3-pin or PWM fans for Corsair H100i

Rubnik · Jul 26, 2013

Hello everyone,

I'm planning on buying a Corsair H100i as part of my new build and 2 Corsair SP120 quiet fans for the extra bling from the colored rims and possibly lower noise.

Would you reccomend buiyng the 3 pin or PWM version of those fans?

From the videos and pictures i've seen, i think that the fans it comes with are 3 pin, while it supports PWM as well.

de.das.dude · Jul 26, 2013

for PWM to be effective you will need a fan controller. or someway to split the pwm signal from the motherboard among all the three fans.

PWM just means that the fan speed increases or decreases according to CPU temperature. if your fans are already silent enough for you at full speed, you dont need PWM

MxPhenom 216 · Jul 26, 2013

de.das.dude said:
for PWM to be effective you will need a fan controller. or someway to split the pwm signal from the motherboard among all the three fans.

PWM just means that the fan speed increases or decreases according to CPU temperature. if your fans are already silent enough for you at full speed, you dont need PWM

Some motherboard, such as the Asus Maximus Hero have all 4 pin fan connectors on board, so there wouldn't be much of an issue, plug in each fan into their own. And, its a bit more difficult to find fan controllers, have all 4 pin connections, most are just 3.

Rubnik · Jul 26, 2013

I think you can control the fans through Corsair Link, also I'm going to buy the MSI Z87-G45 which has all PWM headers and Fan control software somewhat simillar to the Asus FanXpert, and lastly, my case (NZXT Phantom 410) has a 12V\7V\5V fan controller but supports only 3 pin headers.

In each case, the software(Corsair link, MSI fan control) which allows you to make a user defined Temp\RPM graph can control both 3 pin and PWM fans right?

cadaveca · Jul 26, 2013

Rubnik said:
In each case, the software(Corsair link, MSI fan control) which allows you to make a user defined Temp\RPM graph can control both 3 pin and PWM fans right?

MSI Z87 only support 3-pin fan control via the system fan headers, CPU FAN header is PWM-control only.

crazyeyesreaper · Jul 26, 2013

Yup the MSI situation is a bit of a downer really ran into that problem like a Wile Coyote running into a cliff while strapped to a rocket.

System Name	Rubnitron
Processor	i5 4670k @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	MSI Z87 G45
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 2x4Gb @ 2133Mhz
Video Card(s)	MSI 770 2Gb OC Gaming
Storage	Samsung EVO 250Gb , OCZ Vertex 128 Gb , Toshiba 2Tb HDD
Display(s)	Asus VG248qe
Case	NZXT Phantom 410
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 650m
Software	Windows 8.1 x62
Benchmark Scores	7480 3DMark Firestrike

System Name	Monke \| Work Thinkpad\| Old Monke
Processor	Ryzen 5600X \| Ryzen 5500U \| FX8320
Motherboard	ASRock B550 Extreme4 \| ? \| Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling	240mm Rad \| Not needed \| hyper 212 EVO
Memory	2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB \| 16 GB DDR4 3600 \| 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB \| Vega 8 \| Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage	Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) \| some samsung SSD
Display(s)	Dell 2723DS \| Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS \| Dell 2240L
Case	Ant Esports Tempered case \| Thinkpad \| Antec
Audio Device(s)	Logitech Z333 \| Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply	Corsair RM750e \| not needed \| Corsair GS 600
Mouse	Logitech G400 \| nipple
Keyboard	Logitech G213 \| stock kb is awesome \| Logitech K230
VR HMD	;_;
Software	Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores	There are no marks on my bench

System Name	Ryzen Reflection
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master
Cooling	2x EK PE360 \| TechN AM4 AMD Block Black \| EK Quantum Vector Trinity GPU Nickel + Plexi
Memory	Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem 2x16GB B-Die 3600 @ 14-14-14-28-42-288-2T 1.45v
Video Card(s)	Zotac AMP HoloBlack RTX 3080Ti 12G \| 950mV 1950Mhz
Storage	WD SN850 500GB (OS) \| Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) \| Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s)	Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS \| Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS \| Asus 24" IPS (portrait mode)
Case	Lian Li PC-011D XL \| Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s)	FiiO K7 \| Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse	Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System Name	Rubnitron
Processor	i5 4670k @ 4.3 GHz
Motherboard	MSI Z87 G45
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 2x4Gb @ 2133Mhz
Video Card(s)	MSI 770 2Gb OC Gaming
Storage	Samsung EVO 250Gb , OCZ Vertex 128 Gb , Toshiba 2Tb HDD
Display(s)	Asus VG248qe
Case	NZXT Phantom 410
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 650m
Software	Windows 8.1 x62
Benchmark Scores	7480 3DMark Firestrike

System Name	Old reliable
Processor	Intel 8700K @ 4.8 GHz
Motherboard	MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC
Cooling	Custom Water
Memory	32 GB Crucial Ballistix 3666 MHz
Video Card(s)	MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X
Storage	3x SSDs 2x HDDs
Display(s)	Dell U2412M + Samsung TA350
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 TG
Audio Device(s)	Samson Meteor Mic / Generic 2.1 / KRK KNS 6400 headset
Power Supply	Zalman EBT-1000
Mouse	Mionix NAOS 7000
Keyboard	Mionix

3-pin or PWM fans for Corsair H100i

Rubnik

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer

Rubnik

cadaveca

My name is Dave

crazyeyesreaper

Not a Moderator