80mm Silent Fan Mod

whufclee
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80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by whufclee »

Is your xbox a big noisy beast? Most of them are due to the old fans in them, even if you don't think you notice the noise try one of these mods and you'll think to yourself "wow I didn't realise just how noisy it was!".

It's a fairly simple mod and as I had to do 2 of them today I thought I'd knock together a guide as all the other ones I can find seem to give dubious information so this is what works for me...

What do I need?
An 80mm fan, I always go for the Xilence ones which you can pick up cheaply (either the standard black or redwing - there doesn't seem to be any difference in noise levels between them, just a different colour).
A pair of snips (or a dremel will do the job).
Something to cut through plastic, you could use a dremel, a junior hacksaw or what I use which is a JML Exakt Saw.



Step 1:
Take the fan out of it's packaging and cut around the bottom two corners so you have two little plastic bits poking out like the picture below. Before cutting you want to make sure the fan will be blowing out of the machine and not into it (there should be a little arrow on the fan somewhere telling you which way it's blowing).
Image

Step 2:
Open up the xbox and take everything out (HDD, DVD Rom, motherboard, power board and game controller ports) so you should now be left with something like the picture below. To remove the fan you have to get a screwdriver down the side and prize open the clips at the bottom - it will then release when you pull upwards. If you accidentally break these clips don't worry it's not the end of the world.
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Step 3:
Carefully prize out the RF Shielding and once out get your snips and cut the mesh out from behind the fan.
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Step 4:
Now tidy up the rough edges and bend the metal outwards slightly (so the fan doesn't clip it otherwise it will make a very annoying noise!).
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Step 5:
Carefully put the RF Shielding back in place making sure it's properly in place - you'll know if you've got it in properly by looking at the bit behind the power button - if the holes in the shielding don't match up with the solder points you know it's still not quite in place. Now screw the motherboard, power board and DVD ROM back in BUT NOT HDD CADDY. It should now look like this:
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Step 6:
If you managed to not break the clips for the fan you should be able to clip the new fan in place as shown below, if you broke them not to worry we'll get to that in a minute - for now just slot it in place.
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Step 7:
Time for some ties... Whether you broke your clips or not this is still worthwhile doing as it pulls the fan down flush with the casing and helps the fan move more freely. The one shown below is clipped into the original clips so I only need one tie but if you broke them then use 2 ties - just stick them through the top holes and tie them onto the holes either side of where the mesh used to be.
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Step 8:
Now it's time to cut the HDD caddy with your junior hacksaw/dremel or whatever you have that will cur through plastic. Make sure you remove your HDD from the caddy before doing this - you don't want bits of plastic in there! You need to cut along the line above the warning sign and stop just after - if you want it perfect just measure up against your fan to see exactly where to cut.
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Step 9:
Now you have the HDD caddy all ready you can stick it back in and screw it all back together. Once all screwed back in place check to make sure the fan is actually rotating - if it isn't switch off the xbox and take out the 2 screws nearest the fan. Now switch back on again and start with the middle screw and tighten until you hear the fan clipping something, then loosen until it's free again and then do the same with the other screw. It's a tight fit and you want it to be tight but occasionally this problem will occur so either use this method or open her back up again and fiddle about with some filing. The finished product should look something like this:
Image
Last edited by whufclee on Mon Jun 16, 2014 10:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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RoyalX
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by RoyalX »

Thanks whufclee.
A nice 2012 update on the 80mm fan mod.
whufclee wrote:Before cutting you want to make sure the fan will be blowing out of the machine and not into it (there should be a little arrow on the fan somewhere telling you which way it's blowing).
Is the stock fan blowing in or out of the case?
I though it was blowing air in to the case!
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by Nextelhalo »

Stock fans blow air out in turn sucking cold air in and cooling everything down. Best way to go
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by Xphazer »

No, the stock fan blow the air out too. The opposite wouldn't be good..
Tips: Use a sheet of paper to find witch direction a fan blow. ;)
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by RoyalX »

With a paper it was hard to see. But I saw a pigeons feather laying around. And used that.
Indeed it blows air out of the box.
But I am really confused now. Have to process this.
Nextelhalo wrote:Stock fans blow air out in turn sucking cold air in and cooling everything down. Best way to go
I now see for 100% the benefits of your cuts on the RF shielding.
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xman
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by xman »

