My pics of removing 120mm fan grills.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:33 pm

(Edited title after pics.)

For some reason I feel like the noise from my case is mostly coming from the air moving through the small circle holes behind my 120 fan in the back of the case. Ive noticed that some people cut these out. Is that why? I need to really sit down and diagnose my noise problems but yeah.... any info on dos and donts and whys and whys nots please. And/or any pictures... Ive been searching and I still am searching the forums.

Thanks!

swivelguy2 · Post by **swivelguy2** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:44 pm

The reason people cut those out is to reduce the resistance to airflow. Restrictive grills require that the fan be run at higher speed to push the same amount of air into or out of the case.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:04 pm

Hi,

Not only does the fan have to run faster with a restrictive grill, but the grill itself creates turbulence noise.

To cut out the grill, you'll need metal snips, or a nipper, and you may also need a rotary tool or a file to clean up the rough edges and to de-burr it. So, you should remove all the innards to keep them safe from metal bits, and you need to thoroughly clean it up afterward.

You can do a search on this section of the forum for something like "fan grill cut" (search all terms) or "metal snips" etc. to get some better how-to's.

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:14 pm

metal snips and a curved/round file is all you need.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 6:58 am

aztec wrote:metal snips and a curved/round file is all you need.

and to be really careful not to drop any metal filings in the case.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:15 pm

Thanks ppl! Yeah I went through a few tutorials on cutting stuff and modding fans etc but just couldnt find that exact one. I will search more soon. I am going to remove the grill soon. Looks like Ill be taking the mobo etc out yet again. I just installed sound dampening an had to do the same thing lol I wish i would get all my mods ready and do them all at the same time argh..

Zeroignite · Post by **Zeroignite** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:17 pm

xan_user wrote:
aztec wrote:metal snips and a curved/round file is all you need.
and to be really careful not to drop any metal filings in the case.

Rather, do any surgery without hardware installed, and clean out the case when you're done.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:15 pm

Zeroignite wrote:
xan_user wrote:
aztec wrote:metal snips and a curved/round file is all you need.
and to be really careful not to drop any metal filings in the case.
Rather, do any surgery without hardware installed, and clean out the case when you're done.

or just do it upside down, grill at the bottom, with shopvac underneath -skip the file and power tools, and just use metal shears. You can always mask off the inside too.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:33 pm

I took everything out of the case. Not risking wasting my money. Also them are the EXACT tin snips I used. They work great.

I did this at like 3am and I was thinking I wanted some rubber molding to go around the rough edges and of course nothing was open to buy anything so fortunately I found some new black phone cord with rubber casing (i dont think the cheap ones with plastic casing would work.) I used an exacto knife and tryed to cut the side of the rubber as best I could and then I pulled out the wires inside and used this as my rubber molding. Check pictures below.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:09 pm

Nice job, should be able to lower those fan speeds now that the restriction is gone.
Get a ninja or xigmatek for the cpu, accelero or thermalright for vga, isolate the HDD (or go ssd) and your off to sweet bliss. (depending on how that psu sounds...)
Welcome to your new addiction.

ThaArtist · Post by **ThaArtist** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:22 pm

Thanks!

Well my CPU is a little loud the graphic card fan actually is very quiet Im finding out. The biggest culprit right now is I have the factory rosewill case fan on the back. I have a 120mm Scythe Kaze-Juni on the front and its really quiet, I cant even hear it really... at 800 RPM and claims it still moves 40.17 CFM so thats good. Im going to order another for the back.

I do want to get a SSD but I still need to keep the HDD I have no also. The HHD is actually fairly quiet but Im trying to think of ways to quiet it down more if possible.

Yes I do need a good fan controller there are so many out there and it seems the best I like so far is the Aerocool-1000 touchscreen.

Yeah the turbulence noise is definitely gone now I only got a wooshing sound cause that rear fan is spinning so fast and my desk is actually echoing the sound I figured out. But im sound treating the wall behind the desk soon since its a recording space. That'll take care of that. Plus Im still building a computer cabinet with acoustic foam inside of it so that should help even more. I should have a prettty quiet setup soon.

Cant think of anything else I can do. The PSU is super quiet too. i got the PC Power and Cooling "silencer" PSU and it works well for being quiet. Although I think the fan doesnt push so much air so thats probably why? I dunno...