simple nubie question - do front case fans plug in?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al Smith
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A

Al Smith

I've got an old computer I bought for under a hundred dollars. It
was a business computer. It has an Asus board and an Asuki box. My
front fan is noisy, but it looks to me that to replace it, I will
have to cut the wires. Is this normal?

The wires from the fan lead to a plug that was stuck behind the
motherboard. When I pulled it out and looked closely at it, it
looks as if the wires from the fan are joined to other wires by
brass clips that are crimped on, holding the two sets of wires
together. The wires are soldered on at the fan end.

I'm thinking of just cutting the fan wires, and killing the fan
entirely, without replacing it. The CPU has got its own fan, and
so does the power supply. The CPU is only 400 MHz, so it doesn't
need much cooling. If I just cut the wires, will I get an error
message? Will it screw up anything?
 
cutting the wires won't hurt anything.

Cut them near the fan so you have some wire to work with
later if you need it.

tape the ends of the leads that don't connect to the fan when you're done.

If it's unstabe after the fan is removed, you can always replace it later.

Sometimes the wires for the fan are on a "double molex" connector.

It plugs into the one coming from the power supply and has the
connector you're talking about along with the normal one as a unit.

If you're system is set up like that you don't have to cut anything.

Just pull the connector and plug the single, closest to the power supply,
into the device the double was plugged into.
 
Al said:
I've got an old computer I bought for under a hundred dollars. It was a
business computer. It has an Asus board and an Asuki box. My front fan
is noisy, but it looks to me that to replace it, I will have to cut the
wires. Is this normal?

The wires from the fan lead to a plug that was stuck behind the
motherboard. When I pulled it out and looked closely at it, it looks as
if the wires from the fan are joined to other wires by brass clips that
are crimped on, holding the two sets of wires together. The wires are
soldered on at the fan end.

I'm thinking of just cutting the fan wires, and killing the fan
entirely, without replacing it. The CPU has got its own fan, and so does
the power supply. The CPU is only 400 MHz, so it doesn't need much
cooling. If I just cut the wires, will I get an error message? Will it
screw up anything?
Click to expand...

You may well get by without the case fan operating, but most of the
time manufacturers do not add parts to a system unless they believe they
are needed. Alby's suggestions were good, but watch the behavior
closely and if there are adverse results, get another fan or fix the one
you disconnected.
 
I've got an old computer I bought for under a hundred dollars. It
was a business computer. It has an Asus board and an Asuki box. My
front fan is noisy, but it looks to me that to replace it, I will
have to cut the wires. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

Antec makes "fan quieting kits" for about $10, which consist of a rubber
square for the fan itself and screws rubber washers for the screws. Of
course, this only solves your problem if the noise is being generated by
vibration of the case by the fan. If the fan itself is noisy due to poor
bearings or just operating at a very high speed, you could replace it with a
silent fan and do the wiring yourself. It won't be as simple as plugging in
a molex but with a little electrical tape and some wire cutters it shouldn't
be difficult to figure out where the connections go.
 
I've got an old computer I bought for under a hundred dollars. It
Antec makes "fan quieting kits" for about $10, which consist of a rubber
square for the fan itself and screws rubber washers for the screws. Of
course, this only solves your problem if the noise is being generated by
vibration of the case by the fan. If the fan itself is noisy due to poor
bearings or just operating at a very high speed, you could replace it with a
silent fan and do the wiring yourself. It won't be as simple as plugging in
a molex but with a little electrical tape and some wire cutters it shouldn't
be difficult to figure out where the connections go.
Click to expand...
What it is that bugs me the most is a regular vibration that comes
and goes every few seconds, and lasts for a few seconds. I tried
cleaning the dust off the fan blades, but this didn't get rid of
it. I tried mounting the entire computer on a foam slab to soak up
the vibration, but it only helped partially. It seems to be
emanating from my case fan, which is screwed into the front of the
case near the bottom. When I press my fingers against the case
near the fan, I can feel the vibrations coming and going.

I'm not sure I can track the fan wires back to where they plug
into the motherboard. I will have a try. If I can't do it, I will
take a chance and just cut the wires, and see if the box overheats
without them. I'll also disable the fan speed monitor in my BIOS
first. I really don't think the CPU will overheat, since it has
its own fan, and the box is large, with plenty of open space. I
can always reconnect the fan if it does overhead, or buy a
replacement. The only risk I can see is that, without a fan, the
operating temperature of my hard drives might go up a bit. Anyway,
thanks for the help, folks.
 
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