Dell J23 2U storage chassis
- Thread starter MiniKnight
- Start date
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I thought I saw somewhere that it was 36 inches long. Since it has hard drives on the front and rear....
If I were to try to re-purpose these 60x60x38mm fans for use in the J23 instead of my MD1000, what kind of shop would I go to to see about getting the pins and the connectors changed? I don't know what type of local business to look for. The place in California that fitted the fans for me in the first place could certainly do it, but that means sending them cross country again and wasting time and money. Surely there is someone here in Nashville that can do it. The company also said that if they had the original fan, they could make sure to match the pinout by wire type, not just by color so there is no guesswork.
Time for a long overdue fan swap write-up. I’m going to be referencing information from previous posts by myself and @tby throughout so read through this thread if you missed anything.
The Dell J23 comes standard with 4 60x60x38mm hi-speed fans. At top speed they move a shopping 67CFM of air. Unfortunately this is at 12,000 rpms and at 65dBA. This means that they move a LOT of air but the unit sounds like a 747 taking off. They are standard PWM fans meaning that they can be throttled by a fan controller. There are a couple of tricks you can do to silence the J23. You could put a resistor in line on one of the fan wires to make it run slower, or @tby has shown how to make it run with only 2 fans at once. I have done the 2 fan mod myself but it was still just too loud for me. I started looking around for replacement fans, but knew that I needed high flow fans due to the nature of the unit. It turns out that high-flow and low noise don’t go together in a 60mm fan.
My solution: Sanyo Denki 9G0612P4H0011 9G0612P4H0011 Sanyo Denki | Mouser
This fan moves 43CFM at 49dBA max. These fans are 60x60x25mm but because of the way the J23 fan module is built, it will allow for shorter depth fans. Most importantly, they are PWM standard. The problem was that they don’t come with a connector, just bare wire. So, looking at the PWM standard, it actually calls out the molex connector part number for the connector and the pins.
47054-1000 Molex | Mouser
08-52-0105 Molex | Mouser
Make sure to order extras of both.
The next step was to attach the pins to the fans the stick them into the connector in the right order. Use either one of the reference documents or the original fans as a template to determine pinout. The original fans are black-red-yellow-blue. Unfortunately the new fans don’t have a blue wire, they have a brown wire instead, but because they were PWM compliant, I knew that the brown and blue were equivalent.
Here is the fan module with stock fans
New and old fans side by side. The top two are the new fans. Note that on the left it only appears that the new one is smaller, they are the same height and width. On the right, you see the difference in the depth of the two fans.
Here is the fan module with the new fans installed
I only installed 2 of the new fans using the mod that @tby came up with. I figured that if it wasn’t enough, I’d know soon enough because they would be running at high speed most of the time. It has been running for a little over a week now and seems to be running fine with the 2 fans. It is significantly quieter than it was before. Unfortunately I can’t state conclusively anything on temperature since I didn’t think to take notes of HDD temp before the change…
If anyone has any further questions, feel free to ask me
The Dell J23 comes standard with 4 60x60x38mm hi-speed fans. At top speed they move a shopping 67CFM of air. Unfortunately this is at 12,000 rpms and at 65dBA. This means that they move a LOT of air but the unit sounds like a 747 taking off. They are standard PWM fans meaning that they can be throttled by a fan controller. There are a couple of tricks you can do to silence the J23. You could put a resistor in line on one of the fan wires to make it run slower, or @tby has shown how to make it run with only 2 fans at once. I have done the 2 fan mod myself but it was still just too loud for me. I started looking around for replacement fans, but knew that I needed high flow fans due to the nature of the unit. It turns out that high-flow and low noise don’t go together in a 60mm fan.
