O6 fan dying -- advice on replacement?

#1

Hi all,

Powered-on my O6 this morning, and being greeted with the delicate scratchy sound of a fan that is about to eat its bearings. Given that I have had this machine for only three weeks, this isn’t encouraging (but hopefully an isolated case).

Now, what to replace this sucker with? Is the heat-sink/fan assembly something standard?

I’ve seen someone sticking a very large fan on theirs, which required some 3D printing, and I’m more of the “off-the-shelf” approach (I already have too much hacking on my hands).

Thanks,

    M.
#2

According to the documentation here:

CPU Cooling

  • Mounting holes : 75mm × 75mm pattern
  • Support : Both active and passive cooling
  • Recommended TDP handling : 30W

75 x 75 mm matches Intel LGA 1155, 1151, 1150 and 1156 sockets, so in theory it should be quite easy to find a replacement. That said, I have read reports that the mounting holes on the Orion O6 are not as wide as required by some aftermarket cooler back plates. So that’s something to watch out for.

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#3

Huh. So much for using a standard form factor…

Anyway, thanks for the pointer, I’ll investigate and post again if I find anything suitable…

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#4

You have a few options. The Thermalright AXP90-X36/47/53s ought to fit and are cheap and readily available on Amazon.

Given the fact that the die is exposed I’d be real conscious of heatsink weight in this application; for that reason–and considering that any of them are overkill for this chip–I’d stick with an X36; they weigh about 230g to the stock heatsink’s ~90. I’m not super pleased that they’re rigidly mounted for the same reason, but I think they’re probably a better option than something heavier that is spring mounted.

I have not test fitted any of mine yet, but I know they support LGA11xx spacing, and I just measured the mounting screws with a pair of calipers; they are smaller than the Radxa stock heatsink screws.

In the attached pic, the long side of the Thermalright screw is about 2.3mm vs. 2.8 or so for the Radxa screw, and it is the side that passes through the board to attach to the backplate. The short threads are the same size and thread pitch as the stock Radxa screws, and those are what mount to the heatsink itself:

heatsink%20screw
heatsink screw.jpg2678×1883 534 KB

Otherwise, Radxa sells the heatsink separately, I ordered one from Arace with my board not realizing the board came with one.

And lastly, the exact same heatsink without the radxa sticker is available on Aliexpress from this vendor (I have not dealt with them, I just found this the other day while browsing): https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803989514808.html

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#5

Well I also have a spare one from the original order, but decided to go with your reasoning and ordered an x36 black for the mounting party into an all-black mini ITX case. Thank you for the tip.