GC fan replacement

[Xaranar]

Anyone ever had any experience with replacing the fan on a cube? I know it's possible to do, and I kinda want to have a crack at it, just for shits and giggles. 50mm fans aren't expensive, and you can get some very quiet ones. I would assume you need to connect it to power on the 12v rail somewhere, but how does the cube detect that its fan is rotating?

[novenary]

It doesn't. You just plug it in parallel with the power regulator on the power button board. Fan spins full speed all the time.

[Xaranar]

Fair one. Looks like the connector is only two pin, though, so I'll just cut off each connector and solder them together, and isolate them with some heat shrink tubing.

[Xaranar]

So I did it, I replaced the fan. I cannibalised the original fan connector and wired it up in place of the usual 3 pin header, I also had to Dremel down the screw mounts on the fan holder as the replacement sits proud of the housing otherwise. GC is almost silent now.

[capzlk]

would you mind posting what the end result looks like (internally)? I just ordered a fan from ebay because making my cube more quiet sounds rather appealing

[Xaranar]

Sure, I'll take some pictures later.

[Xaranar]

Sorry for the delay, but as promised here are some pictures:

That's the new fan itself.


You can see there where I joined the end of the original cable to the new fan, complete with heat shrink tubing.

[XC-3730C]

Anyone know of a fan for GC that also has blue LED's?

[capzlk]

Anyone know of a fan for GC that also has blue LED's?

can't you just add leds yourself? :O

Sorry for the delay, but as promised here are some pictures:
<pic>
That's the new fan itself.

<pic>
You can see there where I joined the end of the original cable to the new fan, complete with heat shrink tubing.

Thanks man, much appreciated!

[namesbond]

Hey, guys quick question what did you do with the yellow wire on the fan? Does it need to be pulled up or down, fed a clock signal, or can it just be disconnected?

[novenary]

Leave it alone. It's the tachometer pin which is used by PC motherboards to measure fan speed. If you have a 4th pin, it's the PWM input for fans that have a fancier driver, and it can also be left floating.

[namesbond]

I just pulled it off! Thanks for the help!

[boredomca]

Wow looks great, Good job.
I had cut off the fan housing in one and attached a 80mm to the outside of the enclosure. Doesn't collect as much dust as I thought but it sure did push air in the tight space it was in at the time.