Zalman 7700 fan swap... help

netpro · Post by **netpro** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:19 am

Hey all!

I have the Zalman 7700 ALCU to cool down my CPU which you can see in my sig..

I'm not happy and all and wish to change the fan to something quiter.

I've searched a little and see that a few people done this, but bothing concrete really on how it is done, and most important:

What fan should I choose?

Panafly isn't available in Sweden as far as I knowK, nexus is available though...

Should I go with an 92mm?

I always run my Zalman fan at lowest woltage (with the fanmate), and this makes my CPU idle at 38. I wouldn't mind if it would idle a little higher, as long as it's quiet.

Any tips?

Thank you all!

John

PositiveSpin · Post by **PositiveSpin** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:15 am

The 7700 uses a 120mm fan. Are you sure you don't have a 7000 - that uses a 92mm fan?

There are several 120mm fan options for a 7700 - the only catch is working out a good way to mount them.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:27 am

Hi John,

If you search for Zalman 7000 fan swaps, that should give some pictures of the swap operation.

Nexus is a good option, however if you like to try the 92mm Panaflo you can get it from http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk. She only has the L1A model currently(no tachosignal, they are available in june/july). Price is 7.29£ ~10.6€ + shipping to Sweden (probably around 1-2€), so around 12-13€ shipped. However, even though the Panaflos are great in heatsinks application because of the vortex-type airflow, you don't get any extra benefit from that in this case.

Panaflo (MMM) 92-L1A - 43CFM 27dB(A)
Nexus 92mm - 27 CFM 19.2 dB(A)

However, I somehow remember the 7700 having a 120mm fan? If this is in fact the case, then the Nexus 120mm is the way to go.

Hope this helps.

Shaft0rz · Post by **Shaft0rz** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:46 am

I swapped the fan on my 7700, to a Nexus 120mm. It wasn't too difficult-- it required dismantling the heatsink (a few screws), and unscrewing the old fan. Then you just need to remove the frame from the nexus, and attach it in whatever way you'd like (I drilled holes in the remenants of the nexus frame and screwed it in, however this probably isn't ideal without using some kind of dampening material to decouple the fan).

The only hiccup was that the nexus fan sits too low, by default, and the fan blades scrape the heastink, so I needed to use a riser to get the blades high enough.

Hope that helped

netpro · Post by **netpro** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:42 pm

Hi!

Yeah.. looks like it's an 120mm fan then. I have done some searching, but the 92mm model seems to be more popular around here.

Well, then I'll try to get hold of an nexus 120mm.. Just discovered that they're out of stock at all retailers

Shaft0rz: That helped very much thank you. How was the result soundvise? I guess that the most sound comes from the air turbulence.. How was it??

THANKS!

John

Shaft0rz · Post by **Shaft0rz** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:56 pm

It sounds, or rather doesn't sound, great. The loudest thing in my system right now is the idle spin of my 2 samsung spinpoints. The 7700 is a good enough cooler that I'm able to run the nexus at 5v without any issues, which is as close to inaudible as I think any fan will ever be.

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:39 pm

When I decided to do a fan swap on a Zalman 7000 I searched SPCR forums and found a simple and effective fan mounting method. Scotch double sided tape was used to attach the new fan securely while damping vibration.

netpro · Post by **netpro** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:54 am

Sounds great!

I have ordered 2 x Nexus 120mm, and will try to make the swap on both my Zalman as well as my PSU.

Thanks!!

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:11 am

If mounting the HS in a tower case, make shure the doublesided-tape is high quality and can stand high temperatures... I just epoxied the fan in place, it only needs to run at 500rpm to keep the CPU cool so it doesnt vibrate at all

And i can rest assured that the fan wont fall off.. Heres a pic.

netpro · Post by **netpro** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:32 am

yeah, that's how I want it to look!

Cool, thanks.. I was thinking about mounting it with superglue, but I might want to change fan in the future..

And yep, it's a tower case, so the MOBO is vertical..

Thanks!

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:46 am

Mine is mounted with the scotch green plaid double sided tape in a tower case and I can assure you that there is no way for the fan to fall off.

niels007 · Post by **niels007** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:06 pm

The difference between the stock fan and a Nexus (or low speed Yate loon) is huge! You won't be dissapointed

nici · Post by **nici** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 6:15 am

Michael Sandstrom wrote:Mine is mounted with the scotch green plaid double sided tape in a tower case and I can assure you that there is no way for the fan to fall off.

I do beleive you, but i would still feel uncomfortable with it so i decided to epoxy it in place just to be shure.