The Nexus 120mm fan corner cutting guide...

Control: management of fans, temp/rpm monitoring via soft/hardware

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Writer
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Post by Writer » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:22 am

Oops. :shock:

I needed to remove the shoulders from a Yate Loon fan, and remembered this guide. Unfortunately I didn't have net access at the time and only remembered the crushing part of the crushing method -- not the initial cutting step.

That fan is now missing most of that corner.

Lesson learned: don't take pliers to those plastic tubes until after you cut 'em. :)

koitsu
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Post by koitsu » Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:42 pm

Amusing. I have never screamed or yelled at PC hardware -- ever -- until earlier this afternoon. I dealt with this exact problem with Nexus case fans, and ended up destroying one of my fans horribly due to their absolutely-100%-worthless cylinder that they run between the front and rear mounting holes. I wish I had read this guide first, although I don't have a hacksaw (but do have a Dremel, although my cutting bits are somewhere deep within one of my storage boxes...), so either way I would've been screwed. :-)

My frustration resulted in an Email to numerous addresses at Nexustek. Below is the Email I sent to Nexus.
From: Jeremy Chadwick <{snipforspam}>
To: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:35:43 -0800
Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Nexus 120mm fans -- please read

To whom it may concern,

I'd like to take a moment to express both my complete pleasure and
my complete disgust with your 120mm case fans, model D12SL-12.

If you are not the party to address these type-of complaints, please
forward my comments on to the appropriate party.

First, the positives: your fans are quiet as advertised, and remain
quiet (generally) during their entire lifetime. I have only had one
Nexus 120mm fan become noisy, and it was the 120mm fan inside of one
of your NX-3500 power supplies. I have been an advocate of your case
fans up until today.

And now the negative:

I am baffled and annoyed by the fact that your engineers chose to
add some extra plastic between the front and rear mounting holes
on the corners of your 120mm case fans. Instead of there being a
rear and front mounting hole with space between the holes, someone
thought it would be a great idea to connect the holes using a thick
cylindrical piece of plastic.

Most system cases mount 120mm fans using near-industry-standard fan
mounting screws... however, there are many case manufacturers (such
as Antec with their Sonata II case) which use non-standard-sized
holes in their cases for fans -- these cases cannot use screws to
mount a fan, but instead use rubber grommets. These grommets
require that the rear and front mounting holes in the fan not be
connected in any way, therefore making your fans incompatible.

If you would like photos of what I am referring to, I can provide
them.

Additionally, removing the aforementioned plastic cylinder will
save you manufacturing costs (by miniscule margins, but I'm sure it
adds up when producing products in bulk).

Please see that your fans are changed for the better: remove the
unnecessary piece of thick cylindrical plastic between your rear
and front mounting holes, which will ensure 100% compatibility with
all system cases on the market.

Thank you for your time.
I'm hoping they'll forward the mails on to the appropriate engineering group or individual and make changes to their products.

Whoever decided to add these cylinders should be slapped -- a horrible "idea"...

Tyrven
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Post by Tyrven » Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:15 pm

Thanks for posting this. I'm fond of the Nexus but wanted to get a few 120s for my chassis (one for the SI-120, and two EAR mounted ones for my case) but a) I don't own a dremel, and b) at 20$ a pop I was worried about breaking them as I'm not terribly handy with tools.

This looks really easy, though, and gives me a lot more confidence in my ability to make this work. Thanks!

Lawrence_Chiu
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No cutting required

Post by Lawrence_Chiu » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:29 am

Thermalright now offers replacement wire clips that clip on the TOP flange of a 120mm x 25mm fan, so no corner cutting required.

https://www.jab-tech.com/Replacement-wi ... -2924.html

It's cheap too, just a buck per pair. The only problem is the shipping which was $7 for me. Also, they had a minimum order charge so I couldn't buy just one.

Bottom line is I bought 5 packs and want to offload 4 of them to anyone who wants it. Same price that I paid ($1). Please email me at Lawrence_Chiu_TX3 @ yahoo.com if you want one or more. I'll charge just $1 for postage which'll allow me to break even after I sell all 4.

