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I am building my first PC. My MB has a male 3 pin pwr_fan connection. My PSU has only 4 pin female connectors.

It looks like I can slide the PSU connectors on the 3 pin MB females. Is this suggested, or is there a converter I should use instead?

Thanks in advance.

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Maybe it`s just me, but I`m not sure I understand you correctly.

The three pin male power fan connector on your mobo, is for your cpu fan to be attached to. There may also be extra three pin connections on your mobo for attaching more fans.

Or, do you mean you have a case cooling fan with a three pin connector?

Can you take a couple of pics and upload them, to show us what you mean?

Regards Howard

Well, I'm off to work now, but I'll try to explain further. Don't have time to upload pics atm.

I might not be doing the right thing, that's possible too, but I thought I was... anyway.

My CPU fan is plugged in to a 3 pin already. That's just fine.

However, my MoBo manual says plug the power fan connector to the pwr_fan on MoBo. The MoBo is a 3 pin male. This is where I may be screwing up. Is the power fan connector the same thing as my power source (PSU)? My PSU only has has little 4 pin female connectors plus 4 pin molex ones, etc.

If not, what is the power fan connector?

Also, is sys_fan the fan on the back of the case? It has the 4 pin male and female molex connectors. My book says it connects to the MoBo but I don't see any spot to do that. Or does that fan connect directly to the PSU or to the MoBo? And do both male and female connectors connect to the PSU if so?

Hope that clarifies some. Thanks,

Robert

As long as the cpu fan is plugged into the proper place on your mobo. The rest of your fans can be connected directly to your psu.

Regards Howard

DO NOT plug in your mobo as it is - you will fry your motherboard. You need a converter. Your fans can be plugged in though.

Ok, my CPU fan is in the right place on the MoBo, I'm sure of it. My case fan is connected to the PSU. This is right isn't it?

So what are you saying about my MoBo frying? What converter do I need?

Yes that`s right.

Regards Howard

Tedster is just saying don't try to plug a 4pin molex into a 3pin mobo connector. But this is not your case here anyway, not now. Have have connected your fans correctly. Mobo's now have case (system fans) which they can control the RPM by varying the applied voltage (Cool n' Quite software) for example. This is not required, you can connect your case fans directly to the PSU molex connectors as you did. Your CPU fans as you indicated must be connected to the mobo connect.

All is good.

Thanks-thanks everyone! Really helped me out.

Robert