I have this HSF:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835233003

I bought it a little over two years ago. Lately, the fan has been emitting a slight rattling sound. It doesn't always do this - it just starts after my PC has been running for a couple of hours, and some days it doesn't do this at all. But it's never made that sound before in over two years. Also, if I open up the case while the PC is running and touch the fan to stop it, the fan will resume spinning, and without the sound.

Is this a sign that the fan's ball bearings are going bad or something? If so, I've got two questions.

1: What would be a good fan to replace it with?

2: How am I supposed to mount a fan to this thing? I can't remember how I did it the first time, I don't have the instructions any more, and I can't figure it out just from looking. Do I have to remove the whole HSF? And if so, do I have to re-apply thermal paste? I remember that putting the HSF on the CPU was an enormous pain in the ass, even with a back-mounted bracket.

Thanks.

to me, that does sound like your fan is wearing out.

1. look at the recommended 120mm fans article. i seem to have misplaced my personal favorite parts list.

2. there should be little rubber things that go through the holes in the corner of the fan, and kinda into the heatsinks fins. thats the mounting mechanism for the fans. i would definitely recommend removing the heatsink to swap the fans since you dont want to be torquing on the heatsink trying to get the fan detached.


just a question: will you have your heatsink oriented to blow air up, or horizontally?

I strongly suspect the fan bearing is causing your noise problem. I suggest considering replacing the fan with something like a Scythe Slip Stream 120mm PWM fan. The Scythe 120mm PWM fans come in various min/max speed ranges and which you choose will depend on your systems heat output. Be careful not to damage the the XIGMATEK rubber 'shock absorbers'.

Get a nexus fan. Set it to run at 800 rpm. And let it go. An alternative is an 800 rpm slipstream running at a full 12 volts.

Another alternative might be a 1125 rpm Scythe Gentle Typhoon running at a full 12 volts. It is the only generally available PC fan with real ball bearings.

Then I'm going to need some very detailed instruction on how to do that. I don't even remember how I got it on the first time, except that I had to get this mounting clip that gets glued to the back of the motherboard (sold separately from the HSF of course), and even then it was an enormous pain.

And will I need to re-apply thermal compound when putting the heatsink back on?


Horizontally. The case is an Antec Solo, and has vents in the back, but not on top.

And shouldn't the fan's speed be controlled by the motherboard? I'm pretty sure that's what my current one is doing.

yep, fan speed can be controlled by motherboard, if youve got a 4-pin pwm fan header, then take a good look at the slipstream pwm.

as for the mount... backplate says to me that there should be screws somewhere. undo those.

alternatively you might just pull your whole motherboard and gently do the fan swap out of the case. that way you wouldnt have to mess with the mount, and you wouldnt need to reapply new thermal compound.

There is a detailed explanation of how the fan is fitted here http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/7971-xigmatek-hdt-s1283-cpu-cooler-review-7.html. Since the cooler is mounted with push-pins you should not have to remove the motherboard if you decide to remove the cooler first which given the mounting system may be the easiest option.

In terms of a new fan this fan is a close match for what you have already http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8329/fan-512/Xilence_Fan_120mm_x_25mm_PWM_Case_Fan_-_Red_Wing_XPF120RPWM.html. It will plug into the CPU fan header just like the existing fan and work in exactly the same way, that is it will speed up and slow down automatically based on how hot the CPU is.

Why open that can of worms. How hard is it to remove a fan without applying torque to the mounting. If you want to be extra careful, remove the board so it is free of any mounting, then apply what little torque is necessary to the fin assembly only.

ive never worked with these rubber mounts, so i dont know how much of a pain they would be to uninstall/install while in the case. if it was mounted with normal wire clips there'd be no issue in my eyes... but thats not the case.

some people really just dont like taking out their motherboards though, for whatever reason. maybe if enough of the 5.25 bays are empty he can just remove the front bay covers and have one hand going in from the front to pull the fan off, and one from the side to stabilize the heatsink...