Side note: Replacing fans on a Dell Dimension 8100

Please excuse my polluting this L400 blog with a post about the Dell workstation “Dimension 8100″, however it could be interresting for a few people and I’m not about to start a whole new blog for one post…

Anyway, I’ve just completed a replacement of both the system/chassis fan and the psu fan on this machine and it is quite possible although a bit cumbersome. Chassis fan (sucks out warm air from the cpu heatsink/shroud) is quite easily replaced, the only “problem” is you have to keep the motherboard plug since it’s a proprietary Dell connection. Just cut off the cables from the new fan and splice them onto a stump of the old fans wires+connector and you’re done.

I’ve put in 2x Zalman fans, one 92mm chassis fan (ZM-FM2) and one 80mm PSU fan (ZM-FM1). Shouldn’t set you back more than 12$ for both.

The ZM-FM2 runs at 2825rpm when installed as is = untolerably high noise, think hairdryer. You really need to use the resistor that comes with the fan. In the pic you’ll se I made a new incision for the resistor but now that you know you’ll need it you can just include it when you make the first cut. Trial and error my friends… With resistor the fan runs at ca. 1700rpm with greatly reduced noise. No errors reported.

PSU fan does not give any speed reading (I don’t think it did before switching either) but should run at maximum to keep the psu happy, the ZM-FM1 is rated at 0.17A, 3000 rpm while the original fan is 0.41A, 3600rpm (this manufacturers documentation says 0.26A though). There’s still noise coming from the psu that I had hoped to get rid of, a sort of electrical whine / buzz. Well, atleast the overall noise is reduced and the computer seems happy enough. No errors reported.

PSU side views (Cover removed)