Hooking up Case fans to Motherboard

[essartee4]

Ok n00b question here.

My Case and Motherboard came in today from newegg. Anyway hooking up all the case wires to the Motherboard, came up with a question.

So my case has 2 front fans, an exhaust fan and a top fan. On my Motherboard i only have 3 hookups for fans.

One is PWR_Fan1 (3 prong connector), CHA-FAN1 (4 prong connector) and CHA_FAN2 (3 prong connector)

How can i hook up my 4 fans with only 3 spots? Also why are they all names different?

I also have two fan spots called CPU_FAN1 (4 prong connector) and CPU_FAN2 (3 prong connector)

My Motherboard is ASRock Z77 Pro4

 

[johnb35]

Do your fans have molex power connectors as well?

 

[essartee4]

Not sure im new to all this. My case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

 

[johnb35]

Do your fans have a connector like this one does?

 

[essartee4]

no they do not.

 

[essartee4]

Heres a photo

 

[Okedokey]

They only go on motherboard headers. 3 or 4 pin will work, they will only fit one way. The 4th pin is for speed control and monitoring. It will work fine with just 3 pins.

If you don't have a spare mobo header, there are molex to 3/4 pin fan converters cheaply available.

 

[essartee4]

Ok thanks. I still only have 3 connectors on the motherboard and 4 fans. What should i do about that?

Whats the difference between PWR_Fan1 & CHA-FAN1

 

[Okedokey]

Power and Chassis fans. If you don't care about noise, ensure Quiet Mode or QFan is disabled in the BIOS.

If you do care, ensure you have the right fans connected to the right connector and set from there.

The molex to fan connector will not provide any control, it will be flat out all the time.

 

[essartee4]

Each fan has an individual L M H switch to control the speed.

 

[Okedokey]

Each fan has an individual L M H switch to control the speed.

Only if they're 4 pin, which his aren't.

 

[essartee4]

No, im saying each of my fans do have a built in switch to control the speed. Just have to open the case to do so.

 

[Okedokey]

Ok cool plug em in anywhere. The switch basically puts the resistor in the circuit, reducing voltage and speeed thus noise.

 

[martinhersey]

splitters

If you have 4 fans and only 3 headers, you might try getting a splitter for you extra fan connector. These are available at lots of sites---NewEgg.com has them.

 

[martinhersey]

Splitters

If you have 4 fans and only 3 headers, you might try getting a splitter for your extra fan connector. These are readily available at many sites---NewEgg.com has them.