TL;DR: My Qotom 1U's CPU fan has a bearing fault. I want to order the replacement before I pull the unit, so I only take my firewall down once. If anyone has this chassis open — or a photo of the fan label — I'd love the manufacturer and model number.
The hardware:
The problem: the CPU fan has developed a loud sticking/grinding noise — classic bearing wear. Temps are still fine (48 °C idle), so it's mechanical, not thermal design. I've got a desk fan pointed at the rack in the meantime, which tells you how charming the noise is.
What would help — any of these:
Why I'm asking instead of just looking: this box routes everything in the house and lab. To read the label I'd have to schedule an outage, unrack it, and disassemble it — and I'd rather do that once, with the correct fan already sitting on the desk, than twice.
What I've already ruled out:
Thanks in advance.
The hardware:
| Model | Qotom Q20332G9-1U (1U rackmount) |
| CPU | Intel Atom C3758 (8-core, 2.20 GHz) |
| Board | QDNV01 |
| Ports | 4× 10GbE SFP+, 5× 2.5GbE |
| Role | Main firewall/router, 24/7 for ~2 years |
What would help — any of these:
- Fan manufacturer + model/part number (the label on the fan hub)
- Blower/centrifugal or axial?
- Size and thickness (40 × 40 × 20 vs 40 × 40 × 28, or something else)
- Connector pin count — 2-pin (power only), 3-pin (+tach), or 4-pin (PWM)
- Voltage/current rating (e.g. 12 V 0.35 A)
Why I'm asking instead of just looking: this box routes everything in the house and lab. To read the label I'd have to schedule an outage, unrack it, and disassemble it — and I'd rather do that once, with the correct fan already sitting on the desk, than twice.
What I've already ruled out:
- Software — dead end. The board exposes no fan tachometer and no PWM control to the OS, there's no IPMI/BMC (the ASPEED chip on this board is wired as VGA only), and every SMBIOS/DMI field is left as "Default string", so there's not even a serial to look up.
- Qotom support — contacted them, didn't get a useful answer.
- The STH review — Everything Homelab Node Goes 1U Rackmount covers this exact chassis (C3758R variant). It confirms the layout matches mine — "the CPU cooler being on the bottom of the motherboard" and "airflow is not tremendous on the top side" — and mentions a heat pipe and "a small fan," but never names the part.
Thanks in advance.