Removing P180B lower chamber fan bracket

tima · Post by **tima** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:55 pm

Anyone have a tip on removing the lower chamber fan bracket from the P180B? This is the fan between the HD cage and power supply. I've tried simultaneously pushing from the bottom and top of the fan's frame, but I can't get the thing to budge, and I don't want to break it.

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:02 pm

On the older P180, you just pull it toward you, then to the left; it should just slide out. It's held in place by four fingers that go through holes in the metal plate. You can see them from the hard disk side of the partition as four small black squares of plastic.

tima · Post by **tima** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:54 pm

cmthomson wrote:On the older P180, you just pull it toward you, then to the left; it should just slide out. It's held in place by four fingers that go through holes in the metal plate. You can see them from the hard disk side of the partition as four small black squares of plastic.

That's what I'm seeing on my P180B as well. I just can't get it to release. Oh well, I've decided to leave it alone anyway, as the TriCools that came with the case are quieter at their low setting than the three Nexus 120mm fans I ordered to replace them, at least at 12v, though the TriCools don't seem to push as much air. The cooling performance is OK, but it's too bad the TriCools don't offer speed monitoring, as I like to see my fans in monitoring programs.

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:26 am

The first time or two, the caddy is quite hard to move. If you pull towards you by grasping both sides of the fan, it should slide 1/4" or so with about 5 pounds force. Then it should wiggle out easily.

Yes, Nexus at 12V is louder than TriCool at low, but the whole idea of getting Nexus fans is to undervolt them. Most people run them at 6-8V; I run mine even slower.

What motherboard do you have? Many of the newer ones can control a Nexus directly using SpeedFan, so you get speed control and monitoring without any additional hardware.

tima · Post by **tima** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:52 am

cmthomson wrote:The first time or two, the caddy is quite hard to move. If you pull towards you by grasping both sides of the fan, it should slide 1/4" or so with about 5 pounds force. Then it should wiggle out easily.

I think I was applying more like 50 pounds.

Still wouldn't budge.

cmthomson wrote:Yes, Nexus at 12V is louder than TriCool at low, but the whole idea of getting Nexus fans is to undervolt them. Most people run them at 6-8V; I run mine even slower.

What motherboard do you have? Many of the newer ones can control a Nexus directly using SpeedFan, so you get speed control and monitoring without any additional hardware.

I thought about that, but if I were to undervolt the Nexus fans to be as quiet as the stock TriCools on low, I'd guess they'd end up pushing a comparable amount of air. Since cooling is adequate with the TriCools, the potential to increase the Nexus speed programmatically wouldn't be useful. So, Nexus seems like a wash at this point, the only real advantage being the 3-pin connector. Ah well, I can always use them another day.

alistairg · Post by **alistairg** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:48 pm

I just had to remove one on my new case. If you look at the bracket from the HD side, you'll see that it has two tiny plastic tabs next 2 the big plastic tabs that hold into place. These stop it from sliding out towards you.

Iif you (I think it was squeeze) the black plastic handle it should pull them away from the metal divider. I also pushed them in with a biro (towards PSU away from HDs) to help convince them to come loose. Does that make sense?

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:55 pm

tima wrote:I thought about that, but if I were to undervolt the Nexus fans to be as quiet as the stock TriCools on low, I'd guess they'd end up pushing a comparable amount of air. Since cooling is adequate with the TriCools, the potential to increase the Nexus speed programmatically wouldn't be useful. So, Nexus seems like a wash at this point, the only real advantage being the 3-pin connector. Ah well, I can always use them another day.

Clearly your silence infection has not yet fully taken hold. Don't toss those Nexus fans. After a while listening to the TriCools (especially the one in the lower chamber), I predict you'll want to replace them...

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:15 pm

You have much addiction to handle. Toss the lower chamber tri-cool, undervolt the nexus, and you will be able to tell the difference.