# Very old case fan: is it safe?



## Romanov77 (Feb 25, 2005)

Hi people,

recently I was clearing my closet and found this very old computer, must have been an old quad core something with a radeon x550 and a broken heatsink.

The case has been sitting in the closet for at least 12 years and for some time it has also been left standing outdoor on a balcony (my old dad = genius :angry.

I opened it and decided that the only things that could be salvaged are the dvd burner and the case fan.

About the case fan, that would really come in handy, as in my newly built PC it is missing. Currently I have:

Asus Z170-A
i5 6600 3,5 ghz skylake
Noctua NH-U12S heatsink
Seasonic S12 II Bronze 620 w ATX12V
8 gb of DDR4
GTX 660 OC 2 gb

I have no need of a case fan, as right now temperatures are excellent (less than 25 Celsius on idle and slightly more on heavy load, the Noctua is a beast! :smile: ).
However, with the incoming summer, it might be useful.

My only fear is that, being old or defective, it could damage my new expensive system. Could that happen?

Here's a picture of the fan:


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

If the old outdated computer was no good, I see no problem putting it out on the balcony to get it out of the way. 

There is no reason to believe the fan could damage anything if put in another system. But frankly, I would just go buy a new fan if you need one to put in your new system. A 12 year old fan is not likely to be very quiet. The bearings may be worn (if not full of dirt and dust) so in addition to bearing noise, it may cause vibration noises that reverberate through the case. Plus, going by the 12 in the number, I would guess it is a 120mm fan. If me, I would buy the largest fan my case supported. And many new cases today support 140mm or even larger fans. Larger fans move more air for better cooling but typically spin at a lower RPM, thus making much less noise too. 

Is your home air conditioned? If so, the summer heat is not really an issue.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

See this: Fan maintenance - oiling bearings for fun and profit!
Any strange behavior from day one and stop immediately and just discard.


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## Romanov77 (Feb 25, 2005)

Thank you guys.
My home is air conditioned but I usually use it only in the hottest days.

I would like to try to salvage it, even if I know that there are new, better and cheap alternatives. I always had silent computers, so it must not be really noisy.

So, beside noise and vibrations, there's no risk of the thing frying the mobo or something in case it is defective?


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

> So, beside noise and vibrations, there's no risk of the thing frying the mobo or something in case it is defective?


No - not at those small DC voltages. Worse case even if there was a total short, would be your PSU shutdown. But as that would be pretty obvious, it would also be pretty obvious to just unplug the fan and buy a new one.


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## Romanov77 (Feb 25, 2005)

Ok, will mount it at the start of summer.

Thanks you guys!


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