Hi Alan..  I identified the source of the annoying fan noise in the PPC. 
The video card has a small fan on top of a chip.  The video is AGP-based. 
Do you think it would be safe to simply seize the fan's operation or just
pry it off?   I've never seen an AGP video card with a fan on it before. 
Considering that the pc is just 350Ghz and basically a low-power machine..
the fan is probably over-design?   I've contemplated installing a
completely different non-fan video card..  Can video hardware be simply
plugged in and detected automatically.. or would I need a video card
designed for PPC?

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