This video is about replacing a faulty fan on an Asus Phoenix RTX 3060 GPU. I was experiencing an increasingly loud cicada-like shrieking noise coming from the fan. I decided to replace the fan instead of trying to fix the damaged one with compressed air, because compressed air rarely works well enough.
The video goes through the replacement process:
- First, remove the four screws connecting the cooler shroud to the brackets. One screw near the PCIe connector may be difficult to remove and may require needle-nose pliers if you don’t have a slim, #0 crosshead screwdriver
- Then, remove the four screws holding the fan into the shroud itself.
- Disconnect the fan from the card by squeezing the clip connector with your fingertips and pulling.
- Gently clean the fins of the heatsink with a dry brush. Be careful not to bend the fins, as they are very fragile.
- Install the new fan, making sure the wire is pointing towards the bottom of the GPU shroud.
- Reattach the shroud and screws.
- Test the new fan to make sure it is working properly.
Replacing the cooler on the Asus Phoenix RTX 3060 is an easy job that only takes about 15 or 20 minutes, even if you are not technically skilled. In addition to fixing the noise problem, the new fan also lowered the GPU temperature by 10°C.