eMac - Zalman Fanmate 2 installed

[pistooli]

As a final mod for the eMac, I installed a Zalman Fanmate 2 to make the computer a little less loud.

I found some instructions for the fanmate version 2, as I knew the small device needs to be rewired, and the male/female connectors also needs to be swapped.

Honestly, I did not start the mod, until I was fully confident, that it will work (the eMac belongs to my parents).

Finally I found two instructions with same wire structure and some success stories, so I was confident enough to start.

Macrumors, thanks to seb_carley

A german Mac site, thanks to user Barcode

(I even registered on the german site just to see the pictures on the site)

So I had the rewire instructions, I started my adventure in soldering land, then attached the plugs (I had to shave them a bit to fit), organised the cables of the Fanmate2, so the actual device was outside of the computer, then assembled the eMac, powerd it up, and prayed.

It started up as usual, same high noise of the fan (I turned the Fanmate2 to max previously). Once it went to desktop, I started to adjust the power on the Fanmate... and... yes, the fan started to run with lower speed, hence its noise was lower. Nice!

I played a bit with different levels, I could actually made the eMac virtually silent in the lowest position of the Fanmate2.

Finally I settled in a lower level, but still audible noise, taking into account that hot summer is still to come.

Since the eMac has only Hard Drive temp sensor, that is the only one I can monitor, but it looks like settled in between 30-40 C.

The eMac is now a perfect machine. It does not have high noise from the fan, it has 1.25 GHz G4 cpu, 2 GB memory, a new DVD burner, and fresh Leopard installed.

Ready to be handed back to my parents, they will use it - I am sure - for some more years.


- I attached two pictures of the wires - please disregard my obviously poor job on the soldering

[Nameci]

You could have used a shrinkable tube instead of the tape.

[pistooli]

I could have... true... I just wanted to try it out asap, and all I had was this green tape...

[Nameci]

But anyway, nice mod.

[pistooli]

Thanks!