Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Scott, are there any case fans that you would recommend? It seems to me that I need a fan that's 120mm x 120mm x 25mm. I'm thinking about getting a Blade Master 120 myself.

Look up the active heatsink fan recommendations in my book. Does that one meet the most important criteria? Let me know what you find... Scott.

Uh-oh! That one site describes the bearing type for the Blade Master 120 as "Long Life Sleeve." Scott, there's no doubt in my mind that you would prefer case fans with ball bearings. Would you really prefer that a case fan plug directly into a motherboard, or is it OK if such a fan utilizes a power-supply connector?

You got it!


I prefer a fan that plugs into the motherboard if the motherboard has the ability to control the fan speed. That is often done via a 4-wire connector (the 4th wire controls speed), but some 3-wire motherboard fan connectors can control speed by varying the voltage supplied to the fan. Bottom line: If the BIOS Setup has no case or chassis fan speed settings then there would be no difference in using the motherboard or PSU connector for the fan. Scott.

I installed this fan in the case of my usual desktop PC today. The case fan has a 4-pin plug, but the system's motherboard only has a 3-pin socket for it. The fan does spin when connected.

4-pin fans are backwards compatible with 3-pin sockets. When plugged into a 3-pin socket a 4-pin fan will work as a 3-pin fan. Scott.