Sony :: Vaio SZ 4 Series Fan Replacement And Wifi + Processor Upgrade (Win7 + Ubuntu Feedback)

I had replaced mobo on my dead SZ 4 series (don't ask why) and couldn't stop there since I was in the move thus consequently contemplated about possible upgrades. For now I settled for fan, WLAN card and CPU upgrade. If it works well, I might install SSD also.

1.Fan Modification

As you all proud SZ owners know, fan is very noisy on this machines so it made me think if there is any possible modification to reduce the noise. Since the BIOS is controlling it there is not much to do on the RPM part (in win at least, but more on that later) I settled for a fan and fan casing swap from SZ 4 to SZ 7 series.

In the photos you can see that fans, fan casings and heat-sinks are of different design. Besides design differences, voltage and the amperage are the same, 5V-300mA.

Only way was to install the fan and the casing of the SZ 7 heat-sink to my old one as one of the heat-sinks bolt bushings is off for a few millimeters.

There has to be some care exercised when prying off the fan casing, some heating was required from the aluminium side on three pins were casing is attached.

Not to be simple, the difference is also in the inlet hole. One on the SZ 7 heat-sink is bigger and off centre compared to SZ 4s. Had to do some filing there, to match it to the size of the new fan. Fan of SZ7 is not bigger, it is due to different design of the fan eye and its volutes...................