Unsolved
1 Rookie
•
51 Posts
0
1555
October 31st, 2020 20:00
Inspiron 3650 CPU Fan Upgrade?
Hi, I've been reading other posts on this topic (on this Forum) but can't find the exact answer. I have a Dell Inspiron 3650. I've already upgraded the RAM (16GB), the CPU (i7-6700) and I have (2) HDD's (1 Samsung SSD and (1) Western Digital Velociraptor HDD.) I've upgraded them at different times over the past 2 years. Now I want to upgrade the CPU Fan/Heatsink. I'm using the Stock Fan from the original 6th Gen i3. The i7 CPU came with an Intel Fan but I couldn't get it installed. I kept the original Fan. The i7 Fan came with (4) plastic pins to connect to the Motherboard. The i3 uses screws. I sold the i7 Fan on eBay. So, what size of Fan should I purchase? I don't think I can use a mounting Bracket. The (4) screws are molded on the Motherboard. I'm not sure how to install a mounting bracket. On the back. I measured the Fan at around 3 inches by 3 inches. I only have 3 inches of height space (the HDD caddy is in the way.) The RAM is very close to the CPU so I don't have a lot of room there either. And there's a lot of small things on the Motherboard surrounding the CPU Fan and Socket. It's an LGA 1151. Will other LGA 115X Fans work? Will 80mm fans fit? I'd like a bigger fan (120mm?) but the RAM is so close I don't think it will fit. So what size of Fan/Heatsink should I buy? I'm looking at Coolermaster and Noctua. Can't find the correct size. I want to spend around $35. The Power cable is a 4-pin. And it needs to screw into the 4 holes on the Motherboard (3"x3"). Please reply. Thanks!
DELL-Cares
Moderator
•
27.8K Posts
•
490 Points
0
November 1st, 2020 13:00
We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.
DellUser170
8 Posts
0
November 24th, 2022 17:00
Bump
redxps630
11 Legend
•
16.1K Posts
•
82.1K Points
0
November 24th, 2022 19:00
Re: The i7 Fan came with (4) plastic pins to connect to the Motherboard.
correct. Intel reference heatsink is for motherboard that has clear heatsink mounted holes. Dell oem motherboard uses fixed backplate that has M3 screw. Difficulty in 3650 is that it is a SFF case therefore you can only use low profile heatsink fan assembly. All LG115x use same heatsink mounting hole spacing. It it actually possible to find a 120 mm low profile LGA 115x cooler. For ram in proximity potentially in the way of new cooler, you are correct it is a possible concern.
make sure new cooler heatsink is taller than ram height, or use low profile ram.
make sure new cooler is not impeded by hdd cage, or remove hdd cage fastened by rivets to case.
this one likely uses standard M3 backplate same as Dell so you don’t need to remove the Dell backplate.
This one has a copper cold plate and 120 mm blue led.
Also refer to this user report Reeves Brontes cooler on Newegg for $30
DellUser170
8 Posts
0
December 2nd, 2022 08:00
Thank You RedXPS630, that was a lot of great, great info. But the stock exhaust (back of case) fan is .44 amps. I assume the CPU fan is the same. I in parallel daisy chained a artic P8 PWM PST fan to the cpu header and seemed to get lower RPM out of the CPU fan. Causing a worrying consideration that if I replace the cpu fan with something not stock Dell may not “post”/boot(?) correctly and actually do worse than the stock fan set up. So I have been searching for an upgrade that used a stock fan mounting location and CPU mounting locations (which you have corrected me now; they are the same.). It seems as though I should use dells stock 6700k CPU cooler. But I haven’t found that. Is there anything wrong that I may be doing? Thank you for your time and effort, Redxps630.
(Edit: Y8T2X P/N for 6700k Cooler, seems to be same as stock 3650)
redxps630
11 Legend
•
16.1K Posts
•
82.1K Points
0
December 2nd, 2022 09:00
Re: dells stock 6700k CPU cooler.
there is nothing special about that cooler. Do not be mislead by the k. All these pancake coolers use same cooling mechanism and the fans do not differ much. You already said yourself that cooler is the same as stock 3650 cooler, which I think you are correct. Basically no difference between cooler for i3 vs i7-6700k if it is Dell pancake. A non dell cooler may or may not cause a boot fan error but will otherwise work. An upgrade of cooler means better cooling efficiency or quieter fan (with or without boot up error which you can press a key to pass). It is the heatsink that does the heavy duty of cooling while the fan helps as assistant. If you do not change heatsink but only fan, almost no difference is made in cooling efficiency.