Decoupling or Grill Removal?

halfpower · Post by **halfpower** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:17 pm

What is the best way to reduce noise? Should I decouple my fans or should I remove the grill? By the way, how much of a difference do these two techniques make anyway?

Hal F. Power

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:55 pm

No offense meant here, but have you tried searching and reading any of the thousands of existing threads? Have you read through any of the articles available on this site? Most of your recent questions, including this one, have been discussed many times before. Maybe its time to bring up the topic again, but please... look around and read before just asking. Or at least state that you tried searching, found "xxxxxxx", but didn't understand it or it didn't answer your question.

Some, such as this question, are best tried on your own. Many situations can be unique, what can work for you might not have worked as well for someone else.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:58 pm

For grill removal, why don't you try it and see? It takes 5 minutes to find out. I'm betting on no, but you'll have to make the call.

Fan decoupling is one that I think I'm actually against the crowd on (or the crowd is split on this). It's been my opinion that a decent, slow moving and well balanced fan will not benefit much from decoupling, especially when compared to a normal mounting on a solid and sturdy case.

Pjotor · Post by **Pjotor** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:54 pm

sthayashi wrote:It's been my opinion that a decent, slow moving and well balanced fan will not benefit much from decoupling, especially when compared to a normal mounting on a solid and sturdy case.

Decoupling is beneficial for some fans. I shared your opinion before, but after decoupling a 120mm ADDA fan and actually hearing a difference I have changed my mind.

I remove grills and decouple, although the grill removal makes a bigger difference.

halfpower · Post by **halfpower** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:33 am

Zyzzyx wrote:No offense meant here, but have you tried searching and reading any of the thousands of existing threads? Have you read through any of the articles available on this site?

I have tried searching through the forums, and I'm familiar with the collection of articles on this site. One of the problems with searching is that it can involve sifting through hundreds if not thousands of threads and even then the thread may lack certain specifics.

Some, such as this question, are best tried on your own. Many situations can be unique, what can work for you might not have worked as well for someone else.

It is true that some of my questions are better than others. Some are more thought out while others are more impulsive. On this board and several others I ask far more questions than I answer. I'm actually somewhat perplexed by peoples willingness to answer them.

Finding the answer by ones self can often take time. How much time one should spend on their own is probably debatable. In virtually all situations it is easier to ask.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:43 am

sthayashi wrote:For grill removal, why don't you try it and see? It takes 5 minutes to find out.

Ditto. Depending on the grill, maybe not even 5 minutes.

sthayashi wrote:Fan decoupling is one that I think I'm actually against the crowd on (or the crowd is split on this). It's been my opinion that a decent, slow moving and well balanced fan will not benefit much from decoupling, especially when compared to a normal mounting on a solid and sturdy case.

I agree with sthayashi. I soft mount my orange yate loon fans as a matter of habit but I don't think they benefit much from it. When a tight seal is needed (radiator fan), then a soft mount might actually do more harm than good (loss of pressure/vacuum).

To answer your original question, why not do both. Both can have a measureable benefit under certain circumstances.

halfpower · Post by **halfpower** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:05 am

I've given this some more thought and I think that general case damping material is a little better(although not cost effective). Damping material will should stop vibrations form the fans, hard drives, and anything else that might be vibrating. It will also prevent the introduction of gaps between the fans and the case.

sthayashi wrote:For grill removal, why don't you try it and see? It takes 5 minutes to find out.

I don't think I will do this in the immediate future. This is my first computer case, and it is brand new so I am not eager to cut holes and snip steel. I am also concerned that removing the grill will have ill effects. I think it may release more electro-magnetic radiation and allow more turbulent are flow.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:51 am

halfpower wrote:I am also concerned that removing the grill will have ill effects. I think it may release more electro-magnetic radiation and allow more turbulent are flow.

Quite the opposite (for turbulence). You're removing an obstruction, so the air can move more freely.
As for EMI - you're going to get that through the gaps of the grill anyway. If you have a window case you have a much bigger concern right there.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:26 pm

Even an open grill like the Sonata's (or the 3000b) can make quite a racket, especially with a slow/quiet fan like a nexus/yateloon.

Softmounting makes a difference depending on how well balanced your fans are. For example, I'd be willing to bet money that hardmounting my Nexus fans would make no difference. But I've also got Yate Loon orange fans but they're not as well-balanced as the Nexus even though they're just as quiet. Hardmounting them WOULD give me more grief.

As for dampening material, I very much doubt dampening will solve the vibrations from a hardmounted fan.

For the answer to the original question: Grills give more silence for the effort. If you're worried about EMI use wire grills. Wire grills are both more open and the rounded nature of them eliminates the turbulance noise

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:36 pm

I once bought a bag of black rubber fan mounts. It is still not empty. The main reason I use these and not screws, is the ease of use. Those ^%$# fan screws never want to go straight into the hole, making it difficult to tighten them. The rubber fan mount just pop into place.

VERiON · Post by **VERiON** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:58 pm

Mr_Smartepants wrote:When a tight seal is needed (radiator fan), then a soft mount might actually do more harm than good (loss of pressure/vacuum).

I agree, but you can easily work this out. I use duct tape to simply fix the gap between radiator and soft mounted fan. It gives me 1'C difference in temps (with duct tape 1'C lower temps).