Rube Goldberg would be Proud!

   I paid $7 for a new 486 fan and heat sink and removed the fan from the heatsink. The backpane bracket - a nicely chromed unit - actually cost $1. That seemed like a lot for a simple piece of metal, but that's what was available at the time. You could find this stuff much cheaper at a computer swapmeet. Use the hammer to flatten the bend in the block off bracket. The using the two pliers put a 90-degree twist in the bracket. See the photos of the finished product below to see where I am going with this. Not clearly visible (and I forgot about it in my original post) is a small piece of double sided foam mounting tape between the fan and the bracket to add stability while the ties secure the fan. See the thin white strip between the fan and bracket? It's not critical but takes out any chance of looseness.

  The notch shown above helps to hold the ties in place. Snugged up, the ties hold the fan in place quite nicely. With this build method you must mount the fan in an adjacent empty slot, as shown below, as it will not clear the top of most cards. Angle the bracket so the fan hub is centered over the Voodoo2 card. This provides a stream of air over both sides of the card and is quite effective. Make sure the air flows toward the Voodoo2 card and not away from it. That white cable visible laying on the Voodoo2 card goes to the temperature probe taped between two RAM chips on the backside of the Vodooo2.

   An alternative bracket that I thought of involves NOT flattening the block-off bracket, but turning it upside down and putting an opposite 90-degree bend in the bracket (not a twist), raising the plane of the bracket over the top of the card, then drilling 2 holes in the bracket for mounting the fan with screws or bolts and nuts.

I drilled the holes very close to the edge but ended up grinding a small cutout to allow complete clearance of the fan air path - an inconsequential finishing touch. I will finish this one later today. I don't have the right size bolts and nuts or fan mounting screws yet.

Later that day....

Well, if you look closely, the bracket above has changed. I had a minor accident with the prototype, so started over. I ended up with a larger cutout to accommodate the fan better. The third hole was already there and is unused. The bolts are US 6x32x 3/4inch - whatever fits. Well, here's the new finished product:

Installed, it does clear the cards. The screw slot is reversed but fastened easily enough on top of the Voodoo2 bracket.

Back to introduction

Back to top
Back to tech tips! home

This page is last updated Saturday, January 08, 2000
[home][news in depth][special reports][video cards][tech tips!][discussion][links][feedback]

Created solely by William D. Ball © 1998-9
All rights reserved.
Site design by Ian Chiu