what are the different types

[kfnccook]

what is the pwn fan?help or can i just use regular fans for everything

[OS-Wiz]

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) refers to the method of applying a signal to the fan that will vary the width of the fan's pulse. An 80% duty cycle means that the fan is "on" 80% of the time and "off" 20% of the time. A 50% duty cycle signal means that the fan is "on" 50% of the time and "off" 50% of the time (similar to a perfect square wave). On a PWM fan, the 4th wire consists of the PWM line and will be directly proportional to the speed of the fan. That is to say, a high duty cycle will produce high speeds and a low duty cycle will produce idle speeds..


If you wish to have the HS (CPU) fan controlled by the mobo's BIOS, you'll need a 4-pin PWM fan. All other fans can be 3-pin if you wish.
Some 3-pin fans have a thermal sensor built-in that controls the speed, and thus noise, based on temp.

[kfnccook]

but thats only on the one labled pwn on the mobo ? or can youuse all the fan inputs that way sorry im very new

Additional Comment:

i have a i7 920 mobo is asus deluxe v2 500gb harddrive 1600 ddr3 corsair ram evga 285 superclocked corsair 850 psu by the way thanx for the help do you really need to have a pwn fan or can you just have some good ones i have a nxzt tempest case lots of fans

[OS-Wiz]

The 4-pin connector near the cpu socket is the one you'll use for the HS fan, but it doesn't have to be a PWN, 4-pin fan, it can be a 3-pin fan.

You might consider downloading and installing SpeedFan; its free and can be used to control the speeds of all or most of the fans plugged into the mobo.

[w7bj]

PWM fans are all 4 pin, and all are kind of limited in their CFM. There's no need to use them anywhere in your system, and there is, typically, only one 4 pin header on the mobo. That's where your HS fan needs to be connected. But you can use 3 pin fans anywhere. And 3 pin fan connectors have two rails which guides you to install them correctly on a 4 pin header. If you're planning on using a fan controller, most have only 3 pin headers, or maybe one 4 pin. GL

[mos4567]

All very true for most consumer desktop boards. It can get a bit more tricky when dealing with server and workstation boards. A workstation I was recently building had 4x 4 pin front fan connectors, then the 4 pin CPU fan and 4 Pin rear fan. If you put a 3 pin in the 4 pin rear slot you had to move a jumper on the Mobo, then for the front fans you had to use either all 4 pin or all 3 pin fans and move another jumper on the board depending on weather or not you were going all 3 or all 4 pin. Failing to do this properly would = the fans not working and general unpleasantness... but yah for most desktop boards you can stick any kind of 3 or 4 pin fan on the connectors so long as you can find a spot to mount them...

Just one note... Unless you KNOW that you mobo can handle it, don't daisy chain fans. If you want more fans you can either pick up a cheap molex to 3 pin fan connector or buy a fan controller. Just be aware that if you use the molex to 3 /2 pin your fan will run at 100% all the time, but you can find some molex to 3 pin that have a thing on them that will reduce the fan speed by x amount but they tend to be a fixed X.

[Mind_Reader7]

The PWN fan? Is only the best fan EVER! It PWN's all other fans, don't you know anything?

[w7bj]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a PWN fan? Versus PWM?