>This is a review from one of our customers, rividh, who recently purchased a Heat Sink & Fan (HSF) for the Dell Dimension 8300:
Dell Dimension 8300 Socket 478 Heat Sink & Fan 3.4Ghz
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Pros: Just what I needed!
Cons: None!
2 photos: attached
Review:
I have a Dell Dimension 4550 that overheats because as it came from the factory, it only has a shroud fan, not a regular CPU heatsink-fan, and there was no way to mount a fan on the stock Dell heatsink. The shroud fan doesn’t begin to move enough air into the case, let alone past the CPU, and both CPU and hard disk were overheating.
I looked all over for a HSF to fit Dell’s weird proprietary CPU mount arrangement, and only Tekgems had one that looked like it might work. The price was right so I went ahead and bought it. And as happens, it fits correctly and works fine.
The heatsink is offset to one side, and how it fits is not immediately obvious. The offset portion seats over the top of the adjacent capacitors, not over the green release lever as one might think at first. If it doesn’t want to go in, you’ve got it backwards. (see side photo)
The fan is a regular case fan so it is easy to replace at need (it is a fairly quiet fan, too). It was mounted blowing away from the HS; I reversed it so it blows *into* the HS for better cooling. This was easy to do, just remove the obvious screws, flip it over, screw it back down. Be sure that the little thermostat doodad (green bead on a wire) doesn’t get pushed down into the path of the blade. (see top photo)
If you have one of these undercooled Dells, consider replacing the stock shroud-and-fan with this more-effective integrated heatsink/fan. Then attach the shroud fan to the rear of the case, blowing *in*, for better overall ventilation. (There is no proper fan mount, so you’ll need to use either cable ties, or tap screws and small washers.)
My Dell runs a good 40 degrees cooler now!
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