Replacing Heat Sink Fans

[Woody01]

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On occasion I come across bad heat sink fans. The one I am working on now cools the heat sink for an Athlon XP 2800 +. It is a unusual size (60 x 60 x 13 mm). Trying to find a replacement fan usually turns out to be a protracted effort, which ultimately leads to replacing the heat sink. Heat sinks don't wear out, but it seems that the manufacturers are making it nearly impossible to find replacement fans, because they want you to buy the whole assembly. There are plenty of case fans out there, but most of them don't match up well. Anyone have a good source for good cpu fans?

[confus-ed]

The savings on this are marginal unless you want 'a good few' because of shipping, unless you have a local electronics store close ? (in which case you wouldn't be asking !) .. where are you exactly ? - Random google for US ? , & in the uk I've bought here before, but as you can see, one at a time it doesn't really make sense

[Woody01]

The savings on this are marginal unless you want 'a good few' because of shipping, unless you have a local electronics store close ? (in which case you wouldn't be asking !) .. where are you exactly ? - Random google for US ? , & in the uk I've bought here before, but as you can see, one at a time it doesn't really make sense

I don't mind buying more than one, but finding one that runs at a good rpm and with a reasonable sound level is the problem.
How many good heatsinks have ended up in the trash because of a $5.00 fan that is bad. What a waste.

[zz28]

I don't mind buying more than one, but finding one that runs at a good rpm and with a reasonable sound level is the problem.
How many good heatsinks have ended up in the trash because of a $5.00 fan that is bad. What a waste.

Good point Woody. I too run into this from time to time. The sad part is if it is an older PC (3 or 4 yrs. old), you can't find a new heatsink and fan and the otherwise perfectly good computer is worthless.

[WebHead]

Aren't heatsinks made of anodized aluminuminuminum? Could always recycle it if you are worried about waste.

[TechZ]

Best Heatsinks are made from Copper, but cost more, I've found Panaflow fans the most reliable available.

You can also get Cu+Al HS, good balance between cost and heat dissipation

[confus-ed]

Aren't heatsinks made of anodized aluminuminuminum? Could always recycle it if you are worried about waste.

I don't think he's worried about that kind of waste (well not here anyway) - he's on about situations like when say CD drives cost a lot & the spindly little drive belts they used to put in them would break & could you find anyone who'd sell you just a belt which cost about 5p to make ? Nope .. just folks trying to sell you a complete new one.

[arch0nmyc0n]

I've not really had any problems finding replacement fans for any size heatsink, I just get them from www.startech.com. But for anyone who's interested if you got a comptuer shop and are looking for a bit of extra cash, collect all the metal you throw away and sell it as scrap. We make some decent money doing that. We even burn off the plastic coatings on wires... which I'm sure is not that good for the environment but it's more money in my pocket... MUHAHAHAH just call me Mr Burns....

[WebHead]

Best Heatsinks are made from Copper, but cost more, I've found Panaflow fans the most reliable available.

You can also get Cu+Al HS, good balance between cost and heat dissipation

Oh, copper, right. That makes more sense. I guess I was just looking for an exuse to type "aluminuminuminuminum".

[Woody01]

[QUOTE=arch0nmyc0n]I've not really had any problems finding replacement fans for any size heatsink, I just get them from www.startech.com.

Startech has the best selection of replacement fans that I've seen so far. It's interesting to me that these fans are not described as cpu fans, but are simply categorized as fans to replace a non-functional or a noisy fan in a PC . Maybe there's a legal reason that they tip-toe thru the tulips.

Thanks.

[arch0nmyc0n]

One of Startech's "Outposts" is not an hour from where I work. I even went to one of their "open house" things and got some free stuff. I've always liked their quality. But as for just calling them fans... never really noticed... but I've used the fans not just for CPUs but other computer related cooling problems; I've even used them for non computer related cooling.