Now that my Steam Deck LCD has been relieved of his duties as a daily driver desktop PC, I finally went ahead and replaced the Delta fan with a Huaying one. It turned out to be relatively easy to do ; and lo and behold, it is indeed quieter.
Recent adopters may or may not know there was a medium-sized kerfuffle about disparities in noise profiles of early Steam Deck units. It was proved and narrowed down to a difference between 2 fan models (see Gamers Nexus detailed analysis).
Obviously the one I got was a “bad” one, emitting a high pitched noise when running at full speed. I did not find it unbearable but it was still not ideal, particularly when using the SD in quiet environments.
Took me 2 years to get to the point where I figured it was an acceptable risk to attempt the replacement. How many of you did the same and kicked the Delta out of your unit ?
That’s their mini kit. I recommend their pro tech toolkit for most people, has all the bits and accessories you’ll need for most things, and then I also have their Manta kit, but that’s overkill unless you’re really into repair. I have a lot of toolkits though. I have a great Wiha set similar to the pro tech toolkit, and Drivesavers sent me a really nice kit as swag from when I used to outsource customer data recovery to them that I use at work.