[SOLVED] Some fans that will fit

[Minti]

Hello all, i have a dell inspiron 3670 desktop and i got a cooler last week and it doesnt fit, does anyone know of some small coolers that are compatible with my mobo? Thanks

 

[velocityg4]

Dell often uses non-standard fan pinouts. You may fry a regular fan or CPU cooler without first voltage testing and swapping any wires necessary. That or use a molex/SATA to fan adapter to power the fans at full speed. There are also third part fan controllers you can use to control the fans and replace the optical drive with the controller for ready access. Just remember to check pin voltages if you want to use the onboard header.

I'll preface by saying. I don't know the exact interior measurements. As I found someone upgraded their 3670 with an ATX PSU. I'm using the ATX standard as a size reference. Then using rear and interior photos of the 3670 for measuring points.

Case Fans: For the rear exhaust. Going by the ATX PSU standard of 138mm between the furthest two screw holes. Going off the rear screw hole options. It appears you may use 2x70mm fans for exhaust or 1x80mm. I'd measure screw hole placements to be sure.

CPU: The case interior width is just wide enough for an ATX PSU. So, about 150mm. Once you factor in the standoffs, motherboard and CPU. You are probably left with about 130mm clearance, perhaps less. You'd want a top down cooler. Assuming my 2x70mm assessment is correct for the rear. Going off the images. I'd expect you'd only be able to use an 80mm top down cooler. If the rear is 2x80mm. Then a 92mm cooler. This is to clear the optical bay and top PCIe x1 slot. Also giving room for exhaust fans.

If you mount the exhaust fans outside the case. Remove the optical bay. Then sacrifice the top PCIe x1 slot. You may be able to fit a 92mm to 120mm top down cooler. Although as you won't be overclocking. I can't see a reason to go beyond 92mm for the CPU.

If you still want a tower cooler. The best you can likely fit is the Noctua NH-D9L. For top down it would be the Noctua NH-L9i. I don't really see anything cheaper that'll fit which are worth mentioning. They seem to be all aluminum or badly spaced heatpipes going into an aluminum base. The only other item I'd consider would an Intel BXTS15A. Which is just a really tall Intel heatsink. Which has copper going to the CPU. Still it would not compare with the Noctua.

 

[Minti]

Dell often uses non-standard fan pinouts. You may fry a regular fan or CPU cooler without first voltage testing and swapping any wires necessary. That or use a molex/SATA to fan adapter to power the fans at full speed. There are also third part fan controllers you can use to control the fans and replace the optical drive with the controller for ready access. Just remember to check pin voltages if you want to use the onboard header.

I'll preface by saying. I don't know the exact interior measurements. As I found someone upgraded their 3670 with an ATX PSU. I'm using the ATX standard as a size reference. Then using rear and interior photos of the 3670 for measuring points.

Case Fans: For the rear exhaust. Going by the ATX PSU standard of 138mm between the furthest two screw holes. Going off the rear screw hole options. It appears you may use 2x70mm fans for exhaust or 1x80mm. I'd measure screw hole placements to be sure.

CPU: The case interior width is just wide enough for an ATX PSU. So, about 150mm. Once you factor in the standoffs, motherboard and CPU. You are probably left with about 130mm clearance, perhaps less. You'd want a top down cooler. Assuming my 2x70mm assessment is correct for the rear. Going off the images. I'd expect you'd only be able to use an 80mm top down cooler. If the rear is 2x80mm. Then a 92mm cooler. This is to clear the optical bay and top PCIe x1 slot. Also giving room for exhaust fans.

If you mount the exhaust fans outside the case. Remove the optical bay. Then sacrifice the top PCIe x1 slot. You may be able to fit a 92mm to 120mm top down cooler. Although as you won't be overclocking. I can't see a reason to go beyond 92mm for the CPU.

If you still want a tower cooler. The best you can likely fit is the Noctua NH-D9L. For top down it would be the Noctua NH-L9i. I don't really see anything cheaper that'll fit which are worth mentioning. They seem to be all aluminum or badly spaced heatpipes going into an aluminum base. The only other item I'd consider would an Intel BXTS15A. Which is just a really tall Intel heatsink. Which has copper going to the CPU. Still it would not compare with the Noctua.

So get an ATX PSU then buy a new fan? That wont change the pins on the mobo tho. I currently have a be quite dark rock pro 4 which works fine but is just too big. I dont see how changing the PSU would solve anything ( I’m not a pc expert so i may be wrong) Thanks

 

[velocityg4]

So get an ATX PSU then buy a new fan? That wont change the pins on the mobo tho. I currently have a be quite dark rock pro 4 which works fine but is just too big. I dont see how changing the PSU would solve anything ( I’m not a pc expert so i may be wrong) Thanks

I never said buy a new PSU. I said I was using an ATX PSU as a size reference to estimate the size of case fans and CPU cooler you would need.

Also you were being warned the Dell motherboard may fry any fan you try to install. So you need to verify the voltages at the fan header pinout or use a fan power adapter to connect directly to your PSU.

 

[Minti]

I never said buy a new PSU. I said I was using an ATX PSU as a size reference to estimate the size of case fans and CPU cooler you would need.

Also you were being warned the Dell motherboard may fry any fan you try to install. So you need to verify the voltages at the fan header pinout or use a fan power adapter to connect directly to your PSU.

Should i just use the intel cooler that came with the cpu?

 

[velocityg4]

Should i just use the intel cooler that came with the cpu?

I looked up the parts. From what I can tell from forum posts is that Dell does indeed use a custom fan connection with extra sensors. At any rate you can't just plug any CPU fan into the motherboard header. You could use a PSU adapter. But it would be at full speed all the time. Plus you will get a CPU fan failure warning at boot. Which I don't know if it can be bypassed.

You are best off using the original Dell fan and heatsink. Not an Intel one that came with the CPU. If you bought a new CPU for it. As far as I can tell. Dell only offered one heatsink design for that model. So any CPU option which shipped with that model should be adequately cooled by the included heatsink.

Really if you want a custom computer you need to build it yourself. Not start with an OEM computer. OEM have many more limits and require a lot of mods and workarounds for aftermarket parts other than RAM, drives and some expansion cards. Even CPU upgrades have a lot of constraints. As motherboards may not have microcode for normally supported CPU or not be rated for the power delivery of high end CPU. GPU upgrades have some of the worse constraints.

They have various reasons for these limitations. A lot of it is shaving production costs. Some of it is gimping low end models to push sales of high end models. It's also to limit tinkering and warranty claims.