You've likely noticed that there are several types of PC fans, with a primary differentiating factor between models being whether they are 3, 4, or sometimes even 2 pin.

What do these pins do? Are 4pin fans worth the price premium over their 3pin counterparts? Does it make any difference? Today I'll be investigating the unassuming topic of PC fans. We'll investigate how modern PC fans are powered and how this has evolved over the years.

I hope that this explains misconceptions around this, you learn something and enjoy the video!

TLDW:
2 pin fans give them power and they run
3 pin 3rd pin allows RPM sensing and failure detection, speed control by changing voltage to power pins
4 pin give fan 12v power and a PWM signal, it figures out how to run motor, and has rpm sense.

Music Used: Their Story by Approaching Nirvana (with weird artifacts due to kdenlive)

Produced by Tony Tascioglu
tonytascioglu.com