SLK3000B intake fan position

shyguymw · Post by **shyguymw** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:47 am

Hello SPCR, new member here though I have been reading these forums for probably a year now. I thank you all for a great site and the usefull discussions amongst members. I joined today to reply to a thread a had a concern with, and decided to go ahead and post a question. I posted this here, but I suppose it could equally fit in the Fans forum, and I apologize if I posted in the wrong area.

I have recently purchased all of my components to build a quiet pc. System will be built in the SLK3000B case with a Nexus 120mm fan for intake and exhaust. I have removed the fan grills from the case in each location.

My question is this...I have seen different people mounting the front case fan on the inside of the case, and different people choosing to mount the fan on the outside of the case. Is there an advantage to doing on or the other assuming the front plastic part of the case will be left unchanged? Or do people merely do this for space reasons?

Thanks!

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:20 am

Hello long-time lurker! To get the formalities out of the way: welcome to SPCR!

I just bought a 3000B myself and was also wondering where to put the thing. Or, more accurately: what would be the benefit of placing the fan between the bezel and the metal front of the case. Based on what I have read: people have put the fan "outside" mainly to gain room for hard drive suspension. However, this introduces turbulence noise due to the proximity of the bezel, so that only works if you keep the Nexus < 700 rpm. Putting the fan inside leaves less room for a suspension setup and it might cause similar resonance effects, this time from air hitting the close-by harddisks. The conclusion I've reached: I'm going to try to put the fan inside, since air turbulence is the main noise source in my current case, a very cramped Q-Tec thing. I'll only take the fan outside if I run out of room inside or if I start to notice turbulence noise.

Btw, do the screw holes in the front of your 3000B match up with the 120mm fan? I've read some of the newer ones have extra holes, do although mine doesn't. Not a big issue with ziptie fan mounting, but I was just curious.

BrianF · Post by **BrianF** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:13 am

teejay wrote:Btw, do the screw holes in the front of your 3000B match up with the 120mm fan? I've read some of the newer ones have extra holes

I got my SLK3000B from Tech Data about 2 weeks ago, and was delighted to find standard 120mm mounting holes just inside of the ones for their plastic mount (though I have yet to pickup a fan to actually put there).

IMO, inside would be better because turbulence from impedance in front of a fan (the front bezel) tends to be worse than behind it (the drives themselves).

Steve Rosenthal · Post by **Steve Rosenthal** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:12 am

Quick tip if you're mounting the fan on the inside: Pop out 4 of the rubber grommets from the hard drive cage and fit them into the fan-mounting holes. Quick and dirty decoupling solution for the the fan. Works nicely.

--Steve