I'll post a reply again when they are all gone. Thanks!

-Lawrence

atha
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Location: Finland

Post by atha » Fri Mar 10, 2006 5:38 am

I just sawed two cuts, one straight along the wall and one in 45 degrees or so.

Picture should explain. Just select the correct mounting side to saw off :)

Throwmeabone
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Post by Throwmeabone » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:15 pm

I was following this guide on my new black and white nexus. I was trying to smooth down the edges using a crappy file on a swiss army knife. The knife was banging on the fan while I was doing it and it must have thrown the balance off. It's loud and clicky now. Meh.

Happy Hopping
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Post by Happy Hopping » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:32 am

I don't own a Nexus. But on that very first pic. at the corner (orange) there is 3 holes already, so why can't that work w/ the rubber mount? I assume the hole is hollow to the other side.

Tibors
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Post by Tibors » Tue Sep 19, 2006 11:57 am

Only the middle one is a hole into the tube. The other two are just dents that don't go through the flange.

Ryan
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Post by Ryan » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:23 pm

Another solution: Dremel + dremel router bit + cutting disk. Cut the two sides, then router out the bottom part. It should just come right off. Faster than both methods.

DaveLessnau
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Post by DaveLessnau » Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:03 pm

Is it necessary to actually remove that closed pipe from the Nexus 120 to mount it on a Thermalright heatsink? Or, could you get by with just carving a slot in the tube? Perhaps a dab of hot glue or silicone caulk somewhere? How specialized are those optional fan clips? Could I just bend a paperclip or some local wire to work?

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:23 am

For the Thermalright SI-128 it's not necessary to mangle the Nexus fan. With the standard clips mounted in the upper holes it's just fine.

Update: http://web.clicknet.ro/opticode/SI-128% ... us%202.jpg

DaveLessnau
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Post by DaveLessnau » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:24 am

TZupy: Thanks for that picture. Are the holes your fan clips are in the "normal" ones? Or are those the ones that are on the bottom outside-corners of the heatsink? I've just received my SI-120 (vs your SI-128) and the upper, "non-normal" holes don't give enough added height to reach the top of the fan. I'm thinking of trying some of that gum-like adhesive used to put posters on walls (it's sort of like Silly Putty). Otherwise, it's Dremel time.

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:29 am

I think the picture is clear enough, but anyway: the holes on the bottom of the heatsink wouldn't allow the mounting of a closed corners fan.
But there are holes just above the heatpipes (not a very clever design, because it diminishes conductivity), and those are just right for the Nexus.

RasmusseN
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Post by RasmusseN » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:52 am

I will either do a hack saw method or see If i can use a bench grinder.

this doesn't seem like a bad idea what someone else idea in this thread.
http://www.siilit.net/temp/nexushack.jpg

Ryan Norton
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Post by Ryan Norton » Sat Mar 03, 2007 8:11 am

I bought an XP-90 over Xmas for a PC I'm assembling for my parents. Never got around to putting it together so I was planning to work on it soon. One of the reasons I didn't start on it was the fan/clip interface problem-- closed flanges. So before I came across this thread, I emailed Thermalright asking if they had a workaround and here's the reply I got:

*****Dear Thermalright,

I recently purchased your XP-90 CPU cooler to provide cooling for an
Athlon 64 3500+ CPU I plan to install in a PC for my parents. The fan
I purchased to match with the XP-90 is the Scythe"KAZE-JYU" 100mm
Silent and Powerful fan Medium Speed - model SY1025SL12M.
Unfortunately, this fan has closed flanges; in other words, each of
the four pairs of screw holes (on the top and the bottom face of the
fan) are closed off by a tube of plastic. As a result, the supplied
fan mounting clips are useless. I am considering chopping that
plastic out of the fan but I am afraid of breaking it. Do you have a
solution for my problem? Thank you in advance!

Best,
Ryan Norton

***

Hi,

Sorry we don't, the type of fan you purchased is a very small percentage of
today's fans, so a work around would not be economical.

