Time for everyone to use 5mm spacers?

Grim5

Grim5

Grim5

Soldato
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6 Feb 2019
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After watching this I'm now considering ordering 12 Noctua spacers for my fans. 6 of which would go onto AIO's and others for case fans, hard to say no to quite noticeable reduction in noise and lower temps

 
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I had some silicon fan gaskets in my parts bin. They are about 2.5mm thick so I mounted them in the bottom of my NR200P. Doubt I’ll notice much difference as those fans don’t go over 1000rpm anyhow. Every little helps though.
 
Interesting concept this, seems to make the most difference if the fan blades are hard up against a grill or something. On a radiator I think the fins are not flush against the fan blades so doesn't make as much difference to noise.
 
Not been funny here but this stuff has been out for at least 15 years. I put rubber spaces on to stop fan noise back in 2008.


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You pull them through and either leave the extra rubber bit or cut it once it’s in. You can get different lengths / sizes. What happens is the fan sits between the gap in the rubber dampening the noise and stops the jet noise.
 
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ATIorNvidia said:
Used to gut out old fans with pliers and use the frame as a shroud for my front intake fans if my case had the room. A bit overkill at 25mm thick but it did work really well in reducing noise.
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Used to do that myself. Then I started roof mounting the radiator instead of having it in the front, bit tight with the top edge of the motherboard to do that in most cases.
 
Depending on the fan used is night and day.
Bottom intake on H9 Flow, front intake on Fractal North, side intake Corsair 5000d Airflow. Most scenarios where the intake fan is too close to the mesh behind it.
Even the Fractal Torrent, if using a spacer, would allow the bottom fans to run 10% faster at lower noise level.
For exhaust, would only be beneficial to create a gap between the fan and radiator, allowing a more uniform air distribution.
Some scenarios, the benefit will be acting as noise dampening, but more often than not, allowing a bigger gap between the rear of the fan and the mesh or bracket behind is the jackpot.
The only issue with soft gaskets is that they won’t stay firm in place, unless they are actually sealing the whole area behind the fan. Of they’re only “sandwiched” on the for corners of the fan, not great.
Particularly I prefer solid spacers, 3D printed like the ones mentioned before.
Some fans, like the Silent Loop, very quiet, back in the days, but add any resistance (mesh, bracket) less than 5mm behind it and will sound awful.
 
I think some people are mixing up noise from vibration (i.e. that can be cured with the rubber noodle mounts) with noise caused by turbulence due to the fan being too close to where the air is being sucked in - these solve the latter by being an actual spacer rather than just a soft mount.
 
pastymuncher said:
Soft mounts also keep the fan away from the case by a couple of mm, mine did anyway when I had a normal case.
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They usually do, 1 or 2mm at most, and do help. The advantage of the gasket or spacer is that they still seal the gap between the fan and the mounting area, but using soft mounting do help a lot. Also they don’t “eat” the thread inside the fan case and don’t scrap paint from the case, as usually screws do.
I was really happy for the mounting offered on the Thermalright TL-B12, basically a long screw, two rubber rings and one nut. Also BeQuiet push-in mounting is good.
 
GaryTheSnail said:
Not been funny here but this stuff has been out for at least 15 years. I put rubber spaces on to stop fan noise back in 2008.


IMG-1216.jpg



You pull them through and either leave the extra rubber bit or cut it once it’s in. You can get different lengths / sizes. What happens is the fan sits between the gap in the rubber dampening the noise and stops the jet noise.
Click to expand...
Have these on all 4 case fans and it make a big difference to noise.
 
Drumroll said:
They usually do, 1 or 2mm at most, and do help. The advantage of the gasket or spacer is that they still seal the gap between the fan and the mounting area, but using soft mounting do help a lot. Also they
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This, the seal around the fan is relatively crucial otherwise you end up recirculating some of the internal case air which then becomes non optimal in theory.

Whether this happens in actuality or whether it does but makes no tangible difference I don't know,

On my pc I've sealed them and it works quite well.

What makes the noise on mine is the thin plastic I used for the fan shroud, it needed to be thin so it could be vacuum formed into shape, unfortunately however it vibrates a bit, can't hear it in normal use but when the fans get to max speed it's quite noticeable. If I were to do it again I'd make it from steel. Anyway I digress.
 
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