X99m Killer fan headers help

Bartsimpson wrote: Hello, I recently bought x99m Killer mobo and I need some help in order to use all of my fans. I need to connect a AIO form BeQuiet (silent loop 240), two 3pin fans and two 4 pin fans (4 case fans in total). The mainboard comes with 5 fan headers which are 2 for the cpu (one 3 pin and 4 pin), two channel fans (one 4 pin and one 3 pin) and a "power fan" header. I was thinking to connect the pump cable to the cpu fan (3 pin) and the radiator fans cable to the 4 pin cpu header. The two 3 pin fans to the channel 2 fan header (3 pin) with a fan splitter and the two 4 pin fans to the channel 1 fan header (4 pin) with a second fan splitter. I still miss some parts so I can't power up the computer, then I would like to know if this is a good setup for my fans and if I will be able to control them (by bios or software). If I am correct the two cpu han headers can be controlled but not individually, could this be a problem for the aio pump if it will follow the rpm range of the radiator fans. Moreover I don't know how channel 1 and channel 2 will work... Will the fan connected to the 3 pin (cha_fan2) follow the same range of the fans placed on cha-fan1? I think that the 4 pin fan headers can control the 4 pin pwm fans and the 3 pin fan headers are compatible with 3 pin fan voltage control only, am I right? Instead if I will connect the pump cable to the power fan header, will it always work at full range? I really hope that somebody could help me because the fan headers of my previous mobo were all pwm/voltage control hybrid and could be controlled individually. Thank You for Your precious help  EDITED by wardog(Moderator) to be easier on the eyes. Phew!

First, if you did not download the full user manual for your board, you can do that on the page in the link below. It will provide more information about the fan headers and the control options in the UEFI/BIOS:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20X99M%20Killer/?cat=Manual

To answer your questions:

The CPU Fan 1 and 2 headers have their control combined, they cannot be controlled individually.

One important thing to understand is, every fan and water pump model will not spin at the same speed with a specific speed or voltage setting in the BIOS or software. There are no standards that fans or pumps use, where X voltage or Y setting in the BIOS will result in a specific fan or pump speed.

Some fans begin spinning with three volts applied to them, others will not begin spinning until six or more volts are applied. Pumps usually will spin with low voltages, but they will be all different, and different than fans. The minimum and maximum speed of fans and pumps are different from model to model.

So when you asked if the pump when connected to one of the CPU fan headers, will follow the speed of  a fan connected to the other CPU fan header, the answer is yes and no. Yes the pump will speed up and down with the fan, but their speed ranges will not be the same, and their speeds will be different.

Personally, I think the pumps on AIO coolers like you are using should always be running at their full speed. AIO cooler pumps are small and weak compared to custom water cooling pumps, and do not move any where near as much liquid in the same amount of time. You may want to reduce the pump's speed if it makes noise, but otherwise I see no advantage to reducing the speed of an AIO cooler's pump. I always connect an AIO coolers pump directly to my PSU, and let it run at full speed constantly. The choice is yours, and you can experiment to see if it makes any difference in cooling your CPU.

If a fan header is ONLY for four pin PWM fans, three pin fans will run at full speed all the time when connected to them. Four pin PWM fans can be controlled on three pin voltage controlled headers, but their minimum speed will not be as low compared to a four pin PWM header.

The power fan three pin header cannot be controlled, and will always run a fan at its full speed.

The four pin PWM Chassis 1 fan header and three pin Chassis 2 fan header will most likely not control the same model fan at the same speed with the same settings. You will need to experiment with the settings of each header if you want the fan speeds to match.

If you use different fan models on each fan header, they will most likely not run at the same speed at the same setting, since all fan models are different.

If we want to connect two (or more) fans to one fan header, we must be sure that the combined power usage of the two fans does not exceed the capacity of the fan header, or the fan header or board could be damaged.

The normal specs for fan headers are either 12W/1Amp maximum for the CPU Fan headers, and the Chassis Fan and Power Fan headers. Some boards have lower power specs for the Chassis fan headers, only 6W/0.5Amps. Usually fans have the Amp rating on the sticker in the middle of the fan. If a fan has a spec of 0.2A, then two will be 0.4A, and will be fine on any fan header. BeQuiet fans usually have very low power usage, but be sure to check what it is for each fan and calculate the total so it is not more than the fan header can supply.

The BIOS and software control for your board is the same, but the interface is different. The BIOS settings take priority over the software settings, except if you change the settings in the software, or run the software automatically when the PC starts, and the software setting are different than the BIOS settings. The software settings do not change the BIOS settings.

Whether or not everything will work as you want it to work, will take some work and testing and trying different settings and configurations.