What Happens when i get Bored. (Netgear router cooling mod)

Something non gaming related today, but still nerdy so all good...

OK so, i have a NetGear modem/router, it's not the best but does the job i need it to do. and is a shit lot better than the one i got from my ISP.

Now it previously had overheating issues, dropping connection or locking up completely and needed to be reset at least once a day. So i eventually got pissed off with it and decided to do something. And no, it wasn't buying a new router like a normal person would have.

First, I took some small ram heatsinks off an old graphics card, and put them on the router's chips, this actually helped a lot. so i left it alone for a while. then seen a video and forum post regarding netgear router mods:

heres the video -

I decided to go for some Overkill, because i had the parts lying around, unused. Set to work on my router:

1. Cut honking great rectangular hole in the top casing.
2. Soldered ground and 12v wires to the Power jack pins on the router.
3. Took a HDD cooler (akasa dual 12v fans) popped it on the top over the hole i'd cut(measured to fit of course)
4. connected the ground and 12v wires to the fans.
5. closed it all up and secured the hdd cooler in place with some trusty hot glue, i would have used screws / bolts but didn't have any that would have worked.(eg too long or too fat*thats what she said*)

And here's the end result:

Stuck the NetGear logo back on after i shot the video sorry about quality was using phone camera and sometimes it doesn't like to focus.

Before:

^After^

Final Thoughts:

Overall for a stupid mod that cost nothing and alleviated my boredom for a while, I'm happy, it does what it's meant to do. Whereas most people should be fine just adding the heatsinks which can be found cheap on ebay or wherever i just wanted a lil more oomph.

What would i do differently?

Now as the 12 fans are wired directly to the pins on the power jack, they are always on and always at 100%, they're not really noisy but are audible, so i would maybe find a different point to connect them(after power switch for example) and also perhaps Add a trim pot / variable resistor or on / off switch or both to give a little more control on fan speed (and therefore noise).

but there's plenty of fans going when my main gaming rig is on and it's beside the router so don't really notice when its on. anyway. + headphones so no big deal.

What's Next?

Next, i may give similar treatment to my hacked V1.0 BT homehub as it tends to have similar issues only not as bad.