Has anyone swapped the fan in their Mac Mini?

[Dreamkatcha]

I was wondering if anyone has replaced the stock Mac Mini cooling fan with anything other than the official Apple part and what the results were.

Are there any quieter/more reliable alternatives?

 

[JG271]

I don't know if it would be worth it really. It seems like the mac mini has its own custom-made fan - too thick to be a laptop fan but too thin to be a desktop fan. It also has a little channel which channels the air out to the back.

I'd be interesting, but it would be hard to find the parts and install them I think - opening up a mac mini is not easy!

 

[Schtumple]

It uses a graphics card style exhaust system, replacing yield little to no better results, if not worse ones as you'd have to file down the edges for it to fit better.

But hey, you could always put liquid cooling on it

 

[OllyW]

Are you having problems with the stock fan?

I've previously owned a couple of Intel Mac Minis and had no problems with overheating or fan noise. In fact they were so quiet, I had to move my head right up close to the mini to hear any fan noise at all.

I wish my iMac was as quiet.

 

[Dreamkatcha]

Yes, I suspect it's on its last legs. I've been moaning about it here.

To sum up, it started squeaking which led me to run some diagnostic tests and check out the system temperature/RPM of the fan. I lubricated it to stop the mouse impressions and installed Fan Control to keep the Mini cool because I found that the default setup wasn't up to the task - Apple have opted for quiet operation over longevity (the fan wasn't responding to temperature fluctuations at all!).

The upshot of all this is safer temperatures, but more noise.

I've found somewhere online where you can buy the replacement part, but I'd resent paying £25 + VAT + P&P for something that is worth less than a quarter of that. I've bought high quality, super-quiet Papst fans for PCs in the past for under a tenner!

Plus, if these stock Mini fans aren't particularly reliable or quiet I'd rather try something else, though as JG271 and Schtumple say, finding something suitable isn't easy.

This putty knife nonsense still bugs me, but I'm not too concerned about opening the Mini as I've done that three times before and it gets easier after the first time since the catches don't fit so snugly anymore.