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MDD Dual G4... I need a more quite fan!! HELP

T

tjasinto

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 14, 2006
13
0
Hi all. I tried to search for this topic but I could not find it during my search of forums. I hope I posted this topic in the right place.

I recently got an old MDD Dual 867mhz G4. The computer itself runs perfectly but the fan is really loud.

I have read that this is was one of the bigger problems when these first came out a couple of years ago and that Apple did have an exchange program for these loud fans/power supplies.

Now obviously they probably don't have this exhange program going on anymore.

I'm not that versed as far as what kind of fan I would need. There are so many out there to choose from. Even something half as quite as the stock power supply/fan would do.

Does anyone have any recomendations as to what power supply/fan I should get and where to buy it from?

Thank you very much!! :)
 
i believe it's a 120 mm fan. the delta fans i think fit fine. other 120 mm fans may need to be cut/shaved down to fit correctly. you should also change out the heat sink. it comes with a alum (grey/silver color) heat sink to the copper heatsink. that helps alot keeping cool. good luck. small dog may have a heat sink.
 
Very good answers bokdol

We have two MDDs, both are silent ;) One has the Verax, one has the Copper, both use CHUD and NAP.

The Copper heatsink is the first choice. Panaflo makes a really quiet 120MM fans which are near a direct fit as well.

Usually Ebay has a low noise Power Kit floating around, which includes a 120MM fan, and a 'quieter' 360 watt power supply. (your MDD came stock with a 400 watt).

Other cooling methods include installing the CHUD control panel (Apple) and enabling NAP, and turning off 1 of the 2 CPU's (when not needed).

There is also a way to modify the internal workings of OS X to raise the fan speed, which in turn keeps the system cooler and prevents fan cycling up and down. This is not for the faint of heart, I have done it, but requires a lot of editing.

http://homepage.mac.com/paul74/MDDFanExtensionMod.htm

Also, there is a very nice kit from Verax, but be sure to be sitting down when you check the price.

http://www.veraxfans.com/shopping.htm
 
I installed both the Verax kits M10+M11 on my dual 1.4; not silent but a big improvement... and yes, pricy. Includes a new heatsink and the two kits together replace every fan in the machine except the small side door one.
 
RGunner said:
We have two MDDs, both are silent ;) One has the Verax, one has the Copper, both use CHUD and NAP.

The Copper heatsink is the first choice. Panaflo makes a really quiet 120MM fans which are near a direct fit as well.

Usually Ebay has a low noise Power Kit floating around, which includes a 120MM fan, and a 'quieter' 360 watt power supply. (your MDD came stock with a 400 watt).

Other cooling methods include installing the CHUD control panel (Apple) and enabling NAP, and turning off 1 of the 2 CPU's (when not needed).

There is also a way to modify the internal workings of OS X to raise the fan speed, which in turn keeps the system cooler and prevents fan cycling up and down. This is not for the faint of heart, I have done it, but requires a lot of editing.

http://homepage.mac.com/paul74/MDDFanExtensionMod.htm

Also, there is a very nice kit from Verax, but be sure to be sitting down when you check the price.

http://www.veraxfans.com/shopping.htm
Click to expand...
GEEZ....OUCH... $200. That's about 1/4 of what I paid for my computer. LOL

I hear those verax fans are near silent. Any solutions for around $100? I can deal with a little bit of noise. It does not have to be dead silent. Any improvement will do right now.

So I would need a 120 MM size fan? And about the copper heat sink, is there a particular size I need? And finally the wattage of the power supply. Anything below 400 watts is ok? Is there a minimum wattage I can't go below?

And regarding the CHUD contol panel, which version would I need? Would it be the CHUD 4.0.2?

Thanks so much for the info so far!! :D
 
bokdol said:
you should also change out the heat sink. it comes with a alum (grey/silver color) heat sink to the copper heatsink. that helps alot keeping cool. good luck. small dog may have a heat sink.
Click to expand...
I found this web page that has pictures and instructions on how to change out the heat sink on my MDD.

Does this look correct?

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/MDD_copper_heatsink_swap/mdd_copper_heatsink_swap.html#storytop

Also, this page has a MDD Dual g4 1.25 ghz. I have a Dual g4 867 mhz MDD.

Does that make a difference in the size of heat sink I need to get?

Thanks...
 
Couple answers...

You are thinking too much :)... PC gear wont work, you have a choice of a 360 Watt (replacement MDD supply) or a 400 Watt (original supply). The replacement is about 5% quieter. The main fan 120MM is the biggest culprit, and you can buy just about anywhere (2 pin, 120MM), Panaflo would be my choice, check at www.svc.com.

There is only 1 copper heatsink for the MDD, and its from Apple. (checked Smalldog and they did not show it, may want to call them tho, it 'was' $65.00).

The latest CHUD works fine with 10.4.8, there are variations to be careful of tho.
 
The MDDs have a problem with dirt in the fans causing a lot of noise.

Try blowing the dust out before you replace anything.

I think the MDD takes a standard 120mm, I'd have to look into it though.
 
RGunner said:
You are thinking too much :)... PC gear wont work, you have a choice of a 360 Watt (replacement MDD supply) or a 400 Watt (original supply). The replacement is about 5% quieter. The main fan 120MM is the biggest culprit, and you can buy just about anywhere (2 pin, 120MM), Panaflo would be my choice, check at www.svc.com.