For Thermalright,

Bob

********************

And now I read they actually sell an alternative clip for their fans? Maybe this guy misunderstood what I needed. I guess I'll be hacksawing some corners afterall!

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:51 am

I made my first corner cutting today. "Victim" was my 120mm NCB fan. Since I had only regular saw, pliers and sand paper I could not get it "that" clean. But it worked. Now I am taking of extra plastic. Cursing the plasting was pretty easy after you cut the plasting first.

This guide is excellent. Even n00b like me in these things manage to get good results following this guide. Now I can use my NCB fan in Noctua tower cooler ^^

Thank you SPCR

Steep
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Spiral cutter works fine too.

Post by Steep » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:13 pm

Ryan wrote:Another solution: Dremel + dremel router bit + cutting disk. Cut the two sides, then router out the bottom part. It should just come right off. Faster than both methods.
Did something similar to this with a Yate Loon and it was fast and easy. Only, I just used 1 multi-purpose spiral cutting bit such as this one.

Image

Sliced down the top side of the corner, the bottom side, then make the connection.

I used to use the rotary cutters for most everything, but recently have found that the spiral cutters are faster/easier for non-precision work (which is most everything for me).

aztec
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Post by aztec » Thu May 17, 2007 3:38 pm

Ryan Norton wrote:I bought an XP-90 over Xmas for a PC I'm assembling for my parents. Never got around to putting it together so I was planning to work on it soon. One of the reasons I didn't start on it was the fan/clip interface problem-- closed flanges. So before I came across this thread, I emailed Thermalright asking if they had a workaround and here's the reply I got:

*****Dear Thermalright,

I recently purchased your XP-90 CPU cooler to provide cooling for an
Athlon 64 3500+ CPU I plan to install in a PC for my parents. The fan
I purchased to match with the XP-90 is the Scythe"KAZE-JYU" 100mm
Silent and Powerful fan Medium Speed - model SY1025SL12M.
Unfortunately, this fan has closed flanges; in other words, each of
the four pairs of screw holes (on the top and the bottom face of the
fan) are closed off by a tube of plastic. As a result, the supplied
fan mounting clips are useless. I am considering chopping that
plastic out of the fan but I am afraid of breaking it. Do you have a
solution for my problem? Thank you in advance!

Best,
Ryan Norton

***

Hi,

Sorry we don't, the type of fan you purchased is a very small percentage of
today's fans, so a work around would not be economical.

For Thermalright,

Bob

********************

And now I read they actually sell an alternative clip for their fans? Maybe this guy misunderstood what I needed. I guess I'll be hacksawing some corners afterall!
Ryan,

how did the hack go with the Scythe? I'm about to get the same fan, but i'm putting it on a Scythe Samurai. Differnt clips though.

Thanks!

heartsurgeon
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Post by heartsurgeon » Sun May 27, 2007 8:57 am

if all you want to do it mount your Nexus fans with rubberize/silicone mounts..no need to cut anything..
just get the nexus silicone mounts..they have a long "teat" that will fit through the case just fine..they work very nicely

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... ounts.html

zistu
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Post by zistu » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:08 am

I've received a batch of Nexus fans today and was quite surprised when I unpacked them:
Image
As my furry assistant points out, they changed the corner to a "normal" one.
Image
A set of 4 rubber fanmounts is also included in each package.
Image

The only thing I could whine about now is the way the wires are connected to the connectors. Two wires from the fan go into a 4 pin Molex connector, and from that the two wires go to the 3 pin fan connector. The RPM wire connects straight from the fan to the fan connector.
I would rather have seen some form of solution where it would be easy to cut some wires to get rid of the two 4 pin Molex connectors. But since I'll be cutting the wire to match the length required, I guess it doesn't matter much.

The.Jackal
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Post by The.Jackal » Sat Jul 21, 2007 9:38 am

Thanks for this "Cutting Guide".

I recently also ordered 4 120MM Nexus fans with the Nexus fan mounts
Image

It looks like you got a new "version" of the fan with no corners? I hope I also get this version, saves me time and hassle cutting the corners. When did order the fans?

