Vostro 1500/1700: Are the exhaust fans reliable/durable ?

I ask because after reading about the nvidia problems I run my fan in slow mode which helps keep my GPU in the 47c range and my CPU in the 39c range.

Should I worry that the fan will prematurely wear out? If so are there any non Dell high quality fan replacements for my two laptops?

 

I was wondering the same for the new E series. With almost all the notebooks I had the fan noise increases after a while. Will is be possible to replace the fan yourself?

 

I have run my vostro 1700 24/7 for ~8-9 months and no issues so far.

 

So do you run your fans in slow or high mode 24/7?

 

Which ever is the standard setup from dell. I never felt the need to adjust.

 

Oh ok your just running off the BIOS setting. I overrode mine with I8kfanGUI and constantly run the fan in slow mode. It helps keep temps down.

 

I use i8kfan to override by fan as well, it usually runs in slow and when gaming or intensive tasks it always runs on high. It's been a full year and the fan has not fail me yet. Plus the other day that I opened up my laptop to clean the dust, the fan doesn't look like it has much wear on it. If you want to be safe. Here's the dell link for the fan + heatsink, it is only $11 USD, purchase one as a backup.

Edit: I had the wrong price.corrected now. sorry.

 

My Vostro 1500's cpu has gotten to 91c, and the gpu to 85c (which I just learned is the temperature at which NVidia's driver downclocks the card to lower the heat, hence why it hasn't gotten higher than that -- NVidia's solution to heat problems is to gimp performance ... OUCH!).

 

Offbase,
Your Vostro 1500's temperature is not normal at all. I would recommend getting it check out by Dell, if there's warranty left. My CPU & GPU never goes above 54 c, 66 c respectively.

 

That's way too high. My 1500 GPU temps hover in the 47-54c range. My CPU is in the 39-44c range. I suggest you need to check to make sure your fan is working. Download this program "I8kfanGUI". You can manually spin up the fans.

If you don't hear or feel them come on your fan might be defective and would explain the high temps.

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html