So when I fired up my new (yes new) Amiga 2000 HD for the first time, I was speechless and thrilled. But, that feeling soon became distracted by the impressively noisy fan tucked inside the machine's power supply housing. After using quiet machines for decades (including the C64 and Amiga 1200) I’d forgotten how much air old “big boxes” could blow. And for a machine rocking a 7 Mhz CPU, the fan’s output seemed obnoxious to say the least. How would I be able to actually use the machine if it was so damned loud?
I quickly looked around online and soon discovered the 2000 was notorious for being noisy. After a bit of research, I learned about a near-silent fan replacement that only cost $8 brand new called the Enermax UC-8EB.
The key for a fan replacement in these machines is that it be a fairly standard (if you even consider desktop machines standard anymore) thickness of 80mm.
After carefully removing the pristine case for the second time (first time was to remove the battery) I took the PSU out entirely and pulled the fan.
Below are the pictures I captured during the r/r process.
Since the computer is a historical NOS marvel, I took the original fan and put it in a Zip-loc storage baggie for safe keeping.
The overall sound of the 2000 is now drastically quieter. It's not entirely silent (which I would prefer, to be honest). The PSU still emits its own hum, but it's not an issue anymore.
Were there a modern PSU replacement for the old 2000, I'd probably go for it. But it's not worth a hack, and thy shalt never drill a NOS case. Never.
The new fan is awesome.