This is not cool

[Interlocutor]

Case fans always break my .... I just hooked up a Scythe 3000 ULTRA KAZE. It comes with a 3 pin connector that I plugged into "Chassis 2" on my Asus P6T board--no power. Where did I mess up? Do I need to activate something in bios? I was hoping to use q-fan to control the beast.
Fan also has a molex adaptor with a one (yellow wire) 3 pin female adapter and a male 3 pin adapter that, I guess can be used with a dedicated fan controller.
Any way to plug this into mobo and regulate?

[FX5200]

A 3-pin fan cannot be PWM controlled through the mobo, well, at least, MOST can't. Your best bet would be to get a dedicated fan controller. I recommend something from Sunbeam or Zalman.

[ELItheICEman]

Fans are controlled either by voltage levels or PWM, which is basically like putting it on a high-speed light switch. My guess is that your mobo header pins can't supply enough current to get the thing going. I could be mistaken, but most fans that attach to the mobo run around 2W, whereas this thing operates at 4W as the bare minimum.

Try it on a molex power connector to make sure the fan itself works. If it still doesn't even spin up, you've got yourself a bad connection or a bad fan.

[Interlocutor]

Originally Posted by ELItheICEman

Fans are controlled either by voltage levels or PWM, which is basically like putting it on a high-speed light switch. My guess is that your mobo header pins can't supply enough current to get the thing going. I could be mistaken, but most fans that attach to the mobo run around 2W, whereas this thing operates at 4W as the bare minimum.

Try it on a molex power connector to make sure the fan itself works. If it still doesn't even spin up, you've got yourself a bad connection or a bad fan.

If I plug it into the pwm fan connector on the mobo, can a program like speedfan then control it? Otherwise, I guess I'll go with the controller option and thanks for the suggestions as to brand.

[ELItheICEman]

It's possible, but I'm not sure how many PWM headers you have on a motherboard. I was under the impression that only the CPU header was PWM, and even then it varies from board to board.

As for controlling from software, I suppose Speedfan should be able to do that, but I've never used it for such. I've only ever used it for temp monitoring, and even then not in quite some time. I'd say you should give it a shot first to see if it works. That way you can possibly avoid spending money on the fan controller.

[FX5200]

Originally Posted by ELItheICEman

It's possible, but I'm not sure how many PWM headers you have on a motherboard. I was under the impression that only the CPU header was PWM, and even then it varies from board to board.

As for controlling from software, I suppose Speedfan should be able to do that, but I've never used it for such. I've only ever used it for temp monitoring, and even then not in quite some time. I'd say you should give it a shot first to see if it works. That way you can possibly avoid spending money on the fan controller.

Speedfan only controls 4-pin fans, and as for mobo's having more than one PWM header, my rig board has three 4-pin connectors, each of which is controllable by speedfan/BIOS. OP, I suggest you follow ELI's advice, and try it out before buying a controller.

[nwbdan]

Originally Posted by FX5200

Speedfan only controls 4-pin fans

I don't believe this is true, as I'm controlling my Noiseblocker xk2 through Speedfan right now.
Speedfan is not just for PWM fans. It can also control 3-pin fans through voltage, as long as your mobo connector supports it. Which it should, if there's an option for that in your BIOS. Give it a go and see for yourself.

A controller would give you more ahem... control over it, and even allow you to control more fans if you have them, so its always an option to consider as well.