Okay I've had this turbulence issue way more times than I can count so I thought I'd share the fix for it in this quick video! btw some crazy monitors coming out in the next few weeks so stay tuned.
In fairness to Noctua, maybe run their fan(s) with and without their spacer vs your other fans w and w/o your mod. Just to get an idea of where one sits against the original. Either way, cool vid 😎
4:07 You can use Spectogram view, as opposed to Waveform, to better visualize specific frequencies. It can be helpful when comparing all those hums and whines, and IIRC in Audition, you can outright select part of the spectrum and play only that.
exactly, when I was tuning my microphone I literally just used FabFilter Pro-Q in FL Studio to see which frequencies should I reduce to improve sibilants etc.
As someone who's been watching for years and owns a 3D printer I appreciate these DIY mods I can easily recreate. You already became one of the best channels in terms of testing methodology and just continue to improve and expand.❤
I have been 3D printing fan spacers like these for a few years now. Its crazy how much difference it makes to your ear just by putting a 5mm gap between the blades and the vented panels. I did all the same tests as you myself trying different thicknesses and landed on 5mm as well just by doing ear testing. I didn't have a sound meter. I just went with what sounded the best and didn't make a hassle to mount. Great work on this video putting some science to all of this. Love your work !!!
The rear exhaust near the i/o is probably one of the most impacted right? Since in many cases that fan is basically pressed directly up against the metal slats with no filter at all. But I'm curious, don't most high quality fans come with some form of rubber pad and noise dampener ie. Noctua anyway?
@@ashryver3605 its not the fans that blow out thru a perforated panel. It's the ones that suck in thru the panel that get turbulence and make noise. Do an experiment. Take a fan and just try blowing thru. It doesn't change the sound much. Then flip the fan and suck thru the panel and you will hear a big difference. Them slowly move the fan away from the panel while it's sucking and you will hear with just a small gap the sound gets a lot less. The faster the fan spins the more pronounced the difference is.
@@jhautz817 Ahh so this mod is targeted to intakes trying to bring air in through a vent, to the inside of the case, rather than trying to push air from the case out. I guess that is why the AIO does not impact much, because 1) aios have a littel gap already from their frame and 2) they are pushing air into it. So for me it would mainly be a mod to do for my bottom intake fans pressed up against a mesh/filter/panel, rather than my rear exhaust fan. Would it hurt tho to just mod the rear exhaust fan anyway too?
As someone who wears closed-back headphones 99.99% of the time I'm on my computer, I probably would never notice the difference, however I LOVE when you dive into this stuff because you do actual testing and break it down in an easy-to-consume way. Cool stuff!
On the other end of the spectrum, I only use open backs and every bit of noise reduction helps, so this is great! Even though my build is very quiet compared to these sff builds.
@@ZenTunE- Oh I still have 6 Noctua fans in my build. lol Originally it was for the sound, but now I just think I dig the aesthetics and can’t stop. haha
@@CaseyHardman Same, I'm totally good with my case fans being cheap Arctics since I run them at like 500-600rpm, can't even hear them over the GPU. But god damn the NF-A25s look good :D
I was just thinking about this on my new sub 5l watercooling build. Admittedly, it is frustrating, but I'll have to find a way to accommodate these margins, because as you found out, quality of the sound is enormous. Thanks for the quality video!
There have been fan spacers and shrouds for years, especially helpful for radiators to alleviate the dead spot of air that is created with the central hub not moving air compared to where the blades are. Always been a smart move but rarely utilized since availability had been low. Alphacool Monsta radiators along with HWL SR line have to-spec distancing between the core and fan itself to help with this. Being that Noctua is popularizing the idea, hopefully it'll take more hold. Glad you made a video about this.
Plus there been few fans like Noiseblocker NB eLoop which would generate weird turbulence noise when they are in push pull configuration, I have run them on SR-2 360mm and hated their noise in pull configuration, then I used 5mm spacers and noise disappeared
Yeah, this is quite some old thing. They were called fan shrouds, few mm thick, I just ordered them like 8 years ago for 3 radiators on my custom loop back then.
