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How to softmount fans?

M

mrscintilla

Senior member
was wondering whether I can cut washers out of soft clothe to softmount.. I don't need to buy specially-made EAR washers, do I? ANything soft should work right???

same question for hard drive mounting.
 
I would try and use something made out of silicone as this material has proven to be the best "vibration dampening" compound. You can buy a tube of clear silicone caulk ( 2 bucks maybe) and squirt out a little dab on a peice of tinfoil, smooth/size it out to your liking, let dry, and peel it off and cut to your liking. I wouldn't use clothes. 🙂
 
The thing I like about 100% soft rubber mounts is that the fans hang off them, they are not rigidly attached to the case, but just give the right amount of tension to keep them in place. The energy transfered to the case is minmized this way. Rubber washers and bolts on the other hand, create compression between the fan and the case and more energy is transfered to the case creating more vibration.

And, even though my Super Lanboy case hase rubber mounts for the hard drives, metal screws still compress the rubber grommets in between and transfer energy through the mount to the case. Although they help somewhat, soft rubber mounting without any metal fastening would be ideal.

m 🙂
 
How about something like this? I bought a couple of these not too long ago for a build I'm working on right now. They installed very easily and look like they'll be very effective. I bought one for the PSU too. 🙂
 
Those Silicon Acoustic fan isolators from the link look pretty interesting....anyone actually tried them?
 
I have used the fan isolators and they work well. Sometimes they are a bit of a trick to install where clearance is an issue.

If you are looking to dampen on the cheap, go buy some 3M foam tape. It is available just about everywhere for about 2-3 bucks a roll and does a fine job of isolating vibrations for your case.
 
Rubber grommets work well to secure fans in a case. Hog out the mounting hole and install the grommets which are available at most home centers, Radio Shack, auto parts stores, ect. Next, use a screw that fits tightly into the fan but not too tight into the grommet. If you lightly snug down the screw the fan will still have some room to move around as needed.

One other method I've heard about is to use foam ear plugs pushed though the fan holes to secure the fan into the case. Kind of getto, but it should work.

Good stuff. 🙂

Ed
 
I have the Silicon fan isolators and I *swear* by them.

It was the best "bang for the buck"...ever. I've spent a good amount of money trying to quiet my case down (Aluminum seems to be louder than most steel cases). Here are my top recommendations for silencing a computer (rated on a price/performance basis):

1) Silicon Fan Isolators: can be a pain to install in tight areas but the silence is well worth it!
2) Coolermaster Rifle Bearing Fans: These are like a good woman: pretty *and* quiet. Nuff? said.
3) Alpha PAL 8045 CPU heatsink: This monster offers unparalleled cooling performance, but is heavy and a pain to install. The cool part is you can still OC with it?even using a quiet fan. If you have a new processor, consider using a heatsink/heatpipe configuration.
4) Antec TruePower supply: there are quieter power supplies (even ones without fans!), but Antec is more readably available and reasonably priced.
5) Silencing material: case matting *can * be expensive, so I bought some automotive acoustic insulating material. Works great, though at the expense of cooling performance.
 
Originally posted by: mrscintilla
This may be too technical... Why is silicon gel better than clothe? Isn't it the softer, the better?
Click to expand...

Cloth or thick felt washers may help a little bit, but alot of vibration energy will still be transferred from the fan to the case because you will still need to use screws to attach it. In this scenario, the screws will still be transferring quite a bit of vibration, causing the case to resonate a bit. The silicon mounts absorb nearly all of the vibration and don't transfer it to the case.
 
Originally posted by: Pauli
Originally posted by: mrscintilla
This may be too technical... Why is silicon gel better than clothe? Isn't it the softer, the better?
Click to expand...

Cloth or thick felt washers may help a little bit, but alot of vibration energy will still be transferred from the fan to the case because you will still need to use screws to attach it. In this scenario, the screws will still be transferring quite a bit of vibration, causing the case to resonate a bit. The silicon mounts absorb nearly all of the vibration and don't transfer it to the case.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's a very good explanation. 🙂

Also, I think cloth will still transfer more vibration from the actual fan frame onto the case frame than silicon gel will. I mean, I don't normally think of cloth when I think of something with significant sound absorption properties.

The reason I liked the looks of those Vantec gel kits is that I don't have a lot of free time these days and I wanted something that's pre-made, effective, and also fairly inexpensive. They fit perfectly onto the frames of my fans -- they take all of 5 or 10 seconds to install. They come in 80, 92, and 120mm sizes, and like I said before, they make one for PSUs too.

BTW, Antec makes the same things, except they were more expensive by a couple dollars so I chose the Vantecs. Incidentally, another cool thing I noticed is that in the kit are some screws and also some small, thin gel washers (made of the same gel) that I used in mounting my CD-RW drive. That was a nice little bonus. 😛
 
Originally posted by: SkyBum
Those Silicon Acoustic fan isolators from the link look pretty interesting....anyone actually tried them?
Click to expand...

Yea they are easy in my opinion and work very well. SilenX sells their own version as well. Think mrscintilla wanted to make his own so all $ options arent really an option for him it seems. Silicon is the way to go (over rubber and especially over clothes) if you want good sound/vibration dampening. Go silicon.
 
I love the idea of using foam ear plugs. I have dozens of them laying somewhere the drawer. will give it a shot.. I am thinking of cutting one in halves and put each half on either side of the case as washers. That will isolate the screw and the fan from the case.
just waiting for my case to arrive from the ever-late ups..

 
Originally posted by: mrscintilla
I love the idea of using foam ear plugs. I have dozens of them laying somewhere the drawer. will give it a shot.. I am thinking of cutting one in halves and put each half on either side of the case as washers. That will isolate the screw and the fan from the case.
just waiting for my case to arrive from the ever-late ups..
Click to expand...

That earplug solution should work Ok, but make sure the earplug pieces on side of the fan that mounts against the case aren't too thick -- you want as small of a gap as possible so that the airflow doesn't "leak" too much.
 
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