TRUENAS-MINI-3.0-XL+ Replacement CPU fan

[killroy1971]

I've owned a TRUENAS-MINI-3.0-XL+ for about a year, and I love it. It's been on for nearly the entire year, but recently it stared getting nosier. I've eliminated the 80 mm and 120 mm case fans, and the power supply fan. I spent some quality time with a fan of compressed air removing all of the winter's dust build up. Not as bad as my Fracta 401 case, where I had to remove some stuck on fan dust with alcohol and a q-tip.

After removing the case dust and listening to each set of fans, I've determined that the CPU fan is the loudest. Unfortunately, it's a 50mm 4-pin PVM fan and a new one is proving hard to source. I can find an OEM part on Mouser.com, but that wouldn't solve the problem.

Has anyone replaced an Xi Systems' CPU fan with something quieter?

 

[Nick2253]

I would probably go with a 40mm fan. You can get pretty quite 40mm fans from Noctua. You can probably mount them with one screw/pin, but worst case some double-sided tape or a zip-tie would get the job done.

And if you're good with a hacky method, then you might be able to get a slightly larger fan into that space, increasing the airflow.