I know this has been asked a million times!

[Vorde]

Hello,
I know that you've heard people asking about this for a while but I'm still kinda confused on this. I have a old Black N64 and I want to be able to overclock it. I just need to buy the weird game bit screw thing...
Anyways, my friend gave me a fan that's DC12V that runs off of 0.7W
It's got 2 wires (obviously) and I was just wondering on a few things.

1) Do I have to replace the heatsinks that are already in the N64 or are they efficient enough as long as I have a fan to blow cool air over them?

2) Would it be possible to install the fan inside the N64 without having to have an outside power source?

3) How would I mount this thing? It has no clips or anything, just 4 holes on each corner  <_<

So when I install it, I basically just cut off the connection and solder it to a proper point on the motherboard?

If someone could help me with this, it would be great! Thanx!

[kendrick]

The science of heat sinks is half unsatisfying physics and half outright guesswork. But the reason for putting larger heat sinks on the overclocked N64 chips is to move more heat further away than the stock heat sink can. Just blowing air over the existing sink may reduce the surface temperature of the chip, but may not cool the interior of the chip quickly enough.

Having a fan, LED lights, or anything extra is simple enough on any console. Find the voltage feed points and connect directly, and regulate if necessary with a 78XX series voltage chip. There generally won't be a pin sticking out somewhere with a label on it, so this is something you have to trace from the power input or suss out yourself with a multimeter.

That fan you've got? It's intended to mount on a plate that has four pre-drilled machine screw holes. That plate is then affixed to the computer case (or whatever) via plastic clips specially molded for that purpose. You will have to fabricate an appropriate set of clips, or a casing, or cut the appropriate part off of a PC case. If the appearance isn't important to you, duct tape and tie wraps are fine too.

In your place, I wouldn't solder the wires directly to the voltage point. I might consider running wires with a connector, so that the fan is easily removed when needed. I would also consider putting in a switch, so that I can elect to turn the fan off if the overclocking isn't activated.

Hope that helps you out.

-KKC, who has a new toy he's about to post pictures of...

[Guest]

Well, I just tore apart a PS2 and found the main fan to actually take only 7v and use 0.21 amps. I found a power supply I have for my CD player and it's 6v and 0.3 amps, so what I'm going to do is lower the amps (do I just need resistors?) and run it on 6v instead of 7v. It'll go slower but probably still effective.
I guess I'm going to need to find a place to buy heatsinks and heatsink glue (or whatever it's called). Then put it on to my N64 CPU and then attach the fan to the top of the casing. That should work...

[Vorde]

Well, I just tore apart a PS2 and found the main fan to actually take only 7v and use 0.21 amps. I found a power supply I have for my CD player and it's 6v and 0.3 amps, so what I'm going to do is lower the amps (do I just need resistors?) and run it on 6v instead of 7v. It'll go slower but probably still effective.
I guess I'm going to need to find a place to buy heatsinks and heatsink glue (or whatever it's called). Then put it on to my N64 CPU and then attach the fan to the top of the casing. That should work...

oops, that was me. I forgot to log in  :lol:  

[Bostich]

Well, I just tore apart a PS2 and found the main fan to actually take only 7v and use 0.21 amps. I found a power supply I have for my CD player and it's 6v and 0.3 amps, so what I'm going to do is lower the amps (do I just need resistors?) and run it on 6v instead of 7v. It'll go slower but probably still effective.

The way I understand it, the amperage listed on power supplies is actually a maximum capacity.  You might notice that power supplies will have a higher amperage output listed than what the device requires.  (i.e., the power supply is not operating at full capacity)

example: The official NES power supply is 9V 1.3A.  The actual NES lists its power requirements as 9V 850mA.

