wilde@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Nick Wilde) (02/04/90)
A friend of mine has Mac II. The other day, he mentioned a desire to trade it in for a Mac IIcx. When I asked why, he replied "the fan" Apparently, he thinks the Mac IIcx's fan is much quieter than his II, and that the turbine whine of his Mac II is about to drive him to distraction... Short of such a drastic measure, is there anything this unfortunate (or fortunate to have such problems - if you think about it, the absence of any computer at all is certainly quiet :)) soul can do to quieten the fan on his Mac II ? Thanx -nick wilde (wilde@boulder.colorado.edu)
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (02/04/90)
Hi, Tell your friend to look into the Nova Fan Controller. It's about $90, if I remember correctly and it installs in the Mac II's power supply between the fan and the circuit board (yes this most DEFINITELY voids the warranty, but if it's an original II, I don't think he has to worry about that :-)) Actually, the installation is very easy, and only takes about 15 minutes. This gizmo has a temperature sensor that you stick to your hard disk, so if the Mac starts to get warm, it turns the fan up. As long as it stays cool, it stays quiet. I bought one for my IIx, and now my LaCie HD (which is VERY quiet) is louder than the Mac's fan, and before, you had to shout over it. You can get in touch with Nova Systems at (206) 548-9339. BTW, if you want to order when you call, find out what kind of power supply is in the II: It will be either Sony or Aztec. There is a different plug, I guess, so they have to know the maker to know which one to ship you... --Mike No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, except as a satisfied customer.
dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) (02/11/90)
In article <1543@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes: > Tell your friend to look into the Nova Fan Controller. It's about $90, if I >remember correctly and it installs in the Mac II's power supply between the >fan and the circuit board... That's right. It's $95 including shipping. I ordered one on Tuesday, and got it on Friday, after being told it would take 2 weeks (that doesn't happen too often, so it's worth mentioning). The instructions were excellent, and it took 10 minutes to install it (I admit that I have modified my power supply before, so I knew what to look for). I had one problem: The unit comes with 2 cable ties. The instructions don't say this, but you need to chain the two ties together to make a strap long enough to get around the controller. Now I have to figure out a way to silence the damned hard disk! > You can get in touch with Nova Systems at (206) 548-9339. This is not the order number. If you call them, they will give you a toll-free number to order from. Again, it is important to know which type of power supply you have. -- David Elliott dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce (408)944-4073 "You see everything -- you're omnivorous."
kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) (02/11/90)
In article <1990Feb10.224755.18720@smsc.sony.com> dce@Sony.COM (David Elliott) writes: >In article <1543@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes: -> Tell your friend to look into the Nova Fan Controller. It's about $90, if I ->remember correctly and it installs in the Mac II's power supply between the ->fan and the circuit board... >That's right. It's $95 including shipping. I ordered one on Tuesday,... Has everyone forgotten about just replacing the original fan with the Radio Shack fan, part number 273-243, for $14.95 ? True, it doesn't have a thermal switch, but then, I almost never take my Mac II out to the desert to use it. Just because it's sold by a "real" company, doesn't mean the Nova Fan Controller will work any better than the RS replacement. I can't imagine needing more air than the RS provides unless you have all 6 slots filled. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) (02/12/90)
In article <1990Feb11.045521.24649@Neon.Stanford.EDU> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) writes: >Has everyone forgotten about just replacing the original fan with the Radio >Shack fan, part number 273-243, for $14.95 ? True, it doesn't have a thermal >switch, but then, I almost never take my Mac II out to the desert to use it. I didn't forget about it, but the Nova fan controller can make a difference even *with* the fan replacement. The Radio Shack fan is definitely quieter than the original fan on the Mac II, but mine was still louder than my hard disk. With the Nova fan controller, the fan is hardly moving at all, just enough to blow a little cool breeze through the system. You might note that Mike Kobb noted that he added a Nova controller to a IIx, which as I recall already has a quieter fan than the old Mac II. As for the comment about the thermal switch and the desert, you're confused. The Nova controller doesn't speed up your fan more than the original speed. It just slows it down when you don't need it (I believe that this is a requirement for computers sold in some European countries). So, in the desert, my computer is just as loud as yours during the day, but when it cools off at night, all I hear is the hard disk. -- David Elliott dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce (408)944-4073 "You see everything -- you're omnivorous."