Installation success

[murchball]

I just finished installation of 2.0 on my raq3 and upgraded to 2.1 with no problems. Thanks for all your work on this project.

One thing I did notice was that both of my fans on this unit had died. I had replaced these a couple years ago and I have no idea when they died. What are your thoughts? Do I really need fans?

[Davesworld]

It depends. What's your cpu temp? I know these things can run ridiculously cool with even modest fans. As far as what is available, I had found a suitable replacement a few years back, Sunon introduced a rohs compliant version of the original fan by popular demand.. They come unterminated. The closest substitute we all had been using prior to this was a higher rpm version that adds a bit of whine to your computer room noise.

Some pci cards and even hard drives can contribute to the overall heat in the case, especially multiple port dsl cards such as I am trying to get working at the moment. Fortunately I use flash drives which give off practically no heat at all and thus do not draw much current from the precious few watts available from the small power supply.

[murchball]

Temperatures are in the low 60s. I think my best bet is to buy a couple fans just for piece of mind.

Thanks!

[Davesworld]

That's higher than usual. I just remember my first Athlon XP ten years ago which always ran in the 60's. An article showing someone cooking an egg on an Athlon by fabricating a small tray attached to the processor also came out about that time. These days my Quad Phenoms run much cooler and actually draw less power. The Athlon XP was by far the most power inefficient x86 processor I have ever owned.

One thing to consider is that your Raq can never dissipate more than 50 watts and likely not over 20 watts in heat typically. Mine depending on hardware can go anywhere from 12 to 20 or so. The Quad Solos card in it that I am starting to explore can draw a healthy amount.

You could always get a socket 370 heat pipe and route the tubes out the back if you mind a big radiator looking thing sticking out. The power supply probably needs cooling the most and that is the fan that fails the most.