I have an early 2008 24 inch 2.8 GHz iMac running 10.6.8 and purchased from new , its been a great machine with no issues at all until now . The hard drive fan motor has recently started to make a noise which currently is not too loud but noticeable even when its on the slowest RPM setting .

A few months ago before the fan started to make a noise I up graded the machines internal RAM to 6GB , which cost 4,000 Baht .

In 2013 I stripped the machine down and cleaned all the three fan units and re assembled the machine without any problems.



So I'm now wondering about the best route to go regarding the noisy fan , taking into consideration the over all age of the machine and the recent 4,000 baht spent on the RAM

My thought are

1. Do nothing until the fan finally gets to loud to be able to use the machine or the fan completely fails , then replace the fan unit only .

2. Replace the fan now .

3. Do nothing until the fan finally gets too loud to be able to use the machine or completely fails , then replace all three fans which are of all the same age .

4. Do nothing until the hard drive fan finally gets to loud to be able to use the machine or the fan completely fails , then consign the machine to the cupboard and purchase a new machine .

Other factors , the internal hard drive is the original 320 GB unit and I was thinking about replacing it with a larger hard drive or SSD , the internal optical drive seems temperamental at times , so I don't use it now for fear of having a CD get jammed in it .

Having recently spent 4,000 Baht of the RAM , I'm wondering if replacing the hard drive fan / all fans / replacing the internal original hard drive may be a risky scenario on a 2008 machine .

Ive had a quick look and it seems a new hard drive fan purchased from abroad may cost around $100 / $150 .

Currently I am having to run the fan at its lowest speed to keep the noise down , but in reality I should be running it at a higher speed .

any over all thoughts please

TL

If you find the correct fan, you could do this yourself .... I would try to replace sooner than later...

I did it with a hard drive on a 2007 Imac.... following the instructions... and fortunately have a friend at the time to help... but it's not as difficult as one might think~!

Check out this site, on how to do.... (you may need to do a bit more searching for 2008 model .... but probably not a whole lot different! )

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2308+CPU+Fan+Replacement/1968

It will probably need some cleaning inside too! Good luck!

Just Change the fan leave everything else because of the age I would seriously consider selling it while its working on Craigslist.(after you have found a nice second hand iMac 2013 or later)

These paces may be helpful in BKK:

www.mac2hand.com

www.maccafethai.com/index.html

www.unlimitmac.com