3 pin or 4 pin for front intake fans

[tørfisk]

Looking to replace a single 120mm fan with two 140mm ones. Installing extra RAM was easy enough but with fans there are too many PC jargon acronyms for me that I'd prefer to just ask than go about it myself.

The fan that's installed already has its speed handled automatically. Out of game now, it's not spinning at all. Will it be the same if I use 3 pin fans or will they be at full power constantly? If it's relevant at all, the motherboard is an MSI Z590 Gaming Carbon.

Fans I'm looking at are the Noctua NF-P14 Redux which is 4 pin and the 3 pin Arctic P14 Silent which are half the price of the Noctua and so would be preferable if their speed can be automatically managed.

Thanks.

[Illusion of Progress]

Those are two vastly different fans. The latter is more aimed at silence, and has a lower maximum rotational speed (1,500 RPM compared to 950 RPM) and will move less air.

As for the pin count, the 4th pin adds PWM control. 3 pin fans do have speed control in the form of voltage adjustment, but how it will behave on your system/motherboard by default may vary.

[r.linder]

It's better to have PWM (4pin) fans for the better control. Noctua's fans also have a better reputation.

But if you want a quiet fan, I would suggest be quiet! Silent Wings, they're some of the quietest fans on the market.

[Illusion of Progress]

You always want a 4 pin fan for the CPU. For case fans 3 pin is usually okay, as usually it's the slower (silent marketed) fans that are 3 pin, as they are usually quiet in operation (near silent at slower speeds and still not loud at maximum speed, but move less air due to the lower speed).

Also, and I may be wrong here so someone correct if I am, but while 3 pin fans can adjust their voltage and thus do have some form of speed control, I don't think they can turn off entirely as they have a minimum amount of voltage they will always supply. The reason is below about 4V or 5V, they fan may either just stall or fail to start. 4 pin fans always send 12V regardless IIRC, but use the extra wire to control the fan via PWM.

So if your current fan is able to stop and you want to retain this behavior, go with a 4 pin fan, but you'll notice typically the 3 pin fans are lower RPM/silent so if it's more the noise that is important to you and not the fact that it stops, and you'll never run a high RPM fan at full speed due to noise, then the more expensive fan would sort of just be a waste (sort of speaking from personal experience here).

[_I_]

if the mobo has 4pin headers use 4pin
else 3pin will work

if using 3pin fans be sure to set the fan control in bios to dc voltage instead of pwm else they will be at 100% all of the time