Murphy's law

So, this being the day we're leaving for England - and a Sunday to boot - the fan in my server machine naturally figured today would be just about the perfect day to drop dead. And, of course, my server machine is a Shuttle ST62K, which uses a heatpipe / rear heatsink / fan / fan shroud arrangement. That can only accommodate a 80mm fan that's 15mm thick.

You want to know how easy it is to buy a 80x80x15mm fan in Vancouver on a Sunday afternoon? I'll tell you - not freaking easy.

After running around town like a headless chicken for an hour or two, I gave up, came home, stole an 80x80x25mm case fan from my partner's PC, opened up the server, yanked the whole fan shroud arrangement, zip tied the 'new' fan to the heatsink and called it a day.

So far, it's holding up. If it falls apart and cooks itself while I'm in England, this web site will be down until I get back. Nothing much I can do about that. So if you come here tomorrow and it ain't working, at least you'll know why!