How connect two 120mm fans together (adjacent)??

wunkley · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:54

Going out of my mind here. How can I connect 2x 120mm case fans together, next to each other, edge to edge?

It's easier if I explain what I want to do with with a quick and dirty annotated picture

Basically I want to have some direct airflow going over my GPU towards the rear exhaust fan. The Lian Li Pc08 is a beautiful, beautiful case, and the split chamber design is great - but the lack of airflow towards the GPU in the front chamber is making the GPU temps higher than I want. I do have the top 2 intake fans coming in at the moment, but they are quite a distance from the gpu and I want everything to be whisper quiet as possible so don't want to have them blasting away (which I've actually tried and it didn't help too much anyway.

I'm thinking If I can easily mount a fan to the middle of the 3 fans on the right (which only direct to the rear chamber) that would do the job nicely and still look ok, hopefully, with some experimenting.

All I have found is this

...which is an image from some dodgy chinese retail site. I cannot find something like this anywhere in the uk/ reliable. Can anyone help or have any other or better ideas to join 2 fans together securely whilst still being able to mount the one on the right?

lude1962 · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:03

2x small block of plastic or whatever, 2 holes through it to connect the two corners, mounting screws etc can then pass through

wunkley · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:13

lude1962 said:
2x small block of plastic or whatever, 2 holes through it to connect the two corners, mounting screws etc can then pass through

Hello mate. Just updated first post with a pic. As you will see it needs to be an extremely flush method so the fan on the right can still mount tightly

Armageus · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:24

Hard to tell from that picture, but are the rear screw holes on the fans used?, if not then I would just use small some cable ties through the holes on that fan and the new one.

If you are then happy, then worry about getting something more permanent fabricated.

e.g. something like images here
http://www.overclock.net/t/1468878/tutorial-dual-120mm-fans-on-twin-frozr-iii-cards

PieEater · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:37

Hot glue gun? On those clear fans you probably wouldn't see the glue unless you really looked for it.

wunkley · 13 Jan 2016 at 14:06

Armageus said:
Hard to tell from that picture, but are the rear screw holes on the fans used?, if not then I would just use small some cable ties through the holes on that fan and the new one.

If you are then happy, then worry about getting something more permanent fabricated.

e.g. something like images here
http://www.overclock.net/t/1468878/tutorial-dual-120mm-fans-on-twin-frozr-iii-cards

Rear holes are being used aye

PieEater said:
Hot glue gun? On those clear fans you probably wouldn't see the glue unless you really looked for it.

Hot glue gun? Not something I'm familiar with. My first thought was just superglue the buggers, but I'm not sure I want something so permanent (only just put my 3 bitfenix white LED front fans in like in the photo and not keen on knackering them).

Is hot glue less 'permanent' but still strong enough for something like this?

Why are there no 'freestyle' mounting brackets for fans knocking around, or mini clamps or something so you can fix fans more ad hoc?

pjbelf · 13 Jan 2016 at 14:32

Nip down your local hardware store, get a length of L shaped aluminium extrusion for a few quid. Drill, junior hacksaw and 10 minutes will have them connected

wunkley · 13 Jan 2016 at 15:05

Thanks for the helps chaps, but I think there's no point!.....

Just done some testing putting a fan in place very temporarily almost exactly where it would be (blowing over the GPU to the back) with a spot of bluetac and a balancing act, and ran a few GPU instensive benchies.....

Made sod all difference to GPU temps! and that was with the temporary blutacced fan on full speed and loud as hell, so if I ran it quietly it would be even less effective.

My GPU is a Palit 980Ti Superjetstream by the way. A 2 fan top down cooler with a huge heatsink. It's hitting 78-80 degrees in GPU intensive games and that's with a 1:1 fan profile more or less.
At 60% fan speed and under its very very quiet. At 70% - 80% it's too loud compared to the rest of my new very quiet (and very expensive) build. Think I've got no choice but to whack an AIO cooler on it (I have a spare h55) but Corsair seem to have withdrawn the "n980" mounting bracket due to some fault or defect, so looks like I'll have to wait...

Bantu · 13 Jan 2016 at 15:10

just to check.. what kind of gap do you have between the case and the wall? You may be restricting the card's exhaust, leading to the high temps.

wunkley · 13 Jan 2016 at 15:17

Bantu said:
just to check.. what kind of gap do you have between the case and the wall? You may be restricting the card's exhaust, leading to the high temps.

It's about 6 inches bud (same distance as my previous build / case was). This GPU doesn't have an exhaust as such either, it's an ACX top down cooler type.
I've got the rear case fan which sits above the GPU (in the front case chamber, there are 2 in the rear chamber) as exhaust.
As mentioned I've also got 2 intake fans mounted in the roof of the front chamber.

The Lian Li PC-08 case is basically crying out for watercooling every part. I've got the cpu under a Corsair H100i GTX with the rad in the rear chamber behind the 3 fans at the front right as per pic. This works like a dream.
I bought the Palit superjetstream 980Ti as it's listed as compatible with the Corsair n980 bracket for an AIO, but I thought I'd give it a whirl as it comes as it's meant to run very cool and quiet for a 980Ti.
Just need Corsair to sort out the n980 bracket so I can fit my spare h55 AIO but I don't know what the hold up is.