Add a fan to your MediaSmart Server

Add a fan to the rear of the power supply  on the  MediaSmart Server.

A little history first about why:

I’ve been following the post on adding a Dual-Core CPU to HP’s MediaSmart EX47x models on MediaSmartServer.net here called “Saw a EX470 post with a AMD X2”. This is a great post and very popular.  It was started by Maliclipse on April 12, 2008 and as of July reached over 65 pages, 956 replies, and over 51900 views, wow.

Thanks to ymboc, a big contributor for figuring out how to modify the system BIOS to accept the dual-core processor. And a big thanks to the support of active members who have contributed and kept this post going and those who have helped other find compatible CPU’s. Way to go guys.

Following the thread, most people are getting idle temperatures around 38 to 40 degrees. Mine runs around 54. What a difference, I’m not sure if it’s because of the ambient temps, but my server runs stable. The temps were around 58 before the upgrade, so installing the dual-core has already lowered the temp by 4 degrees, could also be because I added Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU and northbridge. I have also run ORTHOS for a few hours to do a stress test. It ran for over 2 hours up to 92 degrees, no shut downs and it completed tests past the 35k mark.

With comments on adding fans inside the front cage door, I found this unacceptable. I get that sucking air in across the CPU would create air flow in and out. But it’s a tight fit. I found that if I attached the fan to the inside grill with tie wraps,  there was a whistling sound. Besides the PSU (power supply unit) is blowing its warm air into the case. I’m not sure it being forced out the grill. So I decided to try and force it out the back.

The PSU has a grill back there. So at least some air is being pulled in by the fan at the front end. You know what, I didn’t even check to see if the front fan is pulling air in or out, so I could be wrong here. Anyway, I wanted to take advantage of the rear grill. BTW, I’ve read that a Shuttle PSU with fans at both ends can be rewired to work with the EX47x models but that wiki is in the works over at MediaSmartServer.net and not ready at this time. Also, I didn’t want the added expense of purchasing a new PSU and replacing a perfectly good one. If this one blew, then I’d give it a try.

I took my EX470 apart and you can follow my tear down when I add the popcorn hour to my EX47x on YouTube here.

I completely removed the PSU from the main PCB and then took out my Dremel, and carefully cut out the read grill of the PSU the same size as the fan.

You can see here from the Popcorn Hour mod, that I removed the grill from the 2 rear fans, and I have holes along the left for the video/audio connections. Also I’ve added the VGA connector so I can run the installed version of MCE 2005 to my large screen.

The second photo shows that the fan sticks out a bit, I took the top cover off the PSU so I could run the wire neatly inside the PSU out to the front where it will connect to the 12 volt header on the main PCB.

Here is the work necessary to allow for that fan sticking out.

Since the fan is black, it’s hard to see the cut.

It has made a big difference, my temps are at least 10 degrees lower, wow. Now I’m more in speck with what others have posted in the thread. All in all it’s a tiny bit louder, but it’s a smooth sound. It also depends on the quality of fan you purchase. Maybe later I’ll add a control to lower the speed.

Diehard

Tags: MediaSmart Server, Mod

Category: BYOB Hardware, Windows Home Server