I still have 4 of the clear plastic 'Admiral' 40mm fan spacers from over a decade ago. They were quite popular with custom water cooling back in the day.
@@ChatGTA345 For AIOs: I recycled failed fan's frames - cutting the fan out and smoothing out the frame's legs with a file). Both the push and pull sides benefited. Regarding space: I basically run an open bench.
rubber/silocone/plastic fan shrouds are on the market for ages . For example Phobya ,Alphacool etc . They are working perfectly . I'm also sometimes using old fans as a donors .Just cut out the middle motor/blade part and use the empty fan frame as a 25mm spacer.
@noir-13 I agree but their fans are high quality and nice. I have some Noctua fans in my build that I've used for 10 years. I had some cheaper fans that died and were never as quiet as the noctuas while only being $10 cheaper than the Noctuas.
@@noir-13Noctua makes a high-quality product, it's generally better than the rest, and you pay for it. Nothing wrong with paying a premium for a better product
You are such an inspiration, please never stop! Perfect combination of mindset, skill, tools, and you utilize it while creating such good content. its so good.
I had a few of these cheap digital calipers which are honestly not very accurate and die randomly. A cheap Japanese non-digital one was a nice improvement for me. I've never seen them flash since they die before I get through a whole battery so I assumed the flashing was from the camera frame rate 🤣
@@dimitrijekrstic7567 Cheap digital calipers are repeatable but they do have a reliability pitfall, where they can just randomly skip 5mm, which is very not nice when you need to rely on a measurement. It's also the question of how well the surfaces are machined, on cheap ones ones you often have usable outer jaws but bad inner jaws and bad depth tongue, which affects accuracy. So yeah it can make sense to use vernier scale or dial calipers if you can find ones which are well made. Unless you're willing to get digital calipers from an actual major quality brand, which is very expensive. A way to make cheap digital ones more reliable is to strip them and cover the back of the PCB with Kapton or PET tape, since bad mask resin is the cause of several of their issues. But that doesn't help the machining quality. Here he's using plastic digital calipers which are extra cheap and i actually don't hate them, they're sort of more reliable than metal digital cheap ones, and you can use them around electronics without fear to damage valuable things, but resolution is reduced to 0.1mm instead of 0.01mm, and they're so floppy that they are not precise at all and surfaces have draft angles. Vernier calipers are usually 0.05mm resolution on the low end.
I love how adventurous you are with solving problems. 3D printing your own parts to fix problems is insane!!! Super inspiring bro. Keep it up! Love your content!!
watching your channel feels like a breath of fresh air in the current tech youtube space where everyone is pumping out awful sponsored content, keep this up 👍
Optimum is next level... a league of your own in terms of these 3d printed gismos that should make their way into just about every system. I'd like to see included 5mm spacers either for all fans or something that could be included onto the rail of a case say on the front intake or top exhaust.
Hi, i'm from Brazil, and i've have learned so much about small form factor build's and building small pc's with you! Because, the quality of your videos and how you test things and explain the differences are memorable and mindful for adopt in my case, my projects.... Tks for all the work and help man!!!
This depends on which side of the fan is sitting flush against the grill. The side with the "struts" already has the blades distanced from the grill, which is the orientation for exhaust fans. However for intake fans, the blades will be too close to the grill and cause turbulence, which the spacer will most definitely help. However there is another option, and that is reverse flow fans. These are specifically for intake usage and were designed to make the RGB lighting look better by moving the "struts" to the other side of the fan. However this also results in a natural spacing of the blades away from the grill, and so reduces turbulence noise. But if you are using normal fans for intake, sucking through a mesh or grill, then spacers will make a huge difference to noise quality.
I wonder if printing the spacers in TPU or another flexible filament would see additional improvements? Especially if you also have a problem with vibrations causing additional noise - I get these with the stock exhaust fan on my Meshify 2 ARGB at low fan speeds.
