manual - It supports 3-pin fans voltage speed control according to CPU temperature, or something like this. Isn't it difficult?
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