Power fan header

[yayo]

Can somebody kindly explain to me what is it and what it does? Is it safe to plug a case fan into it?  The mobo manual lacks info on the topic, it's my first Gigabyte mobo, btw - GA-Z68X-UD4-B3

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

Yes you can use it for any case fan or other extra fan that needs to be powered by the motherboard. It is always better to power your fans either directly from the PSU or from a fan controller.

[yayo]

Thanks for the reply. Of course I did a Google search before asking the question here but couldn't find a definitve and 100% reliable explanation. According to some forum posts the Power Fand Header on a motherboard doesn't provide any voltage but only serves to monitor and regulate the speed of a PSU's fan, if the PSU is equipped with a probe that supports such function. My PSU doesn't, lol, and I suspect nobody else's does either. Maybe the Power Fand Header is a leftover of times when personal computers ran on coal, who knows... 

[Dark Mantis]

Yes that information sounds like bulls*** to me and not something I have come across even when we used steam powered systems!

[wooly]

whilst were on the subject of fans, I have my 212+ with 2 fans (push/pull) I used a fan header on the motherboard for my 2nd fan, I think it was NB_Fan (which is heatsinked on my mobo anyway isn't it) will this be ok or should I maybe change it?

790FXT btw

[Dark Mantis]

If yopu are running any sort of push/pull setup then both fans should be powered from the same controller because otherwise if one is going faster than the other it is being held back by the slower fan. Always use the same controller.