Replacement fans on 2016 Razer Blade 14″ laptop

Replacement fans on 2016 Razer Blade 14″ laptop

I recently bought a used 2016 14″ Razer Blade M970 (RX09-01652E22) gaming laptop for about 20% the price of a new one (seems the only things that lose value faster than a Porsche driving off the lot are gaming laptops with last gen technology). I needed this one since it had a high-end GPU that allowed me to do modern DX12/Vulkan work, while being in a nice transportable 14″ slim form factor (it had a M970 graphics card).

While a screaming deal, there was one other noise problem: the fans. Gaming laptops are kind of notorious for needing powerful fans to cool their graphics cards. Both the fans in this laptop were starting to make bearing noises. The temps were fine and the fans worked ok – they were just a little noisier than they should have been. I took them out and cleaned them, but same result.

The originals are Cooler Master FB07006M05SPA312’s. DC 5v 0.5A, 4 pin connector.

Unfortunately, finding these guys turned up next to zero hits. Best options I could find were:

  1. Live with it – but know the fans might be dying/making more noise soon.
  2. Send it in to Razer and they’re replace them out of warranty. They charged a flat $100 rate + parts (they quoted me about $20) + shipping. About $150. Ouch.
  3. Buy used fan/heat-sink assembly off eBay. They were still charging around $40, and the fans were definitely all used. They could have the same noise issues as I was having – or have them soon.
  4. Dig deeper.

Found:

I opted for #4 and found a company on AliBaba that hit the spot. I found this vendor selling off-brand versions that looked and speced out right. I took the gamble since the price was $32 for 2 fans – a SCREAMING deal:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2PCS-CPU-fan-for-GIGABYTE-Razer-Blade-14-RZ09-01161E31-RZ09-01161E31-R3U1-laptop-cpu-cooling/32841110492.html

They arrived about 2+ weeks later as I opted for the free shipping. I popped out the old ones and can confirm these look and fit identically to the originals – sans the CoolerMaster stickers. They appeared to be brand new. Temps all appeared fine after gaming for well over an hour. They revved up to full power and then back down to idle perfectly. Best of all – they were nice and quiet. Success!

Alternative:

If you are looking for originals, I found these at $65/each, but that’s pretty steep to me:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Emacro-for-Cooler-Master-FB07006M05SPA312-Server-Round-Fan-DC-5V-0-5A-4-wire/32887795069.html

 

 

6 thoughts on “Replacement fans on 2016 Razer Blade 14″ laptop

  1. My fans started doing this annoying noise on my 2018 Base Model Razer Blade yesterday. I need to find the fans for my blade. It’s the left fan. The part serial number (I believe it is the S/N) is 1245274592232961M1. The only matches I get are for the right fan (I believe). Shall I scan the QR code and see what I can find? Thanks for your great article man. Unfortunately, it feels good not to be the only one with this issue. Sucks man.

  2. Thank’s for the pointer, one of the fans in my 2016 is going bad after less than 4 years.

  3. I just got my hands on an old 2014 – 2016 RB 970m and I am going to redo the thermal paste and pads, but I am curious from your article.. How big of a difference did the Gigabyte fans from Aliexpress make for the noise?

    My RB screams at 100% fan usage whenever I run the most insignificant usage on it, so I’m willing to pay the $50 for new fans if it will actually make a big diff in the dB.

    1. My fans were making bearing noises – so they were kind of moaning/rattling. When I switched them – they were back to really quiet. I could hear them moving the air, but no other noises. My fans weren’t running 100% most of the time though. Sounds like you might have other issues – so maybe re-do the paste. Also – get the latest drivers. Without those, the fans scream and it often thermal shutdowns if you’re just using standard windows drivers. If you’re doing Linux – not sure what you’ll do.

  4. This a year old post, but i bought a used razer, the same model as you mentioned in this post. Everything works great except for the right fan. So i stumbled upon this post. Were they easy to replace? did you noticed less fan noise when gaming?
    thanks!

    1. Fans were pretty easy to replace if you’ve worked on laptops before. They’re very easy to get to right under the main bottom cover so you don’t have to do a lot of disassembly.

      Fans were definitely quieter and sounded like when it was new.

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