Thinkpad R51 1829 EHG with Long Fan M10

If you want to fit a LongFan M10 into a Thinkpad R50/R51 with a FireWire port, this might be interesting for you. The problem with it is, that the FirewirePort collides with the fan casing!
The conclusions from the modifications described below:
  1. To my ears the LongFan M10 ventilates signifiacantly nicer, with less high frequency sounds.
  2. The  5 second fan pulsation became inaudible before applying EmbCP V3.03. ==> IBM published a new Embedded Controller Program V3.03, with reduces the fan pulsation to acceptable levels.
  3. Mobile Meter temperatures with the LongFan M10:
    1. 100%CPU=  69°C,
    2. Normal work and Marquee Screen Saver = 40°C+-2
  4. !!! It's not worth the efforts described below to modify the LongFanM10 in order to keep the FireWire port. !!!
==> As an alternative and a more sensible thing to do, just remove the FireWire port and bend the metal hodling clip for the port connector out of the way.

If you still would want some support for a similar crazy solution send a mail to lophiomys .. gmx ... at
Discussions and comments please at: http://forums.thinkpads.com Thinkpad R-Series

TP_R51_1829_EHG_Inside_orig.jpg
74.43 KB		 Inner live of a  Thinkpad R51 Model Nr. 1829
Note
  1. The passive cooler on the GPU (ATI 9000)
  2. The FIREWIRE port next to the original FAN 13N5812.
FANs_LongM10_13R2657_vs_13N5182_R5x_640x480_lowQ.jpg
58.52 KB		 left the Long Fan M10 13R2657
with a Toshiba MCF-207AM05 DC5V 0.4A  brushless motor
compared to right
right the R5x original 13N5182
with a SEPA NKW HY55F-05A  DC5V 0.18A brushless moter
PICT0410_13R2657_mod1.JPG
36.30 KB		 Hand mill-cutted fan casing. It was massive aluminium in that corner,
therfore completely superfluous to have this corner and so much for a light weight build. Also some cooling fins had to be removed.

Metalworking shop Mosbacher gave me hand with their expertise and special mill-cutters.
PICT0411_13R2657_mod1_vs13N5182_orig.JPG
37.97 KB
 The long fan is thinner and comes to sit lower in the R5x case,
with the consequence that the heatpipes hit the firewire port and it's holding clip.
Therefore the heatpipes had to be bent carefully upwards.
(Now it started to get really tricky.)
PICT0413_13R2657_soldered.JPG
45.78 KB		 Now it was time to fix the hole at the side of the fan casing,
so that the airflow got it's correct direction again.

Soldering a litte copper plate to the aluminum casing turned out to be no fun at all.
Using glue or Metal-Tape would have been the better idea.
The passive cooler on the GPU was removed and so the thermal coupling from the GPU to the UltraBay casing.
Finally it fitted nicely flat on the CPU and GPU, tested via thermal paste imprint.

Created by IrfanView