Anyone else into fan harvesting?
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Anyone else into fan harvesting?
I have gotten my hands on a lot of computer junk, and recently discovered the joy of scavenging around them for undervoltable fans. Basically, I never bothered before because I relied on the PSU fan for airflow and was afraid of PSU modding.
Well, I got over my fear of PSU modding, which has radically opened up my horizons for experimenting with fans. I now find that ALL of my old loud PSUs are potential candidates for silencing.
However, I suppose most of you buy quiet fans brand new. Do you just discard the fans you're replacing? Or do you at least try to see how they do undervolted?
Well, I got over my fear of PSU modding, which has radically opened up my horizons for experimenting with fans. I now find that ALL of my old loud PSUs are potential candidates for silencing.
However, I suppose most of you buy quiet fans brand new. Do you just discard the fans you're replacing? Or do you at least try to see how they do undervolted?
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Yeah, I enjoy digging up old parts/fans and playing around with them, some are noisy, some that I have come across could be classified as SPCR material, here is my tentative inventory of fans:
(~15) 80mm, 3 or 4 ADDAs a "silentek" fan from an HP power supply. very quiet. A couple Nidec fans, not too quiet, but very reliable.
(2)92mm, a stock zalman fan form a CNPS 7000, extremely quiet, with a good staring voltage, somewhere around 3.5-3.8
(10) 120mm, 2 no-name fans form some old junky server, they griiiinnnd, bearings are probably shot, 2 ADDAs from a PC7 Plus, 2 AC120s from some telephony server dealiey, and 4 fans from a rackmount server, 48v, 65cfm, rubber blades....yeah. rubber. theyre fairly quiet, and not hazardous to fingers.
(~15) 80mm, 3 or 4 ADDAs a "silentek" fan from an HP power supply. very quiet. A couple Nidec fans, not too quiet, but very reliable.
(2)92mm, a stock zalman fan form a CNPS 7000, extremely quiet, with a good staring voltage, somewhere around 3.5-3.8
(10) 120mm, 2 no-name fans form some old junky server, they griiiinnnd, bearings are probably shot, 2 ADDAs from a PC7 Plus, 2 AC120s from some telephony server dealiey, and 4 fans from a rackmount server, 48v, 65cfm, rubber blades....yeah. rubber. theyre fairly quiet, and not hazardous to fingers.
I do tend to get all-new fans for my own rigs, but I did that quite a few times before stumbling onto Nexus fans. The box of decommisioned fans is still quite full so those come in handy when doing a system build for friends or family.
But more to the point of this poll: I often rip out all fans from a junk system before actually throwing it out. Sometimes there are quite nice finds in there. Yes, I even salvage the tiny 40mm's: those can come in handy to replace shot fans on old mobo's or videocards where a passive sink is hard to fit (or too much hassle).
But more to the point of this poll: I often rip out all fans from a junk system before actually throwing it out. Sometimes there are quite nice finds in there. Yes, I even salvage the tiny 40mm's: those can come in handy to replace shot fans on old mobo's or videocards where a passive sink is hard to fit (or too much hassle).
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My philosophy so far has been "Never throw ANYTHING away." I have a box of old power supplies to go with my growing box of fans. You just never know. Teejay is right, a lot of this stuff is great for fixing someone else's computer who doesn't have a noise hangup. I recently pieced together a whole PC for use as a media PC from old motherboards, old cases, fans, etc.
Nice thing is how easily it all stores away. All my coords and pieces fit into a nice big container in the closet. Whenever my wife begins to get a little unhappy with the piles of cords, adapters, parts, etc. in the den, I remind her what it would be like if I had cars for a hobby instead of computers.
Nice thing is how easily it all stores away. All my coords and pieces fit into a nice big container in the closet. Whenever my wife begins to get a little unhappy with the piles of cords, adapters, parts, etc. in the den, I remind her what it would be like if I had cars for a hobby instead of computers.
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Oh, that's not any worse that my U.S. Robotics external 36k baud modem I have amongst the other treasures. (Going on about 5 years of broadband now).cpemma wrote:Look, I'm the bloke with a 20Mb MFM hard drive upstairs in a box, plus a few ISA cards. Might come in, if I ever want to restore an 8086.sundevil_1997 wrote:My philosophy so far has been "Never throw ANYTHING away."
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I put the 20Mb MFM hard drive I had into a "typewriter" I build for my sister a few years ago. I think the oldest piece of hardware I still have is an ISA card to add a clock to a PC that doesn't have one.cpemma wrote:Look, I'm the bloke with a 20Mb MFM hard drive upstairs in a box, plus a few ISA cards.
But for fans I am very picky. I've thrown away the original fans from my Antec TP380S PSU's. (I kept the frame from one after I cut the rotor out.)
Some of the best equipment ,(bits and pieces) I have are recycled from old ex-govt computers , printers and other office equipment .
A good example is a low speed Ceramic bearing 92mm delta fan out of a colour laser printer I scrapped out - the problem is that I can not buy one as a retail Item . a lot of high end components that are now out of date (3 yrs old) have fans etc of the highest quality that was available at the time . often much higher quality than is available in the retail chain . Although most are 6000+ rpm screamers that are of little use to any body who still has any hearing ability at all.
5400 rpm 120x50mm delta anybody?
Be just the ticket for a 50mm heater core for a deaf person
A good example is a low speed Ceramic bearing 92mm delta fan out of a colour laser printer I scrapped out - the problem is that I can not buy one as a retail Item . a lot of high end components that are now out of date (3 yrs old) have fans etc of the highest quality that was available at the time . often much higher quality than is available in the retail chain . Although most are 6000+ rpm screamers that are of little use to any body who still has any hearing ability at all.
5400 rpm 120x50mm delta anybody?
Be just the ticket for a 50mm heater core for a deaf person