Coincidentally, I just printed a fan shroud for my GPU that is made out of TPU and houses two 140mm fans who are elevated 10mm (0.4 inches) from the cooling block. Aside from the noise from the airoving through the fins the card is basically silent now. No vibrations/ additional frequencies whatsoever.
An old mod people have been using for years is weather stripping. I used 1/4in (6.35mm) thick strips for my cpu fan. Worked wonders for sound and temps as it acted as a barrier to keep the cpu cooler from recirculating hot air.
@@cyprian4869 So in my case, the cpu fan is close to the side panel of the case. This causes turbulence. If I apply the weather stripping around the outside edges of the side of the fan facing the side panel it creates a duct that helps with turbulence and temps. Granted I inly saw a 2 degree drop, it was still a difference and it was much quieter.
probably not since the fans that are mounted have their own and vibration rubber. but if the fans you have don't have that rubber piece then yes it will improve it.
I think some of the noise from fans is caused by vibration because the fans are fixed absolutely solid to the mounting. You can get silicone rubber fan mount devices, they are pushed through the screw hole and when the lump/point exits the screw hole it expands and fixes the fan. Used with a support made of silicone rubber or foam it should considerably reduce vibration. If you have driven an older farm tractor, compared with your car you will realise the benefit of rubber mountings that are not solidly fixed, the car is much smoother in operation. If you have a 3D printer you could also make fan exhaust mesh covers with a central ring the same size as the fan hub and cap this central ring. Then make 2 or more rings progressively larger than the central one from the central ring to the outer part of the fan mounting with only a few very thin supports. Say , 2, 3 or more thin rings 1mm thick/wide with 5mm depth, you only need the fan grill to stop fingers and cables from touching the fan. Having rings around the central hub like this should cause a laminar flow, like they use on water fountains, the ones that have a solid jet and not a 'spray effect'. I don't have a 3D printer, so cannot make these myself. I just run my fans at low speed using the motherboard controls, so I don't need to worry about noise.
optimum it’s actually crazy i had no idea you had this big of a youtube channel. played with and against you a fair bit in competitive on overwatch and i’ve had this channel recommended to me forever now. i had no idea why i never connected the dots LMAO. awesome stuff man
I didn't know Noctua made those. Your latest videos are cool, mostly about ways to increase cooling efficiency and reduce noise. The fan spacer is an excellent way to reduce noise. When they are in push, such as exhaust, they aren't as bad, in pull at the front, they do get noisy. Nice work!
You mentioned exactly what i was going to say around 4:00 , It might not be much quieter but the sound and noise it makes is much more pleasing to hear
There are some 5-7mm fan shrouds/spacers available to decouple fans from case/radiators. Some are rubber, and also work as a gasket to better seal the fan to the radiators... this concept isnt new, but glad that you are bringing light to it. Many cases where the fans are butting up against a grill/mesh when pulling through it will make a lot more noise than even spacing it out 5mm as you show in your testing.
You can always buy a 3rd party rubber gasket thats the same square shape as a standard fan. Some problems your solution address: Gaskets tend to compress a lot upon installation. You have to be careful in ensuring they don't deform and make contact with the fan. Finally, they need to be sandwiched between the fan and the panel, as screws wont secure them. They worked well for case intake, but didnt work well for my blackridge. Highly recommebded for thise who don't want to go through the 3d print route.
fan spacers have been around for a decade or more. the problem was cases didnt have much space, so adding spacers would make it harder to fit thick fans into it. space is a premium, bigger case is more expensive. and people back then didnt have as high of rpm fans as of now, partly because high rpm = high noise. but noctua has raised the rpm with their fan designs while minimizing noise. so the air flow turbulence is higher when its closer, so the spacer has become relevant again the reason why spacers and shrouds appeared was watercooling was using a car's heatercores which didnt have the frames modern computer radiators have.
they stopped really doing fan spacers but back over a decade ago they were pretty common. I still have 4 of the 40mm primochill admiral fan spacers I use mostly on external rads now.