My solution: Sanyo Denki 9G0612P4H0011 9G0612P4H0011 Sanyo Denki | Mouser
This fan moves 43CFM at 49dBA max. These fans are 60x60x25mm but because of the way the J23 fan module is built, it will allow for shorter depth fans. Most importantly, they are PWM standard. The problem was that they don’t come with a connector, just bare wire. So, looking at the PWM standard, it actually calls out the molex connector part number for the connector and the pins.
47054-1000 Molex | Mouser
08-52-0105 Molex | Mouser
Make sure to order extras of both.
The next step was to attach the pins to the fans the stick them into the connector in the right order. Use either one of the reference documents or the original fans as a template to determine pinout. The original fans are black-red-yellow-blue. Unfortunately the new fans don’t have a blue wire, they have a brown wire instead, but because they were PWM compliant, I knew that the brown and blue were equivalent.
Here is the fan module with stock fans
New and old fans side by side. The top two are the new fans. Note that on the left it only appears that the new one is smaller, they are the same height and width. On the right, you see the difference in the depth of the two fans.
Here is the fan module with the new fans installed
I only installed 2 of the new fans using the mod that @tby came up with. I figured that if it wasn’t enough, I’d know soon enough because they would be running at high speed most of the time. It has been running for a little over a week now and seems to be running fine with the 2 fans. It is significantly quieter than it was before. Unfortunately I can’t state conclusively anything on temperature since I didn’t think to take notes of HDD temp before the change…
If anyone has any further questions, feel free to ask me
Thanks so much! Is there a walkthrough for attaching the bare wire to those pins? What tools for I need?
Hey just checking in again... any tips for crimping that connector pin to the wires? What tool do I need?
And are you sure the connector in your link above is the correct one? It looks like in the pictures of your J23 that the connector has little ears on the far ends of it, and the connector in your link has one of the "ears" offset from the end.
47054-1000 Molex | Mouser
And are you sure the connector in your link above is the correct one? It looks like in the pictures of your J23 that the connector has little ears on the far ends of it, and the connector in your link has one of the "ears" offset from the end.
47054-1000 Molex | Mouser
As far as crimping, there are tools for that but I don't have one. I used a tiny bit of solder to attach the wire to the pin, then used very fine needle nose pliers to crimp the pin around the wire jacket. You just have to be VERY careful to get a uniform and round-ish crimp or else it won't fit into the connector. The solder gives you a good electrical connection and hold it together for the most part, but it just doesn't take a lot and if you use too much, you've ruined it.
As far as the connector, I was plugging into a PWM extension cable as per the mod that @tby showed earlier. The connections on the backplane are non-standard and you'll have to shave off the off-set "ear" to get it to fit. but that part was fairly trivial.
As far as the connector, I was plugging into a PWM extension cable as per the mod that @tby showed earlier. The connections on the backplane are non-standard and you'll have to shave off the off-set "ear" to get it to fit. but that part was fairly trivial.
Oh Ok... so there isnt an off the shelf connector for that?
I have no soldering equipment or experience with that. I can try the crimp myself if crimping alone can get the job done, or take it to an electronics business that can do it all for me... but not sure what to search for.
I have no soldering equipment or experience with that. I can try the crimp myself if crimping alone can get the job done, or take it to an electronics business that can do it all for me... but not sure what to search for.
Very likely there is finding the match is harder that shaving the little bit off.
That is your call. Although it's likely you'll have a friend with the equipment and know-how that you can pay in beer to do the work.
Fedex just delivered mine. Seems that the interior power supply fans are pretty loud themselves (I just disconnected the other fans to hear it alone). Is that not an issue for anyone else? Or is it spinning faster itself since the other fans are not on?
I've never paid attention to the PSU fan. I do know that if any of the other fans are unplugged, they all run at top speed.
Yeah measuring 6-8 inches from the top of a closed empty chassis with just the psu fans operating, its still around 60dB.
Well... I just realized that even though its not the exact connector, the 4 pin connector that is already on my fans fits the connections. Any reason not to give that a try? I will look through the original mod Imgur to see if I can figure out which order to put the fan pins in.