But its a bit weird that Nexus sells these fan mounts but it doesnt fit in combination with their OWN fans!!?!?

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Sat Jul 21, 2007 9:45 am

It seems Nexus has made new revision in their fan's, changing other than just packaging. This still means that there are old and new nexuses mixed. I hope the new revision's sound is as good as old ones. But it seems, that in eventually, you don't need to cut corners from Nexus, which would be excellent.

zistu
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Post by zistu » Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:17 pm

The.Jackal wrote:When did [you] order the fans?
I've ordered them last week - 07/16/2007. The shop - Informatique - had them in stock but apparently my order was too big and I ended up waiting a few days. I've not checked all of them (13) but the packaging all looks the same, so I am expecting they are all the same new model. I also ordered one 92mm model which came in the same style of packaging.
The.Jackal wrote:I recently also ordered 4 120MM Nexus fans with the Nexus fan mounts.
The new models and packaging I received included a set of 4 of those fan mounts you showed, both the 120mm and 92mm fans.
The.Jackal wrote:But its a bit weird that Nexus sells these fan mounts but it doesnt fit in combination with their OWN fans!!?!?
Their products now feature a "Anti vibration mounting kit" which seems to include rubber mounting pins for the old style fans:
Image
I've not seen Nexus offer these mounts as an individual 4 pin kit.
thejamppa wrote:It seems Nexus has made new revision in their fan's, changing other than just packaging. ... I hope the new revision's sound is as good as old ones.
Unfortunately I have no old model Nexus fans to compare them to, but it would surprise me if they changed a winning formula for the worse.

Edit: added "old style mount pin" information.

The.Jackal
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Post by The.Jackal » Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:56 pm

Damn, are you kidding me? So the Nexus fans already have Fan Mounts included? :( So I ordered them for nothing... (4x4!).
If you're sure about this, I will try to cancel the order for the fan mounts.

How come you bought 13 fans? :p

zistu
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Post by zistu » Sat Jul 21, 2007 10:16 pm

The.Jackal wrote:Damn, are you kidding me? So the Nexus fans already have Fan Mounts included? :( So I ordered them for nothing... (4x4!).
If you're sure about this, I will try to cancel the order for the fan mounts.
Yea, I am sure the new ones have them included, but I am not sure where the new ones are available yet. Nexus' HQ is in my country so I may have had a new batch that still has to spread globally.

Maybe you can call/e-mail the shop you ordered them at, have them make sure what version you are getting?
The.Jackal wrote:How come you bought 13 fans? :p
I actually bought even more than that, going to build a few systems soon, but also ordered a few for my friend to save some shipping costs. Yea, yea, Dutch ordering :P

Edit: grammar.

The.Jackal
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Post by The.Jackal » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:51 am

Sounds nice.

I've recently been reading some reviews again and I'm getting frustrated about all the different outcomes of the reviews. Some say Nexus fans are one of -or the best fans with the best noise/CFM ratio. Others say Nexus is even below average. Noctua's are out of the question for me, cause they are just too expensive just for a fan. I've been hearing and reading a lot of good stuff from the S-Flex fans.

I need some one to assure me Nexus is good :p Or to be on the safe side to go for the S-Flex fans (but hey are a bit more expensive: 8,- for Nexus - 11,- for S-Flex).

koitsu
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Post by koitsu » Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:22 pm

koitsu wrote:My frustration resulted in an Email to numerous addresses at Nexustek. Below is the Email I sent to Nexus.
My god, I posted this over a year ago and I never provided Nexus's response?! Forgetful koitsu...

Here it is, headers and all (so you can see the Date):
From: NEXUSTEK <[email protected]>
To: {removed}
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:33:41 +0100
Subject: RE: Nexus 120mm fans -- please read
Importance: Normal

Dear {removed},

The two hole structures you describe are the two most common
structures...it is nothing strange really

But for the 120 mm case we have rubber fan mount available... And these
are in the mounting kit:
http://www.nexustek.nl/mountingkit.htm

Check out the long rubber fan mounts. These are for fans like the 120mm!

