Sabertooth X79 3-pin fan control?

[Gabedamien]

Hello,

Helping a friend with his build.

Does the Sabertooth X79 have fan control for 3-pin fans? I know it has 4-pin fan headers which presumably can control PWM fans, but I'm wondering about 3-pin fans connected to the 4-pin Chassis / CPU headers.

For instance, I know that on my Max V Gene, the CPU / CPU-OPT 4-pin headers can only control 4-pin PWM fans, but the CHA 4-pin headers can control *either* 3-pin voltage or 4-pin PWM fans (neat trick, by the way).

Please someone let me know if this is the case with the X79 Sabertooth or not. Thank you!

-Gabriel

[HiVizMan]

Gabriel the best thing would be to test this and find out. I sadly no longer have a Sabertooth board so can not physically test to confirm one way or another.

[Gabedamien]

Right. Since it will affect which fans he will buy, I'm hoping someone here knows the answer or can find out through testing (if they have a test setup). If push comes to shove then he could put his system together with the cheaper 3-pin fans, and then if it turns out they cannot be controlled and he is unsatisfied with them running always at max speed he could get 4-pin fans and replace them, but that's obviously the least convenient and most expensive route. Alternatively, I could advise him to get all 4-pin PWM fans. In the absence of more info, I'm leaning towards a hybrid approach, knowing how my Max V Gene works and assuming it's similar on the Sabertooth, of getting PWM fans for the CPU cooler, and 3-pin fans for the case.

However, I am still optimistic someone will have the answer. Thanks in advance to anyone who does!

[HiVizMan]

Do you not have a 3 pin fan that you can test?

[Gabedamien]

Like I said, I'm helping a friend with his build. He hasn't bought anything yet (or if he has, it has not arrived, to my knowledge) so we don't have the mobo in front of us. On top of that, the only fans I have ever bought are all in my own computer right now... I don't have spare parts lying around (and neither does he), so no. We are sadly bereft of testing materials.

We could of course buy both and do our own testing. I'm not denying that. I just was hoping that someone else already knew the answer and could save us the trouble (and very minor expense).

Cheers,
-G

[mcandmar]

Yes it can, i previously only had 3pin fans for CPU and Chassis fans, you can even create profiles using Thermal Radar to control their speed via any of the 12 temp sensors on the board. Makes for some very flexible configuration options.

[hazmatfool]

I will be testing the chassis fan and asst fan headers shortly. Hopefully this afternoon to see if a rumor I heard is true or not. I was told that SOME of the chassis fan controllers could be +12V Voltage controlled and would not require the 4-pin PWM fan. So I just got the fans 3 and 4 pin & will report back on which controllers do or don't. Testing will be done on Sabertooth X79, first with Windows 7 Pro and then (Much later) with window 8.1.

[hazmatfool]

Found this link in Knowledge Base but haven't checked it out yet. Allows selection of 3 0r 4 pin fans in BIOS.
http://support.asus.com/Search/KDetail.aspx?SLanguage=en&no=F5BEB653-FDA2-4DD2-50CB-D6378F99E630&t=2

Post if it is the solution!