Real easy to understand. You want a vacuum cleaner, have you fan suck in air through the grill and all your parts in side with act like the vacuum cleaner's bag. This you do not want. You think the inside gets dusty now, reverse the fan direction and watch what happens. Also try to get all the air drawn towards the fan inside the machine to go through the GPU and CPU heatsinks. These are the parts that require cooling and not much else other than a few parts on the power supply that also have heatsinks. Use the heatsinks as a guide to what you need to cool. Have a good look at how all the parts inside the box go together in stock form and you will quickly understand how all the air drawn towards the fan is funneled under the DVD drive tray and the HDD tray and passes through the 2 major heatsinks keeping then cool. You make a hole anywhere between the fan and the heatsinks and air will be drawn to the fan though that hole as it offers less resistance than though the heatsinks on the GPU and CPU. You will need a bigger fan then just to do the job of the stock one. Think about this, if you needed a bigger fan , how is it you use a 60 x 60 x 25mm fan in a slim and it doesn't overheat and I run my slims at 20% fan or auto control at 50c with minimum fan speed at 2%?. You want to run your fan slower and quieter?. Cut a small piece of cardboard and attach it to the side of your fan housing on the motherboard side and attach the other end of the cardboard to the corner fin of the GPU heatsink so no air can go round the heatsink and do the same on the other side of the fan housing to the CPU heatsink so absolutely all the air being drawn towards the fan MUST go through these 2 heatsinks. Make sure it doesn't prevent the DVDrive or HDD carrier from going all the way down and that they seal with the cardboard and see how that works. If your still having cooling problems then I would look at changing the fan as it probably is faulty. If your fan is noisy it is probably as a result of somebody being to rough when they cleaned it. I use a soft brush and HOLD the blades as you clean them so when you brush them, you don't put sideways pressure on the motor shaft. These type of motors are not intended to have stresses put on the motor shaft and are very easily damaged this way. Easiest and safest cleaning is done by removing the fan and holding it by your thumb on the fan center and your 1st finger in the center on the other side of the fan preventing the fan from moving as you clean it with a soft brush. You can now be as hard as you want because your holding it and the brush is no longer trying to push the center of the motor out or force it back inside the motor cleaning from the other side. Not putting sideways stress on these motors shafts is the name of the game here. And also, don't spin the bloody thing with your fingers. That will surely end a fan's life prematurely.
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by ola »

Thanks! Great tutorial.

I think I'll give mine a go any day now :)

Is it a 2-pin, 3-pin or 4-pin connector for the fan? Looks like a 3-pin from the images.

I'm looking into getting one of these:

http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/hardvara ... _80mm_11db
http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/hardvara ... mm_7-17dba

Will post back my result once it's done :)
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by xman »

The machine uses 2 wires in a 3 way connector. If your fan has more than 2 wires, work out which 2 actually power the fan and use those 2 and don't connect the spare or spares. Make sure the fan spins the connect way like if you reverse the 2 power wires, the fan will spin the other way and you don't want that.
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by ola »

Thanks a lot!
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by asbo »

I have one of those fractal design ones in my main xbox (also some bigger ones in my fractal design PC case, they're very good). Just plug the fan cable in, no wire switching or anything needed. :)
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by GhostlyGamer »

snapshot(5).jpg
How do i power it from that >.>

Hdd power? normal fan power plug?
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by Nextelhalo »

You do either or. If you use the HDD power the fan will be 100% all the time. If you use the mobo plug you can atleast set a fan speed setting in the BIOS and in XBMC. Unless you've got a nifty fan speed controller somewhere :D
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by GhostlyGamer »

Nextelhalo wrote:You do either or. If you use the HDD power the fan will be 100% all the time. If you use the mobo plug you can atleast set a fan speed setting in the BIOS and in XBMC. Unless you've got a nifty fan speed controller somewhere :D
yeah but the mobo plug has no ground, which is what worries me. The only ground on it is on the HDD plug, which also powers the blue LED ring
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by Xphazer »

The fan wouldn't work without a ground, it would defies the laws of physics. ^^
..The speed sensor is missing on the stock fan. The middle pin is 12v+ and the other one is ground..
The Xbox control the speed with a variable resistance on the ground line... thats why if you directly ground the stock fan it will run at full 12v..
More resistance there is on the ground, slower the fan will rotate.

As Nextel said, you have 2 choice.. the mobo plug with a variable speed controllable via software, or on the HDD if you don't care about the noise..
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by GhostlyGamer »

Xphazer wrote:The fan wouldn't work without a ground, it would defies the laws of physics. ^^
..The speed sensor is missing on the stock fan. The middle pin is 12v+ and the other one is ground..
The Xbox control the speed with a variable resistance on the ground line... thats why if you directly ground the stock fan it will run at full 12v..
More resistance there is on the ground, slower the fan will rotate.

As Nextel said, you have 2 choice.. the mobo plug with a variable speed controllable via software, or on the HDD if you don't care about the noise..

wait, you said middle pin is +12, that means, that all that is on ymy fan is the speed sensor and the hdd power. that means i have to power my fan with hdd


and the ground is in the hdd plug
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by shady7 »

Hi there my xbox fan is pretty noisy to the point I can almost hear it over the movie. Ive backed the fan down to 10%, temperatures running between 40-45 degress so im pretty happy with temps but fan is still way to loud. I have just bought myself a xilence case fan 80mm red wing. I have read whufclee' tutorial and llamas fan tutorial is there any thing else I should know before I start this job in the weekend Im pretty nervous as the xbox holds all my tv shows and movies. Any info given would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance everyone
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by Maza »

The tutorial by whufclee is pretty much all you need, I have done three silent fan mods myself and I did pretty much the same way. You just have to be patient and take your time.
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by professor_jonny »

shady7 wrote:is there any thing else I should know before I start this job in the weekend Im pretty nervous as the xbox holds all my tv shows and movies. Any info given would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance everyone
if you are worried on loosing your movies and such take a dump of your eeprom and bios and store it on your computer that way if you do bung your xbox you can make a new one and or still get access to your hd if it is locked.
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by shady7 »

Its hard modded duox2 chip Do I need to do anything? Thanks in advance
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Re: 80mm Silent Fan Mod

Post by xman »

Start cutting sir. One tip I'll give as with all mods, keep practice fitting your mod till you job is done. Better to spot an error before your finish the whole job. ;)
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