I now out office in the US has these avalaible! Please check with them!

Met vriendelijke groet,

Technical support
Nexus Technology BV


I: www.stopthenoise.com
And it seems they're doing just that: pushing the sale of their custom rubber mounts, rather than simply removing the worthless cylinder between the front and back part of the fan.

I *REALLY* hope what zistu said is true, and that they're including the custom rubber mounts with the fans rather than charging you for them. I haven't bought new Nexus fans in a while, but I *did* recently have to Dremel out the corners to make them work in a Sonata case.

Note on the Dremel method: it helps if you have vice grips, helping hands, or a 2nd person holding the fan while you cut. There's no way you'll be able to do it solo.

koitsu
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Post by koitsu » Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:32 pm

The.Jackal wrote:I need some one to assure me Nexus is good :p Or to be on the safe side to go for the S-Flex fans (but hey are a bit more expensive: 8,- for Nexus - 11,- for S-Flex).
I can assure you Nexus makes good fans. I use their fans exclusively because they're quiet -- and I'm one of those people with "supersonic" hearing, haha. :-) Noticing stuff like clicks or high-pitch noises, yadda yadda...

Nexus makes good stuff in general, and I never have to second-guess whether or not their definition of quiet is the same as mine.

In fact, I just bought their latest-and-greatest CPU heatsink/fan, the LXM-8200, for my E6600 (LGA775), and it's *fantastic*. It dropped my temperatures (idle and load) by over 11C, and it's well within the Intel weight specification for the socket (max. of ~450g). I should do a review of it since only one other site has, and it's not even a review (more like "heres some pictures, lolz") -- plus in French.

zistu
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Post by zistu » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:09 am

koitsu wrote:I *REALLY* hope what zistu said is true, and that they're including the custom rubber mounts with the fans rather than charging you for them. I haven't bought new Nexus fans in a while, but I *did* recently have to Dremel out the corners to make them work in a Sonata case.
They are including the standard rubber mounts, but they have adjusted the fan design and left out the closed corners. In the picture below I've used one of the new Nexus fans along with the supplied rubber fanmounts, included with each fan.

Image

Note that the spiral wrapping is not included but my own doing. I also ordered a 92mm black/white Nexus fan a few weeks ago, and that too had open corners and also came with rubber fanmounts included.

The only annoyance I still have with these fans is the way they connect the fan leads. The fans come with the following connectors: 3 pin mainboard, male 4 pin Molex, female 4 pin Molex. But they are attached in such a way that should you choose to use the 3 pin mainboard connector, you will have the 2 Molex connectors bounce around on your mainboard unless you secure them in some way.
Image
The image above shows the lead on the 120mm fan. The yellow wire runs directly from the 3 pin connector to the fan. The red and black wires run from the fan to the Molex, and new wires run from the Molex to the 3 pin fan connector. I made another snapshot since the other image wasn't entirely clear:
Image
Connecting the wires and connectors in this way prevents you from easily removing the 4 pin Molex connectors. I would much rather see a solution where they attached the 3 pin connector straight to the fan, and provided an adapter wire which can be used when needed and only if needed.

The 92mm fan has a different design on this end, better - in my opinion - than the 120mm model:
Image
With this fan all 3 wires connect to the 3 pin mainboard connector. 2 additional wires connect to the two 4 pin Molex connectors. With this setup you can easily remove the 4 pin Molex connectors should you want to.

One more picture, showing both fans, the leads and the 4 (standard) rubber pins included, each fan with open corners:
Image

I hope this clears all the confusion around the rubber mounts/corners. If you need any other pictures I will do my best to provide them.

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:14 am

It seems product code differs bit between the new and old model:
New is: D12SL-12 BO BW/OR
Old is: D12SL-12 BW/OR

(BW = Black and White, OR = Orange )

Old model is few €'s cheaper than new one. In finnish retailer Verkkokauppa.com old one is 14,90 € and new BO-model is 16,90 €'s. I think that is general trend in rest of the world aswell.

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