[Scias]

I posted this on the last fan thread and it's still relevant:

Honestly, I had a big computer case fan with LEDS on it, a pentium 2 fan, all the LEDs (they are wired to the 3.3v) I put in the console lit up, with the system overclocked, AND played perfect dark, and the whole thing worked just fine, no lie. I'd say your good with a standard cpu fan (probably a thin one from a 486 cpu or something, depending on where you want to mount it) cause most cpu fans I've found are 12v, some 9v. They don't draw many amps at all, so you should be able to just wire the fan to the 12v lead at the on/off switch and boom, it'll work. I also just bought two little radioshack transistor heatsinks and stuck them together with a heatsink adhesive, and put them on the processor. It stays ice cold with good heatsinks and good air circulation.  btw, the fan is screwed into the two little metal brackets that the giant rf shielding and heatsinks were screwed into.  It didn't match exactly, but just over thread the bracket with the right screw.

Now, I don't see any need to settle for a weak fan when it would be easy to just get a 12v fan (10 bucks at most at radioshack or fry's).  When the case is closed on top of the fan, the fan will have a little trouble sucking or blowing air (whichever you decide to go with) because it's pressed so close between two places it will have to pull or push the air harder.  So running a fan on less voltage plus the extra work the fan motor has to do might not work too well.  One way around this that I did was cut a few of the ?vent shades off on top of the console to make air flow easier.  In the end it's all up to you.

For reference here's my N64

outside
inside
inside again
insideinside

[Aidan]

The science of heat sinks is half unsatisfying physics and half outright guesswork. But the reason for putting larger heat sinks on the overclocked N64 chips is to move more heat further away than the stock heat sink can. Just blowing air over the existing sink may reduce the surface temperature of the chip, but may not cool the interior of the chip quickly enough.

The science behind heatsinks is well understood, and modelling by hand is possible but not easy.

The speed at which you can extract heat from the chip is determined by three factors. The temperature at the chip, the temperature at the surface, and the thermal resistance of the packaging.

However, the stock "heatsink" is appears to made up of several parts. Each junction between the parts adds significantly to the thermal resistance. Hence, if you replace the existing heatsink, shielding and metal shims with a single heatsink, you significantly reduce the thermal path to the outside world.

On the other hand, given that the chips do not kick out very much heat, you may find that it is of limited benefit. Generally, the higher the power to be dissipated, the more significant thermal resistance becomes.

In terms of the 7V fan, it won't be a problem powering it from 6V. Basically as long as the power supply you use can supply more current than the fan needs you are ok. You would only need a resistor if the voltage supplied by the power supply was higher than the voltage required by the fan.

[Vorde]

well, I just found out that you can run a fan at very low voltages. I just ran the fan through my sega genesis LED power supply (3.3v I believe) and it actually runs...not that well...but it runs!
I'm going to do this a different way now. I'm going to take the two fans that I have (one is 12v the other is the PS2 fan which is 7v) and then I'm going to wire these to an external power supply like I was mentioning before.
I also solved the heatsink problem as I found a busted up old computer motherboard my friend gave me in my basement. I took the old heatsink off of it and it's about the same size as the CPU chip inside the N64 so I think I'm all set.

I just have a few more questions (sorry):

1) What do I need to use in order to get the heatsink to stick to the top?

2) How will I attach the fan to the top part of the system (crazy glue)?

3) Will running 2 fans at 12v and 7v together off of a power supply of 20v kill it?

Thanx a lot!

[Scias]

1.) Get some heat sink grease and smear it on the top of the processor.  You COULD use some thermal adhesive, but then the heat sink would pretty much be permanently affixed to the processor, and you might possibly damage something if you tried to pry it off someday.

2.)You could use glue, you could use bolts from the top of the system (a unique look).  I'm thinking glue would work, that's what my light switch if affixed with.  I'm more partial to hot glue, myself.

3.)  If you wired them in series with a resistor at the end then it should be ok.  What are the amp ratings for the power supply and both fans?

[guest_atom]

boy have I got the solution to you, when I get home I will help you out mmk?

[kendrick]

I would argue against hot glue, especially for a component that's rotating or otherwise producing vibration. Whatever mounting solution you end up using, there should be some play (IE, flexibility in motion) so that normal expansion and contraction due to heat and motion doesn't crack or destroy the mount points.

-KKC, heh heh, mount points.