Zimaboard 2 - Fan wiring

marlosb · February 13, 2026, 8:44pm

My Zimaboard 2 is at my leaving room and I want to keep it as quiet as possible. So, I want to use a Noctua fan to cool it. Similar to this topic. However, I didn’t find the fan wiring scheme.

I checked its fan wires but I’m not sure what it means:

The “+” should be 12v and “-” should be GND. I have no idea about the others, which is PWM and which is RPM. Does anyone knows where I can find the wiring scheme?

Thanks

gelbuilding · February 15, 2026, 1:00am

ZimaBoard 2 uses a standard 4-pin PWM fan header. The wiring follows the Intel PWM fan spec (same as most PC motherboards).

Standard 4-pin PWM pinout:

Pin 1 – GND
Pin 2 – +12V
Pin 3 – Tach / RPM (sense)
Pin 4 – PWM control

From your photo:

“+” = 12V
“–” = GND
The remaining two are:
- one is RPM (tach output from fan)
- one is PWM (control signal from board)

Typical color reference (Noctua standard):

Black → GND
Yellow → +12V
Green → RPM (tach)
Blue → PWM

Important:
Do NOT swap PWM and tach. It won’t usually damage anything, but the fan won’t behave correctly (either full speed or no speed control).

If you want to verify instead of assuming:

Power on board.
Measure between “–” and each pin with a multimeter:

The one reading ~12V is +12V.
PWM will read around 5V (control signal).
Tach will fluctuate (pulse output when fan spinning).

Noctua 4-pin PWM fans are fully compatible with this header.

If you want absolute certainty, tell him to:

Confirm header orientation (check small triangle marking on PCB for Pin 1)
Do not rely on cable color alone

This is standard PC PWM layout, nothing proprietary on ZimaBoard 2.

marlosb · February 15, 2026, 8:32pm

Thanks for your reply. I checked the wires with a multimeter and it is indeed the standard 4-pin PWM fan header. The symbols in the wires can be ignored.

I sacrificed my included fan to use it’s wire, I’m sorry but managed to make it work.

Not the most beautiful soldering job you is going to see today, but it does the job: