Replacing / upgrading a case fan & 2 CPU fans

dar124

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 21, 2012
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I recently picked up a HP xw6200 motherboard to start building myself a new PC. I've been told that the dual Xeon CPU's run hot, so as I'm putting this together I'm going to switch out both CPU fans and the case fan to make sure that it will have good airflow.

In the past I had someone recommend a Noctua fan for my HTPC and I've been happy with it, so I figured that I'd look to use Noctua again. But as I looked over the fans that were in the case and on the CPU's I'm not exactly sure which fans would work for replacements?? Hopefully someone here can give me some suggestions for the right replacement fans. Thanks in advance.


CPU fan


CPU%2Bfan.jpg




Case fan


Case%2Bfan.jpg
 
The 70mm Delta is a good fan. I would clean them up and re-use.
I would replace the 120mm Coolermaster fans, but not sure what I would replace with. Whatever, they would be PWM and I would use PWM signal from CPU fan header to control them same as CPU cooler fans. ;)
 
The 70mm Delta is a good fan. I would clean them up and re-use.
I would replace the 120mm Coolermaster fans, but not sure what I would replace with. Whatever, they would be PWM and I would use PWM signal from CPU fan header to control them same as CPU cooler fans. ;)


I'm good with keeping the Delta CPU fans, if they're a quality fan. I just figured that since they were the stock fans they could use an upgrade. Especially if these processors run hot.

Yea, I wasnt sure how many different Noctua 120mm fans there are?? But after a quick search I came across this fan, would it work for this case?? I think most Noctua fans would be an upgrade, but wanted to get something good to keep a lot of air moving.
 
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Noctua now makes an industrial line that cost a whisker more but appear to be worth it. They use a 3 phase electric motor instead of the single phase in the one you picked and are black in color and can be bought either 2000 rpm or 3000 rpm. Also rated waterproof/dustproof and have a 6 year warranty!
The Delta fans are available on Amazon and other places if yours aren't working but I would definitely try cleaning them up first. They are 4300 rpm fans so they might be loud!
 
Noctua now makes an industrial line that cost a whisker more but appear to be worth it. They use a 3 phase electric motor instead of the single phase in the one you picked and are black in color and can be bought either 2000 rpm or 3000 rpm. Also rated waterproof/dustproof and have a 6 year warranty!!

This is all new to me, so I'm trying to get as much info as possible to make sure I make the best use of my $$. I'll look into the Noctua industrial line a bit more, but I initially thought they were a little overkill. Just trying to quietly move a lot of air, not sure I need something dustproof & waterproof :D


The Delta fans are available on Amazon and other places if yours aren't working but I would definitely try cleaning them up first. They are 4300 rpm fans so they might be loud!


The case fan is a 120mm fan, what would those Delta CPU fans be?? This PC will be in our office / 2nd bedroom, so I'm definitely going to want it to be quiet. I can see that getting that balance between a quality fan that keeps things cool and is also nice and quiet could be a challenge. I'm thinking that if the Delta's are too loud, something like this Nocuta fan would work for the CPU's??
 
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I don't know what you have for mounting brackets for the CPU fans so I don't know if the 40mm Noctuas will fit in place of the 70mm Deltas. Generally speaking the larger the fan the slower it needs to run to move the same amount of air, so you should probably look to see if you can put 80mm or 92mm fans on your coolers!
 
So I received and installed my 2 case fans, the Noctua 120mm for the rear and the Noctua 80mm for the front. But I'm having some problems connecting them to the motherboard.


First, the rear 120mm fan has this connector on it. Sorry for the blurry phone pic.

IMG_20150116_242223689.jpg


The motherboard has a 4 pin connection for the rear case fan, but the tracks / guides on the fan connection wont allow it to connect to the motherboard. I guess I could cut back the little track on the fan connection, but just didnt want to do that right off the bat!!


And secondly, the front fan has a 3 pin connection, but the motherboard has 4 pins. I thought the fan came with a 3 to 4 pin converter, but there doesnt seem to be one in the box?? I'm thinking that I could just leave one of the outside pins open?? But if that would work I'm not sure which one to leave open??


I thought that Noctua fans came with most all of the adapters needed to connect them, but for some reason I dont seem to have the ones that I need for either of these connections??
 
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The 3-pin connector can go onto a 4-pin header, just use the tracks as a guide (if there are no tracks/rail, then look to see if the pins are labeled on the motherboard. Should be GND, +12v, Sense, and (optionally, on 4-pin headers) control).

The 4-pin connector should be able to connect to the 3-pin header on the motherboard, just be sure it's actually a fan header. Again, check to see if it's labeled on the board.

Edit: here's the Service/Technical Reference Guide. See page 58 (PDF page 68) for the fan header locations. Edit2: oops, nope, thats for a different model.
Well, at least with the 6400 model, looks like it has non-standard (or an older standard) fan header configuration, with the guides on the outer edges of the 4-pin connector. You might still be able to use newer fans on it, but I'd definitely ask someone who knows more about the board before attempting yourself. It's really hard to tell without the actual manual or pictures of the fan headers on the board, though, so if you could get some of those up, that'd be helpful.
 
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I tend to like Nexus case fans for quite ones but I've heard the Noctua are good.
I'm not running them now cause I found some 140mm Thermaltakes cheap cheap and I needed so many. The Thermaltakes have held up but they are not the most quite.
 
Hopefully these pics will make sense.


This is the connector for the rear fan and the header on the motherboard for the rear fan. The line from the fan has the guides closer in, so it isnt fitting on the header, because the header needs the guides farther out.

front%2Bfan%2Bplug.jpg


front%2Bfan%2Bconnection2.jpg





And the line from the front fan and the front fan header.

rear%2Bfan%2Bplug.jpg


rear%2Bfan%2Bconnection1.jpg


The line from the front fan is a 3 pin connector, which would normally fit on a 4 pin header, but the guides are preventing it from fitting on the header.
 
Either take some needlenose pliers and wriggle off the guide on the header, or bring down the guide channels on the fan plug. Another (and one I prefer) option is to remove the plugs on the OEM fans and put them on the replacement fans.
 
Either take some needlenose pliers and wriggle off the guide on the header, or bring down the guide channels on the fan plug. Another (and one I prefer) option is to remove the plugs on the OEM fans and put them on the replacement fans.


Ok, I just hated to start cutting things off of a brand new fan (or off of the new to me motherboard). Figured that I'd check here to make sure there wasnt another option.

I dont have the OEM fans, so I'll have to work on either the motherboard or fan plug. If I was going to remove the guide on the header, would the whole thing just pull up and off of the pins, or would the part at the bottom around the pins stay there and just the guide snap off??
 
Personally, I'd do it off the fans as they are cheaper to replace. Also double check the pin diagram to make sure it's the same pins as a regular PWM fan. I'd think it would be, but you never know with their proprietary nonsense.
 
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