There is only 1 copper heatsink for the MDD, and its from Apple. (checked Smalldog and they did not show it, may want to call them tho, it 'was' $65.00).

The latest CHUD works fine with 10.4.8, there are variations to be careful of tho.
Click to expand...
I installed CHUD 3.5.2 and then updated it. Now I have the choice of running either 1 or 2 processors and in NAP mode like you said.

It seems a tad bit quiter. Only slightly.

I tried several places (like applepalace.com, which seems to have everything for a mac almost) but I could not find the right copper heatsink. It seems that everyone has the aluminum heatsink. I checked eBay as well. No luck.
 
RGunner said:
You are thinking too much :)... PC gear wont work, you have a choice of a 360 Watt (replacement MDD supply) or a 400 Watt (original supply). The replacement is about 5% quieter. The main fan 120MM is the biggest culprit, and you can buy just about anywhere (2 pin, 120MM), Panaflo would be my choice, check at www.svc.com.

There is only 1 copper heatsink for the MDD, and its from Apple. (checked Smalldog and they did not show it, may want to call them tho, it 'was' $65.00).

The latest CHUD works fine with 10.4.8, there are variations to be careful of tho.
Click to expand...

RGunner

Can I slap this fan in my G4 MMD DP 1.25 tower and reduce noise or is there more that needs to be done. :confused:
 
Fan takes care of 50%

Noise reduction of 50% would be my best guess if you replace the delta fan with one of the Panaflos.

If you order from SVC, go ahead and buy two versions and test both (only $13 or so each). There are several 'db ratings', I am unsure which is more appropriate.

35db and 30db would be the two versions I speak of.
 
The AFB1212HE is listed at 41 dB-A from what I've found on the web. So the 35 dB-A replacement fan is about 4 times quieter. This may be my holiday project.
 
just in case you are into dremel projects..

Hi there,

had the same problem like you have. What you can do to stay under 100$:

-buy the panaflo 120mm, however you need to dremel a little bit.


for the power supply you can go the same way verax did it. Replace two small fans with one big one. (The small size is the noise factor)
Just download the instruction from veraxfans for the powersupply M11 instalation and have a look how they did it. Very easy, all you need is a 1mm aluminium sheet from home depo, a bit dremel work and metal bending and a standard 80 mm fan with good cm rating -done ! Actually you could even use a verax fan which you can buy seperate for 20 -30 bucks if you don't know which 80mm fan to use.
 
Ooooh. Good stuff for me to know for my server project.

Any pics of the verax mods and other?

Oh and I saw a four tower style heat sinc sitting on a g4 mdd somewhere on MR... I'll look for it again, but has anyone seen those before? Any easy solutions to use watercooling on the MDD's?
 
silenx.com

silenx makes the quietest fans available.. worth checking out

TRUST me, i tried ALL the recommended fans... will only buy silenx fans from now on.

I am a HUGE noise freak. I spent a lot of time trying to quiet down my Quicksilver, and ended up putting its guts in to a G5 case with some silenx fans... quietest quicksilver EVER
 
product26 said:
silenx.com

silenx makes the quietest fans available.. worth checking out

TRUST me, i tried ALL the recommended fans... will only buy silenx fans from now on.

I am a HUGE noise freak. I spent a lot of time trying to quiet down my Quicksilver, and ended up putting its guts in to a G5 case with some silenx fans... quietest quicksilver EVER
Click to expand...
Wow their fans seem quite. On average of 14 dBA vs my current fan that is 35 dBA.

Do you know what size I would need? I do know I need a 120 mm fan.
 
I've been toying with quieting down my Digital Audio for some time now, but I always sprung for increased-performance upgrades.

Now that I've pretty much reached the limit of what I'm willing to do to it, I think I may swap out the PSU fan for a quieter model.

Still my DA on a bad day isn't as loud as those MDDs!
 
Looked at my fan again and found the specs for it.

It's a Dleta AFB0612HHB Optical Drive Fan. It's one of the stock fans that came with the MDD. It's 60x60x15, 4500 RPM/17.3 CFM @ 35dB.

What exactly is an optical drive fan and do I need to get an optical drive fan when replacing mine?
 
The most important part about replacing fans is making sure your new fan will displace the same amount or more amount of air as the old one. If the RPM is a lot lower, then chances are its not going to be displacing as much air, and its not going to do as good of a job cooling your Mac.

I replaced a really noisy fan that ended up giving out on one of my linksys routers with a fan that didn't spin as fast, but was a lot quieter. Big mistake... I now have a $200+ paperweight.
 
longofest said:
The most important part about replacing fans is making sure your new fan will displace the same amount or more amount of air as the old one. If the RPM is a lot lower, then chances are its not going to be displacing as much air, and its not going to do as good of a job cooling your Mac.

I replaced a really noisy fan that ended up giving out on one of my linksys routers with a fan that didn't spin as fast, but was a lot quieter. Big mistake... I now have a $200+ paperweight.
Click to expand...

Its true, if you aren't moving enough air, you will end up with too much heat. Another thing is that you need to have as much air coming in to the computer as is going out.

When i did my G4 to G5 case conversion i was able to use the quietest fans available because of the G5 case design. I used fans locally on the heatsinks, and it cooled very well.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a quiet fan often times will quietly move more air at top speed than the loud fan did at low speed. Keeping the quiet fan constantly moving that much air with little noise prevents the components from heating up in the first place.

Unfortunately the only way to find out is to try it, and carefully monitor the heat after installing a new fan.
 
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