By Gophn

Supplemental to the Clevo D900F Ultra-Detailed Review

This post will document my search for the fourth fan of Clevo D900F (aka. Sager NP9280).  Come and read what I went through… and a windfall that led me to a successful, yet simple, fan mod (modification).

Let me start by saying that Justin (of Xotic PC) has been as helpful as possible in my search for the ever elusive 4th fan for the Clevo D900F (Sager NP9280) which was found on the initial/pre-release D900F’s that were seen in the first reviews released.

From a pre-released D900F Review: look at the 2nd fan from the left.

As you can see at the above picture, there is clearly a fourth fan (second from the left) that the D900F had in the pre-release models.  When the system started to ship out to the consumers, apparently the fan was taken out of the final production model… which got me (as well as many people) confused.  Did Clevo feel that the fan did not do a sufficient enough job to warrant its need?  Was it too costly to add the fan to the final production model?

I became a bit obsessed in finding out how a fourth fan could affect the current high temps that were being generated by the hot desktop Intel Core i7 processors (130w).  Justin (of Xotic PC) sent me a unit for review and a bit of my experimenting purposes… and for that, I am very grateful to him and Xotic PC.  Of course, Sager and pretty much all other Clevo vendors said that the 4th fan I am inquiring about does NOT exist… well that was not good enough for me.

The current D900F being shipped out that obviously has a fourth fan missing.

As you can see from the two pics, there is a place for the fan.  If there was no fan for it, then why would there be a vented heatsink and the mounting and the power connector for it… c’mon Clevo.  So I went in search for that exact fan (part number) that was seen the in pre-release D900F models.

My initial thought was the previous D901C (Sager NP9262) model’s fan that is that exact position.  So I contacted Justin and he got Sager to send me out the D901C’s fan.  I was extremely excited when I saw it because it seemed that it would fit right on the spot…. well it kinda did.

Firstly, the fan did not mount onto the available screw mounts in the D900F properly at all.  Secondly, the fan and duct assembly did not fit at all in the area because the panel will not even close or screw in properly with that in there.  The only positive thing I found about the D901C fan is that the power connector is perfect for the D900F’s missing fan.  Of course I plugged it in and it spun right up when I did the Fan Toggle (Fn+1).  Then I decided to dismantle the D901C’s fan assembly and found that it actually helped the fan fit in the area by mounting the fan on the panel itself, lined-up with the fan vent.  The panel even closed and screwed down properly.

I thought I had figured it out until I realized two things:  (1) is that by flipping it over and mounting it onto the panel, the direction of airflow was opposite of all the other fans (meaning that the air will intake from the back and exhaust the air out to the bottom vent; and (2) without the fan assembly, there was no air duct to guide the airflow to a specific path (so it would not have a positive airflow).  I asked my cousin who is an engineer to see if we can mod/re-program the fan to spin the other way; he said its possible if we can reverse the polarity… but that didn’t pan out because it was not ’simple’ fan that just has power polarity, rather the fan is controlled by a tiny PCB.

So scratch that idea.

I got a hold of the D900F Service Manual to do a bit of schematic & part number researching, which then led me to discover that there is no 4th fan in the manual… meaning that Clevo meant to have the fan removed from the final production model… dang.  Then I dove into all the other Clevo service manuals that I have (which is pretty much of all the models that date back almost 20 years) looking for a fan part number that could fit. I killed a few days doing research and found nothing close (other than the D901C fan that Justin helped me get a hold of).

I kind of gave up on the search for a perfect fourth fan.

It was not until a week later when a friend called me to check out an old Compaq notebook (with AMD Athlon T-bird in it).  The system seem quite sturdy and held up well over the years, except the fan sounded to struggle and have grinding noises while spinning up…. in other words, the fan was dying.  He said can we do something about that, of course I told him that its simple to revive a dying fan.

How to revive a noisy or dying fan (grinding, making noise, clogged with dust):
1.) get to the fan, unplug its power if possible, take out the fan if possible, and clean it out as thoroughly as possible to clean out dust.
2.) the best way to revive a computer fan is to use a tiny bit (like a drop) of WD-40 on the bearing of the fan (in the center of the fan where its grinding)
3.) then manually spin the fan around for a minute or so with your hand, which would lubricate and clean the bearing of the fan
4.) after that, leave the fan alone for a while (20-30 minutes is good)
5.) put the fan back and plug the fan’s power back in
6.) turn on your system and listen for fan… if its nice and quiet, while spinning fine… then you are good to go.

