The stock fan that came with my KiwiSDR took a crap so I decided to put a bigger fan in the case. I purchased a Noctua NF-A4x10 5v fan to replace it with. Here was the process.
First you need to take the case apart. I removed the side that housed the fan and the top.
Here is the fan I will be replacing. It served well but its time for silence.
Make sure to take care of this connector. It sucked to remove with the KiwiSDR still attached to the Beagleboard.
New hotness and old n busted.
I used the rubber mounting thingamajigs to make a stand-off.
I trimmed up the rubber around the fan shroud as it was real close to the blades.
The bigger fan dose not fit unless its like this. This is the reason I made the stand-offs to give airflow from underneath.
I cut the connector off the old fan and used the adapter and pinch connectors that came with the Noctua fan. Just stick the wires in and pinch with some needle nose. I didn’t cut and solder the wires for warranty purposes.
All that’s left is to reassemble the case and test it out.
I love these fans they are totally silent. Lets hope this gets many years of use seeing its powered on 24/7. I dont remember hw much air was moving before but this fan does ok on 3.3v.