Have just given this a go on my NR200p with two arctic P12s on the bottom, the difference is amazing for the amount of effort! Went from 41dB to 36dB (measured with a phone app only) and the subjective difference is huge. A much "cleaner" noise that's much easier to block out. My GPU has high pitched annoying fans, and the new mounts mean I can blast it with the case fans, which has a decent effect on the GPU fan speed. Thankyou for testing this!
I bought your wallpapers when you realessed them and I am very happy with them. I really want more products from you. And hopefully cheap stuff so many of us can buy them. Perfect video as you always do man. You’re insane
if you're lazy or you don't have a 3D printer you can just buy a silverstone SST-FF121B . It's an air filter, you can just cut off the filter and use it as a spacer. it's like 4 mm
I have to thank you for this video. Had a new AIO for a couple of months now and a slight intermittent droning noise was driving me up the wall. Tried different configs but no dice. Then I saw this video and the penny dropped. wind turbulence. replaced the AIo fans with a couple of noctua NP12 and the problem is no more.
I bought some AF120 RGB Elites from corsair for all my case and AIO fans. My god they resonate like absolute CRAZY! Like I can hear it over my headphones even with intense action while in a game. I bought some 3mm silicone 120mm fan spacers to try to take care of it and it helped a ton but there was still a certain range that they mad the *wub wub wub wub*. I didnt even think of printing some TPU spacers! I was able to test each fan individually and set a step graph instead of a normal curve to avoid the ranges that resonated but what a pain that was. I even kept a positive pressure and found the perfect variables for my fans to react to in Fan Control. That software saved me so much headache! Great video tho wish I would've found it 2 weeks ago!
At this point, with the knowledge, testing and innovation at cost you do, someone's got to pick you up to do a full custom case and cooling build. I think there's a massive mini-ITX opportunity for good cooling and in general, a large 3 slot GPU case that's missing both a good case, and effective AIO cooling. That would possibly be one of the most watched videos on the internet in the PC case and specifically the SFF community :)
I'd recommend printing these in TPU instead of a hard material. This basically turns it into a gasket helping to seal better against radiators and can further minimize vibrations (which may or may not be noticeable). On my front 280 rad with fans pulling exhaust, I combined a single 'gasket' for both and have it on the radiator and case sides. This is a bit more convenient to take on and off and should theoretically seal even better but I doubt it's notable over single spacers. Either way reduced vibrations at high speeds resonating through the case. Adding a gasket between the case and a 360 rad in push config didn't matter, only direct contact with the fans.
Iam glad you guys talk alot about air flow but why is noone ever mentioning grounding and ground desync effects on gaming preformance and el interferenceid.. Adding interesting fact: ever since i propperly grounded my case and usb controllers i went from 46% avg accuracy in apex legends to avg 68% in a day .. To get to 46% avg i needed over 3years.. I truley bilive its a big deal and i hope mesaurments and propper testing is comming soon
Would you get any benefits to printing this in a flexible material like TPU? Perhaps it would squish some to prevent air escaping between the fan housing and whatever it is mounted to and perhaps it would work kind of like those rubber tips on Noctua fans that seem designed to reduce vibration and further isolate the fan from the case?
I use double sided foam tape to space out a fan and it works really well with little cost involved. I think the vibration isolation from the case also brings down the noise level a lot.
Is there a particular type or brand of foam tape you went for? I could use foam tape for a couple vibration reduction jobs (both in the PC and in the car) but after a terrible experience with disintegrating foam tape used for A/C weather sealing I've been kinda leery of it.
I used Scotch brand double sided mounting tape and wasn't too concerned about looks since it was only for a top mounted exhaust fan for the computer, underneath the case. I'm sure i could have done a better job but it's out of sight plus i was only concerned with reducing coupling noise. Maybe some type of thin sound deadening material would be better. @@Khrrck
Seems even some washers between the fan and case, or even some bits of cardboard with hole-punched screwholes could achieve the same thing. Would be nice to see testing of this. I presumed when i've done this with cardboard any improvement was due to vibration damping, but looks like it's not the whole story.
