i've gotten this 40mm blower fan from a ps2 slimline with the intention of setting up some form of quiet ram cooling, just to keep the air shifting in that area, but the fan requires 8.5 volts. Any simple ways of powering this fan from a 12 volt line? Or am i going to have to make a pcb with several resistors to avoid burning it out?
You could give it the old 7 volt trick, but it's probably still going to be louder than an 80mm at the same voltage. Worth a shot though, but running it at 12 would have you ripping it out within an hour, it'd scream.
Forget resistors, just fit a 3.5V-ish zener diode in the fan's 12V positive line. A common 3.6V 1.3W type will cope with fans up to about 350mA. You could use a higher-voltage zener if you want to run the fan at under 8.5V
