Problems with Arctic Cooling Heatsink/Fan

[Tshirtwisdom]

Hello all,
I just bought a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 PRO and it requires a power source with a 4-pin connection. I have an ASUS A8N motherboard and it only has 3-pin connections. Is there any type of adapter to convert the two, or any fan that I can use that will connect to the heatsink? Any help would be appreciated, otherwise I'm going to have to try and return the heatsink even though I already put it in my computer before I realized the connections were wrong.

Thanks!

 

[CrazeD]

I couldn't find any specific 4 pin to 3 pin or 4 pin to molex adapters, but this should work:

Newegg.com - Link Depot POW-ADT-3P4 Power 4 pin adapter to 3 pin fan adapter - Adapters & Gender Changers

I know it's only 3 pin to molex, but the extra pin will just hang out and won't hurt anything. The 4th wire is a thermal control which adjusts the fan according to the CPU temperature. If running at 100% concerns you then you can pick up a cheap fan controller panel which should accept 4pin.

 

[Tshirtwisdom]

Well, the problem is it's not that kind of 4-pin adapter. It's much smaller, almost like a SATA connection, just only 4-pins. I've been looking everywhere for an adapter but I can't find one for this connection.

Edit:
If I'm understanding what you're saying though, you're saying that I can still plug it into a 3-pin connector and just let the extra "pin" hang off?

 

[AP4LIFETN]

It will work fine with the 3-pin, the fourth pin is the PWM pin, newer motherboards have it, most older ones don't. The fan will still work and you can still monitor the speed, it just doesn't have PWM function.

 

[CrazeD]

Well, the problem is it's not that kind of 4-pin adapter. It's much smaller, almost like a SATA connection, just only 4-pins. I've been looking everywhere for an adapter but I can't find one for this connection.

Edit:
If I'm understanding what you're saying though, you're saying that I can still plug it into a 3-pin connector and just let the extra "pin" hang off?

Yes but you can only do that with an adapter such as the one I linked. You can't just plug it into any ol 3 pin case it physically won't fit.

Just make sure you get it the right way, otherwise you'll probably short it out.

 

[AP4LIFETN]

he's talking about the 4pin CPU power, which you can plug into the 3pin to have speed monitoring, molex will only run it at full speed

 

[CrazeD]

EDIT: Ah, I dunno what I'm talking about.

You're right, it should be able to just fit on the motherboard into any 3 pin socket.

 

[Tshirtwisdom]

OK, I plugged it directly into the motherboard leaving just one pin off to the side and the fan is running perfectly. Thanks for the help, I just didn't want to try that initially and short out the fan or worse the motherboard.

Thanks again