Dying Pentium III fan - what should I do ?

[foxman]

Hi,

like the title says, I currently have a dying Pentium III CPU fan (it has more than 10 years!). It's making a LOTS of noise. I need a replacement for it (I'm using this computer to run some light services; currently it's hosting some (small) SVN repository). Now, I don't know what I should do; my goal is only to keep the CPU (Pentium III 1GHz) stable. It's not loaded often but it has to be able to cope with some load (i.e. I'm not sure running it without a fan would be a good idea, especially since the (stock) heatsink is really basic). I'm not really incline to buy a new heatsink/fan since the one you can buy looks like junk (or are too expensive IMO). I would just like to buy a replacement fan, but they seem really hard to find, and the way the fan is mounted to the heatsink makes me wonder if it's possible to stick some "generic" fan on it. I'm also considering buying a Antec Spot Cool and place it right over the heatsink, but I don't know if it's going to work well. So, anyone already been in my situation ? What's your suggestion ? What should I do ?

Thanks

[Cheator]

My suggestion is to get a new cpu! That thing is OLLLLD.

See if you can scrounge up a socket A cooler. I still see some kicking around, and that will work.

[foxman]

Originally Posted by Cheator

My suggestion is to get a new cpu! That thing is OLLLLD.

Well it's the fastest CPU that motherboard can hold! And yeah, I know, it's old, but hey, it still works.

I do have another motherboard, memory modules and power supply lying around. I'm considering buying something like a Q9550 to put in my rig and build another rig with my E8400 and my spare parts. The problem is, I find it a bit a waste to put a E8400 in a "I have close to nothing to do" rig. And then, building a new rig will put me 500$ back (if I buy a Q9550 + video card) vs maybe 20$ for a new fan. And saving 480$ is always great... at least, for some!

[bojangles]

You could fork over some dough into an Atom barebones. You can make that passive because it is extremely low power. It's also based on the Pentium-M architecture if I'm not mistaken, which is pretty close to the PIII architecture. Try like an Eee PC or something. You can get those on the cheap with Linux on it.

[gingerbee]

99 dollar ncix bundle or just rig any fan you can to cool the heatsink. atom boards work great too

[CTA]

have you check used classification online?

they might carry old models of computer parts...


i suggest you to post picture of your heasink to understand what it looks like... then you might can do mod on fan to install on the heatsink...

[3 of 7]

Pull the fan off and give it a good cleaning, then peel the sticker off the middle of the fan. It covers the hole that leads to the bearing likely just a pin in a sintered brass bearing. Put 1 or 2 drops of very thin oil like 3 in 1 or sewing machine oil in the hole. Cover the hole with a new sticker. I use a corner off of a mailing label.
I've saved tons of noisy fans this way and it works prolly 4 out of 5 times.

[foxman]

Well, adding a drop of oil did some good, but I wonder how long it will last (one hour, one day, one week, one month ?). The fan I'm talking about has more than 45,000 hours of usage (and this is a relatively conservative number). It's a small 55 mm, 12V, 0.08A, 4000rpm+, dual ball bearing type of fan.

I also thought about adding a resistance to drop the fan speed. The only problem is that I don't exactly know which kind of resistance I should buy, nor do I really trust my electrician skill.

As for checking for old parts, I had no luck, and I don't intend to do exhaustive search anyway. I saw some, but it were overpriced.

And as for buying some non-fan related parts, well I don't plan to go this way, at least not for now.

The heatsink/fan looks like this:
http://www.dansdata.com/images/cel2/assembled320.jpg

The fan casing is specially made to "clip" into the heatsink. I might post a more relevant picture of it.

[CTA]

hmm... try to use rubbers... i think there are a little gap between bottom of the heatsink and mobo...

[Soultribunal]

Yeah if you can post a Pic if what yours actually looks like, you might be in luck.
I've got 3 very dead P3's at my work (full OEM systems),
If one matches, then I could send one your way for free.

Regards,
ST