Difference Between 3 Pin 4 Pin Cpu Fan

A 4 pin pwm fan connector will have four square holes on the front and four wires entering the back.

Difference between 3 pin 4 pin cpu fan.

3 pin connectors are usually used for the smaller chassis fans with lower power consumption. The 4th pin sends a signal to the fan to change speed allowing the fan to run slower and. A 3 pin cpu fan will work in a 4 pin cpu fan. A four pin connector is a little different than the three pin connector since it has the extra fourth wire used for controlling and sending signals to the fan which likely has a chip on it that tells it to slow down or speed up in addition to the other wires the three pin connector has.

A 3 pin fan connector will be smaller in size than the 4 pin pwm fan connector. Fans and on board fan headers are backwards compatible. The only difference is that the cpu fan will not have the smart fan option uses the 4th pin so your fan will go at full speed instead of being able. The 4th wire is pwm or pulse width modulation and it does a better job at reducing and controlling fan speed than reducing the voltage for a 3 pin fan.

The 4 pin cooling fan is based on the 3 pin and has a pwm line pulse width modulation. It will also have three square holes on the front and three wires entering the back. The pwm fan does not need to rely on the motherboard bios which is more convenient. 2 pins provide electricity to turn the fan.

There is no disadvantage and depending on the board you can change certain fan headers to how they control the fan. The so called pwm line uses the pwm mechanism to adjust the fan speed and the fan voltage is constant avoiding the control voltage to shift. Three wire and four wire fan connectors.