Ball bearing fans?

[Toaster]

Hey folks,
The other day, my trusty and dusty Cel. 300a running at 533mhz gave a temp warning.
I opened the case to find the fan stalled.
I was a bit annoyed as I thought I had bought a desent fan/heatsink. The fan boasted ball bearings and a wonderfully huge heatsink.
Seems that the fan stating that it was a "ball bearing" type was a bit of an "untruth". The fan had "1" ball bearing and one "bushing" style bearing. The bushing failed and soon after the ball bearing did.
So...a bit of a warning is in order.
Simply stating that the fan is "ball bearing" can be misleading as in my case. The fan performed well for about a year.
Any ways, keep tabs on those fans folks, they do die and die silently. My system board (Asus) had its alarm set to 130 (f) and after an hour of on time...it went off. My whole case cooling approach keept CPU temps from getting out of line and gave me ample time to correct a problem. Watch those fans!

[didk63]

How does one go about setting your pc to shut off after a certain temp is reached?

[fordvan]

There is a setting in the bios, but only if your motherboard comes with temp warning etc.
Check your MB manual.

[Joe Auman]

Don't you ever notice the ploys of other products too? Like "New and improved." First off, if it's new, than how is improved? To be improved would mean that their was a something before that, which totally counterdicts the idea of being new. What compines will do to get a ceartain name on an advertisment.

--------------
When in doubt, mumble. When in trouble, delegate. When in charge, ponder.


[This message has been edited by Joe Auman (edited 05-22-2000).]

[bob]

Toaster - wiser hardware advice simply does not exist.
CPU fans are one of the last things checked - while most fail within 1 to 2 years. The worst is that they sometimes just barely spin - can you say "Fatal exception at 028:"

I bet some people have their cache disabled because the CPU fan is not cooling the CPU during peak usage.

[Toaster]

Hey folks,
I believe the problem stems from production costs and merchandising.
We, the users of these devices are soley to blame because we wish to spend little and get allot. So....manufacturers cut costs and cut competitions throughts to make their products available to us. I since replaced my fan/heatsink with a PC power and cooling unit. As far as fans go, this thing was expensive but worth the cost. At 32 bucks it cost nearly 3 times that of "typical" units.
During the failure of the fan, system temps did not exceed about 135 degrees. This figure might be somewhat high for normal use but gave me ample time to correct a cooling error.
Some users havn`t the case cooling that my system(s) have and their temps may not have been as low due to lessor cooling.
Asus boards will auto shut down when temps rise above set amounts. Mine are set to 150 degrees in case i`m not handy to notice cooling problems.
Anyhow, just a gentle reminder, watch those fans.

[Mylez]

Hi, all! I got a P11 bought almost 3 yrsa go and my CPU fan sounds like grinding and later it starts like balking. The question is, can I just remove the fan from the Heatsink and buy a fan without removing tne original heatsink from the CPU? Thanks.

[bob]

Yes- they are usually screwed on with 4 screws. The question is do you want to buy the same fan.

[Mylez]

Tnx, Bob. I just want to save some bucks, rather than buying the whole kit. Isn't that P11 CPU fans are all standard in sizes?

[Toaster]

Mylez,
Not all PII fans are the same size.
Worse yet, you will have some difficulty in locating just a fan without heatsink.
Unless you buy a high quality fan/heatsink, in most cases the fan will fail in about a year. PC Power and Cooling offered me a lifetime warranty and a VERY substantial product. My CPU temps are now 12 degrees over ambient. This particular fan/heatsink uses a "near peltier" design where high velocity air has a cooling effect that is 22 degrees below ambient. At 35 bucks it was a tad pricey...but i`ll never buy anything else.

[Mylez]

Thanks to all! I agree with Toaster it is realy hard to find a fan alone. What I did was just removed the fan from my original CPU and put the new one without the heatsink. I did not use the new heatsink since the original heatsink assures me that it is well bonded to the CPU. Now my comp is running smoothly. Bye and Godbless.

[fredwest]

Hi guys,
I've seen OLD 486's with a heatsink and fan and the fan is still 100%. Ball bearing or not, there's something to be said for 'quality construction' of components.

I've seen it when it comes to engines especially. Small engines (mowers etc) have gone downhill IMO as far as build goes. Today it's all plastic, plastic and plastic. Save a buck and replace alloy with plastic.

Fans, engines, things in general ain't built as well as they were. That's why I like and ride old motorcycles. My 1974 Honda isn't nearly as powerful or as fast as todays bikes.......but it's BOMB proof.......that's the difference.

Over engineering is dead. Personally I hate this trend but what can you do? The market governs the price.......so make it as cheap as possible .

I could go on and on.......

CHEAP SUCKS!!!


Yours

Declan (aka fredwest)