Safely Buying Used Hardware - pre-owned == pre-pwned?

[Sultan Bin Jewstar]

I like this gypsy wisdom the most

Spend exactly that amount you willing to lose on it

 

[Slav Power]

Plus fans are the easiest part to jury-rig. If you have any laying around a few zip ties and it will be good enough. You can even get by with one dead fan one some cards depending on the total fans they have and their heat output. Three fan gtx 1660 has the fan on the end go out? Just disconnect it.

If anything, jury-rigging GPU fans can give you better thermals and noise even when your GPU has perfectly working fans so it's an advisable mod to do in general. With the right adapters from Ali you can even hook them up directly to the GPU.

If the GPU has 2-3pin fan headers, get 3pin fans. First pin is ground, second is power, third is RPM reporting which is optional, and is also why all the fan splitters that you'll find will have the third pin on only one plug, as you can't sum the fan speed signals like that so you can only report one of the fan's speeds back to the system. The speed is regulated via second pin voltage.

If the GPU has 4pin fan headers, get 4pin fans. The fourth pin is the PWM signal that dictates fan speed and the second pin holds a steady voltage. This, by the way, is what you want if you want to daisy chain your fans, even in your case. Voltage regulated fans can and will lead to a situation where one fan stops spinning at low speeds as the first one in line sips up all the power. PWM fans obviously don't have this issue.

Of course make sure that your fan voltage and amperage matches those of the shroud ones. As long as total amperage per header is lower than what the GPU had initially, you're good. You can also just skip this hassle and hook your fans up directly to the motherboard.