Does my "Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi5" have PWM Fan Control?

Hello Acer forums. I've got a question about my Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi5 and I'm sure somebody can help me out.
Here's a link to the exact Acer Aspire I bought on Amazon https://amzn.to/2VtavzD

I'm pretty new when it comes to upgrading my computer, but getting the hang of it and learning lots in thr process. I can swap out SSDs & HDDs as well as RAM quite easily, going so far as to max out the RAM with 32GB. In fact, I even recently successfully upgraded my processor's heatsink and fan for the first time, which I'm actually quite proud of!

Now I'm trying to swap out the stock case fans and add some new ones of my own in order to keep the ol' girl nice and cool. As I've been reading up on case fans I keep hearing about PWM which does something or other that let's me change the speed of the fans either automatically, manually, or maybe both? I'm not sure which, if any, of those thoughts is correct. So my first question is regarding what PWM actually does. And after that's answered I have a few other questions regarding PWM I'd like to learn about.

1) What... Does PWM do?

2) Does my motherboard have PWM?

3) If so, what's it look like?

4) Could someone post a pic with the PWM area of the motherboard circled, highlighted, or any other way of indicating where it is?

5) What fans would you recommend for this project? I've already measured and it seems like 92mm and below are the proper size for my computer. 120mm and above seem like they would be too large to fit comfortably in my case. My wife and I are also on a budget, so nothing too expensive would be great, probably no more than $50 for 3 or more fans as a pack or totaled individually.

6) And finally, after I've installed my new case fans, how do I use PWM to change their speed as the situation requires? Please keep in mind that I exclusively use Debian, so any programs for PWM Fan Control developed for Windows simply are not an option for me. As a Linux user I don't mind using the terminal at all for configuring PWM but if there's a GUI version that would come in handy as well.

7) As an after thought, is there anything at all you'd like to share regarding PWM or fan controllers that you think I ought to know?

I'm looking forward to learning even more about my computer with your guidance! Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out.

〜 Ev

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billsey

1) PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation and it's a method for controlling something (in this case fan speed) using a digital signal. A digital signal is only an on/off so you'd think you can only do on and off with it, but with PWM you send ON a percentage of the time and OFF the rest of the time and the device modulates it's output to match that percentage. So if the signal is on 33% of the time, the fan runs at 33% of it's rated speed. This is quite a bit cheaper than putting an analog circuit in to change fan speeds.

2) Yup, you can tell by the number of wires going to the fan. Four wires gives you enough to set the speed and sense the speed so you can make sure it is actually running at the speed you want.

3) Four wires.

4) We've done this before, those top two fan connectors:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/qg/90db9ajsxkge.png

5) Pretty much any fans that match the sizes will work. Look for one that's both rated well by people who've purchased it and is quiet when running at full speed. I believe you have mounting holes for 80mm and 92mm fans.

6) Fan speed is typically controlled by the BIOS and as part of the chipset drivers. Depending on how well your chipset is supported in Debian they should just work or they will do the on/off only. With Windows the drivers work for speed control.