Where Do You Connect Your AIO Pump On Your Motherboard?
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You made it happen. You finally gave in and purchased a liquid cooler, if only to silence that one irritating friend who has been pestering you about getting liquid cooling. And now that it’s finally arrived, it’s time to learn Where Do You Connect Your AIO Pump On Your Motherboard? How are you going to utilize it without blowing up your computer?
Where Do You Connect Your AIO Pump On Your Motherboard?
The CPU FAN Header on your motherboard is where the 3-Pin Connector should be inserted. Its purpose is to regulate the pump and fan speeds throughout your whole AIO.

What Is An AIO Pump And How Does It Work?
The pump is the part of most AIO Liquid Coolers that you attach to the CPU. The radiator’s liquid is pushed through the radiator by the pump. When it relates to liquid cooling, the pump is the system’s beating heart. This is particularly true in the case of a closed-loop system.
If your pump fails, your cooling performance will suffer dramatically, to the point where the factory-installed cooler will do a good job of cooling your CPU. As a result, you must ensure that your pump is properly installed and operating, as well as that it is not creating any unusual noises.
On Your Motherboard, Where Do You Attach Your AIO Pump?
If it’s for the pump, attach it to the PSU directly. Because the pump must be powered on all of the time, the best approach to connect it is to provide adequate power immediately from the power supply.
Some motherboard headers can’t even handle the pump’s full current demand. Some headers are labeled as hybrid (depending on the mobo), while others are just regular fan headers with a maximum current of 1–2 amps.
You may require a 3 (or 4 pins) male adapter to either a Molex or a SATA connector, based on the connector for your AIO Pump Header. As long as the fans on the AIO do not reach the acceptable amperage for every header, they can do it directly to the fan headers.
An internal fan splitter/fan hub is another option. Some of them will have a direct line to the power supply and will join to a single fan header (for the signal or voltage trigger). These hubs are capable of supporting several led rings, fans, and even the pump without causing any problems.
What If You Don’t Have An AIO Pump Fan Header On Your Motherboard?
Don’t worry; you’ll be able to pull it off. It may be a little bit shocking for you. Those pump-specific headers are all just rebranded SYS FAN headers. So, if your motherboard doesn’t contain any AIO PUMP Headers or anything, you can always use SYS FAN to connect your pump if you have one lying around. It will do work in a similar way.
What Is AIO Pump On The Motherboard?
The pump is the component you attach to the CPU on most AIO liquid coolers. The liquid must be forced through the radiator by the pump. Any liquid cooling setup’s pump serves as the brain of the device. This holds in particular for closed-loop systems.
Where Does AIO Pump Plugin?
Connect the three-pin connector to the CPU FAN header on the motherboard. The purpose of this knob is to regulate the overall AIO’s pump and fan speeds. Additionally, it prevents the Motherboard from displaying a CPU Fan Error on startup.
Conclusion
And there you have it, a quick rundown of where you can plug in your gleaming new AIO liquid cooler. If you want a TL; DR version, the gist of it is that you have a lot of alternatives when it comes to plugging in your pump. You can utilize an AIO PUMP Header, W PUMP, PUMP HEADER, or any other version of that and you can even utilize CPU FAN Or SYS FAN if necessary. That’s all about Where Do You Connect Your AIO Pump On Your Motherboard?
Frequently Asked Questions
On the motherboard, how do I attach the pump?
System Fan 1, Chassis Fan 1, or a pump-specific fan header on newer motherboards should be used for the pump’s fan connection.
Is my AIO up and running?
The only way to know for sure if your Liquid Cooling Pump is working is to check its RPM. A fan header on the board must be linked directly to the pump cable for this to work. When a pump’s RPM display shows 0 or N/A, it indicates that the pump is broken.
Do 3-pin pumps work with 4-pin connectors?
Keep in mind that your 4-pin fan is a PWM fan, and as such, it needs a 4-pin PWM header to work properly.
How loud are AIO pumps?
At the bottom of the case is the most typical mistake when fitting an AIO cooling system. In this configuration, poor cooling performance and pump noise are virtually always present.