Noctua Vibration Compensators

[Timmah!]

Talking about these>

I have Noctua NF P14 FLX fan mounted to the side panel of my case with them. I want to use the fan with my new build, so currently trying to un-mount it...the question is, how do i do it? Without breaking the compensators i mean? Is that even possible?

 

[NeoPTLD]

Work them out patiently. Push from the inside while you're pulling as well.
Those look exactly like stock Dell fan mounts.

 

[Timmah!]

Ah, i just could not do it no matter how i tried. So i just cut them off in the end :-D Will screw the fan to the new case just by regular screws. Its gonna be screwed to the back of the case this time around, not the side panel...

Thank you anyway!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No! No-o-o-o-ooo! don' do-it! D-oh-oh-n't doooo it! N-o-o-o!! [currently watching "Cliffhanger" when the guy falls off the cliff -- so . . . the "drama" for "havin' fun."]

Those Noctua Isolators are quality items compared to generic offerings that you can buy by the dozen. I would've told you to get a small flathead screwdriver (Phillips would also work, I'd think) with a tip that is narrower than the usual case fan-mount-hole. You only have to push the flanged rubber back through its hole at one or two points, and they just pop out.

I was always a bigger hot-dawg for cooling than I was for silence. But I have ears -- ya know. So I began to develop some insights on the dBA meter-readings as a separate -- and separately-controlled problem.

First thing I would tell anyone: do not attach fans to metal case with metal screws.

Second thing: Find a way to separate hard plastic fan-shroud surfaces from the metal. The mounting isolators do this, but you could add a single triangle of Spire acoustic rubber foam to each fan corner with a hole punched with the standard office tool.

The isolators you can buy -- like the Noctua but usually black rubber -- can be re-used until they become brittle. I've even salvaged stiff, dry, easily-broken isolators and kept them in use. I'd say put a few drops of Ivory dish detergent on them and let them soak in it for a good part of a day, then give a quick rinse, dry and put to work. But new ones are cheap:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4rufanr.html

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/setof4fanrid.html

Some of the Noctua, Cougar vortex, and other fans come with a rubbery plastic fitting on the corners, just as you'd make with Spire.

But -- don't put metal screws through hard plastic and case-metal together. don't use metal screws. Spend $10 and buy a handful of replacement isolators. $8 for a single box of Spire may last you for a few years-worth of projects. You can wrap nylon machine-head screws with a single tight layer of automotive self-adhesive hose-bandage -- a roll is probably $4, and the screws and nylon nuts are probably pennies-worth.

When you buy a fan with those fat, self-threading flat-head screws in the plastic bag -- don't even open it. Throw them away.