Improving old Zalman with 1500 rpm no-PWM fan

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:59 am

I've got an old Zalman cooler with a 1500 rpm fan that doesn't support PWM. It's too noisy. Does anyone know if the fan can be swapped for one with PWM? It's a flower-like cooler, so it doesn't support standard fans.

andymcca · Post by **andymcca** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:39 am

The motherboard might get upset (without a fan speed signal), but you could take a 3-pin-fan-to-molex adapter and rewire it to run the fan at 5V or 7V (12V - 5V or 5 or 5V - 0V). Just be sure not to hook any electronics up down-stream of your modded molex (unless you reverse the mod on the female end of the adapter).

Edit: You might be able to rig a setup where fan speed is still reported to the mobo, but it would take some soldering.

Klusu · Post by **Klusu** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:45 am

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article284-page1.html

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:21 am

Klusu wrote:http://www.silentpcreview.com/article284-page1.html

I think mine is even older, the fan is in the same plane as the motherboard.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 3:32 am

It's like this one: http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Produ ... sp?idx=311

ces · Post by **ces** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 5:22 am

Olaf van der Spek wrote:It's like this one: http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Produ ... sp?idx=311

I think MikeC has managed to do a swap on that kind of Zalman as well.

I think you just need to spend some quality time researching some of the articles on SPCR.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:39 am

I will replace it with a Scythe Mugen 2.
Any recommendations for thermal compound? I see compounds of nearly every manufacturer on earth and I've no idea what the differences are.

ces · Post by **ces** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:59 am

Olaf van der Spek wrote:I will replace it with a Scythe Mugen 2.
Any recommendations for thermal compound? I see compounds of nearly every manufacturer on earth and I've no idea what the differences are.

A lot of people swear by the arctic brand.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:39 am

Arctic Cooling MX-2 is a safe bet given its modest price, good performance, and established fame among users. MX-3 is overpriced compared to MX-2.

ces · Post by **ces** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:04 pm

Olaf van der Spek wrote:I will replace it with a Scythe Mugen 2.
Any recommendations for thermal compound? I see compounds of nearly every manufacturer on earth and I've no idea what the differences are.

Why not try the mod first. It costs nothing. It might work.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:12 pm

ces wrote:
Olaf van der Spek wrote:I will replace it with a Scythe Mugen 2.
Any recommendations for thermal compound? I see compounds of nearly every manufacturer on earth and I've no idea what the differences are.
Why not try the mod first. It costs nothing. It might work.

Fans aren't free where I live.
It's probably quite hard to properly attach the new fan to the old heatsink.

ces · Post by **ces** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:14 pm

Olaf van der Spek wrote:
ces wrote:
Olaf van der Spek wrote:I will replace it with a Scythe Mugen 2.
Any recommendations for thermal compound? I see compounds of nearly every manufacturer on earth and I've no idea what the differences are.
Why not try the mod first. It costs nothing. It might work.
Fans aren't free where I live.
It's probably quite hard to properly attach the new fan to the old heatsink.

You might not want to bother, but you can open up your case.

Take its temps. Remove a case fan. Take its temps.

Then take that case fan and use two of those common plastic straps to strap it to the top of the CPU fan cage.

Then take its temps on more time.

But again, I could understand why you might not want to bother.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:09 am

My case is open already. You did look at my HSF type, right? I'd first have to cut the fan housing and then find a way to attach it to the HS.

BTW, why do you think I might not want to bother?

BlackWhizz · Post by **BlackWhizz** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:42 am

Do you have case fan headers on your mobo. And do they support q-fan? Connect your heatsink on such a header and enable q-fan.

I think thats the most easy solution.

ces · Post by **ces** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:51 am

Olaf van der Spek wrote:My case is open already. You did look at my HSF type, right? I'd first have to cut the fan housing and then find a way to attach it to the HS.

BTW, why do you think I might not want to bother?

I am not familiar with the AMD cpu fan setup. I remember looking at your image but I couldn't quite make out the fan setup.

I didn't know if you would be curious or not. I was though.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:57 am

BlackWhizz wrote:Do you have case fan headers on your mobo. And do they support q-fan? Connect your heatsink on such a header and enable q-fan.

I think thats the most easy solution.

No, unfortunately they don't support q-fan. It's an MSI P45 board.

Olaf van der Spek · Post by **Olaf van der Spek** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 3:58 am

ces wrote:
Olaf van der Spek wrote:My case is open already. You did look at my HSF type, right? I'd first have to cut the fan housing and then find a way to attach it to the HS.

BTW, why do you think I might not want to bother?
I am not familiar with the AMD cpu fan setup. I remember looking at your image but I couldn't quite make out the fan setup.

I didn't know if you would be curious or not. I was though.

I don't remember talking about AMD. I've got a Core 2 Quad Q9450.

This is the HSF: http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Produ ... sp?idx=311