Fan Mod: My VA1 Dreamcast has a metal fan

[marc_om]

I’m currently attempting a silent fan mod on my V1 Dreamcast. When I opened the Dreamcast up, I noticed that my fan is different than the ones I have seen in tutorial videos online.

My fan housing is metal, connected to some black plastic ducting. All of the fans I’ve seen folks swap out on YouTube have been black plastic.

The problem that I have is that I can’t see how to remove this fan. The metal piece is connected to the metal base underneath it. It’s not screwed down as far as I can tell - they feel like they are glued/welded together.

My Dreamcast was bought new in Ireland in the early 2000s. It’s a PAL unit, and it has a (1) on the label and it says “3.3 volts” on the GD ROM drive. I’ve attached some photos.

Model HKT-3030
(1) PAL E 670-14088C
Made in Indonesia
GD ROM made in Japan.

Can anyone help me out please?

- is this a VA1 unit?
- is there a way to remove the fan?

[marc_om]

I think this person has the same issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamcast/comm ... ginal_fan/

It seems that it might be screwed in from the underside, and that the fan can be removed by taking out more of the mainboard first. And then I'll have to do some cutting.

[pcwzrd13]

I wouldn't recommend doing a silent fan mod on this model Dreamcast. The fan is attached to heatsinks which pull heat away from the CPU and GPU. Early model Dreamcasts were less efficient and produced more heat which required the use of this heatsink/fan combo to keep them cool. Removing them would likely result in a very hot Dreamcast. lol

[Roareye]

I have this model and can confirm the silent fan mod does not fit in the space where the fan is supposed to be. Considering this isn't documented on any of the places that advise on the Noctua fan mod, I got burned buying the parts as much as you did -_-

[Alex_DC]

Yes it's a VA1, and yes you can remove the fan from the plate it's attached to. If I recall correctly, there are two small screws on the underside of the fan, so you have to remove everything to get it out.

However, the plate it is attached to extends further towards the side of the case than VA1s with the plastic fan, and the popular Noctua fan mod won't fit, unless you are willing to trim that metal plate back to provide clearance. I wouldn't recommend it. Either buy another broken/cheap DC from eBay and use the parts from that, or better, peel back that label on the fan and put a single small drop of light machine oil (such as used on sewing machines, or supplied with an electric razor) on the bearing/pin you will find beneath the label. Then reapply the label if the adhesive is still good, or replace with suitable tape/sticker of choice. Realistically it is well due lubricating after 20 years and will be a lot quieter once done. Guide: https://bit.ly/2NF91Rs

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These metal fans on VA1s are often confused with those on VA0 machines, quite different though. VA0 had a more expensive solution with heat pipes and cooling block attached to the fan. This was no doubt more costly to produce than the later revisions. VA0 do not have the black plastic duct between fan and case.

Early VA1s had what OP has pictured, metal housed fan with black plastic duct, fan is attached to one of the metal plates that sandwich the motherboard. I don't know if this is intended to draw heat from these plates (I doubt this would do much configured as it is), or because they had a large stock of the metal fans purchased to build VA0 consoles to be used up and this is one way to mount it. The lower motherboard shield in these machines is slightly different to those in later VA1 machines, with an extended tab to mount the fan on (I've not compared the lower shield against a VA0 lower shield for differences).

Most VA1 machines have the black plastic fan that is mounted the black plastic shroud. Lower motherboard shield does not have the tab to mount the fan on. This is the logical conclusion for saving money via hardware revision. Only these later VA1s will accept the Noctua fan mod without a bit of surgery.

Additionally - All VA1 machines have various hardware revisions compared to VA0 to reduce cost, but I believe it is also possible the VA1 system generates less heat, meaning the cooling solution did not have to be quite as over-built/effective. Maybe I am wrong, and in reality either the DC proved itself to not actually require such a 'good'/expensive cooling system, or Sega just cheaped out a bit on cost Vs. longevity of components. If the latter, well we still have quite a lot of survivor consoles, so not a bad decision. If anyone has more info to share on this I'd like to know.

VA2 - I don't have one to compare, but I'd guess the fan situation is the same as late VA1 (no more ways to save more money on that configuration!).

Again, this is to the best of my understanding. If anyone wants to add some info or facts, please do, maybe one day I'll make a fresh post with pics so that anyone googling for this info will find it more easily. Maybe no-one else cares about the different Dreamcast fans as much...