But I digress.  When I took the fan out of my friend’s old Compaq to revive it, it gave be a lightbulb moment.

Apparently that fan seemed to be the perfect size for the 4th fan location on the D900F.  And to make it even more perfect, the power connector was a perfect fit into the D900F, as well as it having the proper direction of airflow if I were to mount the fan onto the bottom panel with the fan vents.  Woohoo!

Pictures and measurements of the SUNON GC054509BX-8

Its a fan used in Fujitsu and Compaq notebooks a few years back (SUNON GC054509BX-8 Cooling Fan)

Okay, so I decided to test out the fan in the D900F and immediately found a problem…. the power connector fits, but has a different wire layout (pattern).

The candidates: SUNON fan on left and the D901C fan on right.

Steps to mod the 4th fan into the D900F: (easy and cheap… ~$20)

Required Items:

• SUNON GC054509BX-8 Cooling Fan ($10-20 on eBay or Google)
• Scissors or something else that can cut/strip wires and cut paper ($1)
• Electric tape ($1)
• Some paper, thick piece if possible (free, get it from ads or magazines)

1.) You must re-arrange two wires to make it work properly on the D900F by crossing wires on the SUNON fan (Black-Yellow-Red) to the D901C/D900F fan power connector configuration (Yellow-Black-Red)

2.) Simply cut the BLACK and YELLOW wires, strip the ends a little, then cross-connect them.

3.) Connect the wires together securely.  I just twisted them together for testing, but you can solder them together if you want a better bond.  Then cover up the connections with electrical tape.

4.) Mount the fan (on its flat side) on the panel, right in the center of the fan vent (where the missing fan is). I used electrical tape for temporary adhesive; didn’t want to permanently leave the fan there when I send it back.
- you can use tape, hot glue or even screw/bolt it onto the panel since you have the fan’s three mounting holes to work with.

5.) You are going to make an air duct system for the airflow by cutting a strip of hard/thick paper about 12-in x 0.5-in (30.5 cm x 1.3 cm).
- Then you will slip that piece of paper in a U-shape from one side of the small heat sink to the other side to create the duct (see pic below).
- I used an old folder to cut up, it was only about 8.5-in long, so I cut up some more small strips and stapled it to extend the strip’s length

6.) Almost done.  Carefully connect the short fan power connector into the motherboard’s connection.  Then close the panel and screw it up. (look at pics above and below)

7.) Turn on the D900F notebook and do the Fan Toggle (Fn+1) to make sure the fan is in properly and is not scraping against the strip of paper.
- if you hear the fan scraping up against the paper, open the panel and reposition the strip of paper, then close it up and try again.

8.) That is it. Enjoy your fourth fan in the Clevo D900F.

Now doesn’t that look nice to have fans for each vent.

There you have it, the easy and simple way to add a fourth fan and (I confirmed that it) will actually throttle its speed from Auto to Max like the official Clevo fans.

…but…

How does it perform?  Is the notebook cooler with this fan?

• The temps are well under 60C on Idle…. and well under 100C (around 85-90C) with the modded 4th fan.
• Gaming and Full Load temps have about 2-4C degrees shaved off on average.

What other mods would I do to improve this “fourth fan” mod?

1.) Increase the length of the new fan’s wires when you are cutting them.  The wires look to be 24-28 gauge.
- this will make it more manageable when you have to open the bottom panel now and then (for dust cleaning and such)

2.) Increase the airflow of the new fan by cutting the excess plastic around the back of fan circle.  (look at pic below)

I would cut the highlighted areas off to keep the mounts intact.

That’s pretty much it if I were to make any more improvements with this modification.

I just wanted to do this to show Sager (as well as Clevo) that the 4th fan is a necessary component for cooling, even if it gives a marginal improvement.

I was not sure if I wanted to show people how to do this mod, but its quite simple and having extra cooling for such a hot CPU might be worth it to do.

… or until the Core i7 (130w) gets a die-shrink that is …. like the D901C experienced with the first generation Q6600 and the die-shrunk version shortly after.

Note: if you read my review, you would know that using Xeon’s (COre i7 spec’ed) but using much less wattage, the CPU temps stay much cooler overall.

Hope you will find this useful,
-Gophn

Tagged with: 4th fan • 9280 • 975 • 9820 • 9850 • ALC888 • bluray • clevo • Clevo D900F • computer • core i7 • D900C • D900F • D901C • ddr3 • desktop • desktop replacement • fan • fan mod • fan modification • fourth fan • modification • NP9280 • temp • temperature • temps

Filed under: Computers and Technology • News and Articles • Tutorials

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