@@joby602 I think allowing flow around the edges might allow for more turbulence, but nothing really to do except experiment. I was thinking of just getting some dense foam sheet from Amazon and cutting out an appropriate spacer.
NF-A12s also have built in space between the actual blades and the front frame. Therefore even without any spacer, they can remain relatively quieter when pulling air from an immediate restriction.
I printed these and realized the screws I had were too short and can’t seem to find any longer than 12.5 mm but I think you need around a 15 mm screw. What screws did you use?
If noise is particularly the problem and what you are trying to avoid, there is always been a simple equation... Increase your radiator surface area. Adding more radiator surface area allows you to have more fans and/or larger fans, they can then spin at a lower RPM making much less noise. My system would comfortably be cooled by one 360mm and one 240mm, however, I installed two 480mm so the fans are almost never spinning, it is passive 90% of the time, unless the system is being stressed and then they switch on at 25% and barely ever go above 35% so they are almost inaudible from 1m away.
Wouldn't foam spacers be better than 3d printed ones (not only on the black ridge but also on the side panel) since they, additionally to the reduction of turbulence, also decouple the fan and therefore reduce vibration and noise?
funny, I just posted it on their discord, along with a pic of one I made from a cut up fan years ago. years ago the grief I got was surprising to say the least when I first talked about cutting up fans to do this, it works tho.
For a second I got excited and thought you’d slap it on the X1 for some reason. Quiet pc means nothing when that X1s chamber fan is screeching lmao. Neat though. There’s so many improvements we can make with simple prints like this!
This is the exact pickle I was in with my Ghost S1. Most coolers that would fit in here are absolutely flush with the side panel, which is a prime case for turbulence. One configuration I've been toying with is an ID-Cooling IS-55, but with a standard 120x25 fan. That would bring the height to a total of 65mm, which allows 2-3mm of clearance for something like a layer of foam I can cut out.
I use the Noctua spacers on my slim 120mm noctuas. I had to trim the pegs on the spacers with a hobby saw which took about 5 minutes. Now the fans can run at 2k rpm without sounding horrid. Greatly improved CM NR200 bottom intake noise.
Go figure, Noctua knowing (and publishing) just the right mm that provides improvements. Great video, and just reaffirms that Noctua is just so damn good at what they do!
Thanks for reminding me, in this and your last video, of Remi Mercier's Fan Control. I started using it a couple of days ago and my not SFF PC is quieter in general use and also quieter and more performative when being stressed. For an SFF build it is prolly essential. I recommend his work - and yours - to everyone! Thank you!
Printed this a couple hours ago from TPU. Had a hell of a time trying to put it on my AIO but after a little tinkering it fit. The RPM is now solid rather than bouncing around (at max RPM). Which means its quieter to the ear. Not sure about actual decibel value. It would bounce between 1960 and 2040 RPM and now its just 1980 solid on one and 2002 on the other. Quiet mode it makes little to no noise even before adding the spacer. So listening to it now I can barely hear my PC. Maybe it helped maybe it didn't. It probably did something at least. It would probably have been better to print 280mm in my case but I don't even have a printer capable of that (235mm max). I printed it with 2 bottom layers 2 top layers 1 was "surface". First layer 20mm/s gradually increasing to 50mm/s on layer 4. Then I used Gyroid at 20% infill with connect lines enabled. 2 walls. 0.3mm layer height. 0.4mm nozzle. If I would print this again I would probably change the wall count to 1 and remove the connect infill lines. Because it felt squishy except for the edges. The weight is about 16 gram each.
I laughed when you said you were curious if Noctua did their research on thickness and if a shorter/longer spacer would matter. If you go to Noctua's website and look at their published scientific articles, you'll understand that these guys are major league geek engineers. There's no question whether they would test it, and probably so thoroughly it would be considered overkill. Noctua fans are always amount the creme de la cremeist because of their colossal amount of research and development. That's been a point of contention with the fans, they take forever to build what many assume are easy to make parts, Noctua takes literal years for R&D, fans get impatient and are understandably a bit upset. But at the end of the day, Noctua fans are the best in the business because of the sheer researching, iterating, etc that Noctua does and that's why we love them!
