Hello folks.

Anyone want to share any successes with using soft rubber elastomer grommets as hard drive mounts and fan mounts, especially the McMaster ones? (please specify item numbers)

Any cautions? (Do they rip easily? Are they difficult to install? Do they work well for all sizes of case fans?)

Do they require a certain screw length?

(Please see next reply for information about McMaster elastomer grommets.)

Thanks for your time!
DuckTape

ELASTOMER GROMMETS / ISOLATORS

E-A-R Specialty Composites
http://www.earsc.com/grommets
solutions@earsc.com
Products: Ear Elastomer Grommets/Isolators (soft rubber grommets) (mounts for computer case fans and hard drives)

McMaster-Carr
http://www.mcmaster.com
1 (630) 833-0300
United States of America
Products: Distributor of Ear Specialty Composites grommets, packages of 20/25

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FAN MOUNTS

F-344 & F-345:
http://www.earsc.com/fanmounts/fanmount_pics.phtml


EAR #: F-344 (evidently best size for 80/92mm Panaflo fans)

Evidently similar or same as …

McMaster Item #: 5801K6
p. 1212 of catalog: http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/109/html/1212.html
$9.71 (pkg of 20)


EAR #: F-345 (evidently best size for 120mm Panaflo fans)

Evidently similar or same as …

McMaster Item #: 5801K8
p. 1212 of catalog: http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/109/html/1212.html
$9.71 (pkg of 20)

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HARD DRIVE MOUNTS

G-410 & G-411:
http://www.earsc.com/CMSFrame.asp?SID=5 ... 3?cat_id=4


EAR #: G-410 (evidently hard drive mount more for silence)

Evidently have the same exact dimensions as the following "Inside Ribbed" McMaster grommets…

McMaster Item #: 9311K138 (High-damp PVC)
McMaster Item #: 9311K89 (Low-damp TPR)
p. 3436 of catalog: http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/109/html/3436.html
$7.76 (pkg of 25)


EAR #: G-411 (evidently hard drive mount more for performance)

Evidently have the same exact dimensions as the following "Inside Ribbed" McMaster grommets…

McMaster Item #: 9311K139 (High-damp PVC)
McMaster Item #: 9311K91 (Low-damp TPR)
p. 3436 of catalog: http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/109/html/3436.html
$7.76 (pkg of 25)

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NOTE: The above Fan Mounts and Hard Drive Mounts come in some of the types of materials listed at: http://wwwu.earsc.com/materials/molding.phtml.

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Also See: http://www.gelmec.co.uk


(Above information compiled from the postings of mynci, BriceB, Ralf Hutter and folks in the thread "Elastomer Fan Mount Grommits - A Group Buy" in the "Fans & Control" forum, and additional information from Ralf Hutter.)

I've got a sample box of the blue grommets. If it's the same ones, they are quite soft, somewhat squishy. Firm enough to hold a screw and drive. Smell wierd and feel sticky.

Duck Tape - Very nice post, bless your sweet little heart for putting all this into one place. This should go in a FAQ or at least be stickied.

Hint, hint...any Mods listening?

Hello folks.

Please note that wherever my second posting in this thread reads "…" (without the quotes) I actually typed three periods in a row.

Best wishes,
Glen

P.S. Thanks for the kind words, Ralf.

I bought some fan isolators from Silicon Acoustics and have a great report.

I will NEVER hard mount a fan again. I don't have any dBA testing equipment, but I did compare the noise before and after, and it simply is a no brainer.

Fans holes with 2 lips vs 1 solid tube are easier to install. By pulling on the fan isolator, it will make it skinny, and easy to install. The fans with a solid tube, like some 25mm thick fans took a bit more skill. I tied a piece of thread around a few to help me pull it through the hole. But then I realized you can just lick the isolators and push push push and it goes on.

I know this thread is pretty old but I just wanted to say thanks to DuckTape as it came in very handy.

How do you remove the fans from the isolaters, do they come off wth some elbow grease or do u have to cut the ear isolater?

Oh and how good are those hard drive isolaters compared to the ones supplied in the Antec 3700 AMB? They do fit, right?

You just pull, and the fans come off pretty easily. This makes them reusable.

what is the difference between the high damp PVC and the low damp McMaster grommets?

I have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of these McMaster grommets and fan mounts.

For low-RPM fans, I am firmly convinced that the elastomer fan mounts are a total waste of time. No difference whatsoever. And if you are a silent PC enthusiast with high RPM fans, you've got a lot more obvious problems to deal with than this

For hard drives, I do think rubber isolation is worthwhile, because of the mass of the drives and the high RPM that they're spinning at. However. These rubber grommets can be ridiculously difficult to use for hard drives, at least in the average PC case, because HDDs are typically designed to use rails, or mount flush to an aluminum or steel cage. It's a lot easier to suspend the drives, lay them on sorbothane, etcetera.

Anyway, YMMV, they are handy to have around, but they aren't a silver bullet of any kind..

I bought some fan isolators from Silicon Acoustics.
I have a Sonata enclosure.
Let me tell you.
These isolators are completely worthless to a Sonata owner if you are not willing to enlarge your holes.
They will not fit in the holes that are pre-drilled in the case.
I ripped 2 of these isolators trying to mount a case fan, forget about it.
The one that come with the Sonata are way better.
You know, the clear ones.
I bought these because I needed new ones.
I just assumed they were about the same minus the color.
That was completely off.
These blue ones are a million times harder!
And smaller, so if you have fat finders like me, good luck.
Just order the ones from Antec.
They are softyer so I would imagine that they dampen better too.
The softness makes them a complete ease to work with too.
Here's a link to the Antec grommits:
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=30030

I bought a load of grommets from www.fleetwoodcomputers.co.uk which looked just like these and I didn't notice any difference when I mounted the rear 120mm case fan on my Antec SLK3700AMB using them.

I did notice a difference when I used them on my PSU's 92mm fan though. There wasn't enough room inside the PSU to use them on the 80mm as well, but I'm thinking of mounting it externally using them since it's now the noisiest fan in the PC and there was a marked drop on the 92mm noise levels.

They won't make an appreciable difference on every fan, but I'd recommend getting a couple just to try them out on the various fans in your case and see if any benefit. For the sake of a couple of quid you could be impressed. Plus it made it easy to mount the rear case fan without having to drill fan mounting holes as the grommets were soft enough to hold the fan even though the holes were off-centre.

Question on sizes...

Of the two hard drive gromets sizes listed, does anyone know which is a "perfect fit" as a replacement for those that come with the SLK3000B's drive cage? I would just measure mine but its near imposible to measure decimal inches with a ruler.

Also, I have the same question as colganc, which no one ever answered: what is the difference between the High-Damped PVC and the Low Damped TPR? Or more simply, which do we as silencers want?

Who carries grommets in the Toronto area?

i have a compucase 6A19 with quick-release brackets for the 120mm intake and exhaust fans. I bought a flexi-mount fan kit with these long rubber fan mounts but was stumped at first because removing the fan-bracket leaves holes in the wrong places. After some experimenting I mounted the BRACKET using the soft fan-mounts and cut the ends off. the fan then squished against these ends a little and clipped into place.
I have ended up with some wobbability in the fan+bracket but I think its not as much as a normal mounting...but the fan is low RPM anyway.

Its just an extra way of using these flexi-mounts without tampering with the case. The compucase 6A19 is the basis for one of accousticase's cases but I cant remember which one.