The "geniuses" at Noctua DID NOT invent this. Fan spacers and ducts have been commonly available for WELL over a decade. Though I am sure being a sponsor, Noctua will just love your hyperbolic statement. 😆
Hello, your air duct improvement is really amazing. I'd like to try it myself. May I ask if you used PLA material or ABS material? I'm very grateful to you.
Great experimentation. I’ve used washers to gap the fan/screen space which has lowered the sound level. Obviously some situations will have better airflow with a contiguous enclosing spacer, such as for exhaust. I suspect intakes would be more efficient airflow without an enclosing spacer ala Bernoulli effect.
Wonderful video, these look like something people could fabricate themselves even without a 3d printer. However, it would be interesting to see how different the sound is from other materials like TPU or carbon fiber and nylon. Additionally, one other modifier i would like to see tested is hole diameter. I imagine most of the turbulence is coming off of the fan blades outer edge/tip. Would bring in the diameter help to dampen or direct the air in a different way, especially on a TPU printed one. This is already a long comment, but the pitch of the hole might also make a difference, ie a sloped edge going towards or away of the fan center. Great video as always!
Okay I've had this turbulence issue way more times than I can count so I thought I'd share the fix for it in this quick video! btw some crazy monitors coming out in the next few weeks so stay tuned.
A whole bunch of turbulence, a whole bunch of turbulence.
In fairness to Noctua, maybe run their fan(s) with and without their spacer vs your other fans w and w/o your mod. Just to get an idea of where one sits against the original. Either way, cool vid 😎
360hz OLED monitors? 👀 Now we are talking. Too bad I'll never be able to afford anything close to that haha
If you ever start your own company, I'm sure many of us would love to work with you! I know I would. Keep up the amazing work!
have you tried TPU vs PLA?
4:07 You can use Spectogram view, as opposed to Waveform, to better visualize specific frequencies. It can be helpful when comparing all those hums and whines, and IIRC in Audition, you can outright select part of the spectrum and play only that.
Spectrogram view is also really helpful to eliminate specific frequencies that are muddying your audio
praise the waterfall
exactly, when I was tuning my microphone I literally just used FabFilter Pro-Q in FL Studio to see which frequencies should I reduce to improve sibilants etc.
Did you mean Audacity?
I've used it to read Morse in BF1 😂
@@sushimshah2896 what was that for?
As someone who's been watching for years and owns a 3D printer I appreciate these DIY mods I can easily recreate. You already became one of the best channels in terms of testing methodology and just continue to improve and expand.❤
TRUE!
Exactly this. Although I'm actually tempted to try even more extreme sized spacers
I have been 3D printing fan spacers like these for a few years now. Its crazy how much difference it makes to your ear just by putting a 5mm gap between the blades and the vented panels. I did all the same tests as you myself trying different thicknesses and landed on 5mm as well just by doing ear testing. I didn't have a sound meter. I just went with what sounded the best and didn't make a hassle to mount. Great work on this video putting some science to all of this. Love your work !!!
Did you use PLA to do the 3D printing?
@@CleitonMariano PLA works fine for me. It's not under stress and the airflow from the fan never lets anything get too hot.
The rear exhaust near the i/o is probably one of the most impacted right? Since in many cases that fan is basically pressed directly up against the metal slats with no filter at all.
But I'm curious, don't most high quality fans come with some form of rubber pad and noise dampener ie. Noctua anyway?
@@ashryver3605 its not the fans that blow out thru a perforated panel. It's the ones that suck in thru the panel that get turbulence and make noise. Do an experiment. Take a fan and just try blowing thru. It doesn't change the sound much. Then flip the fan and suck thru the panel and you will hear a big difference. Them slowly move the fan away from the panel while it's sucking and you will hear with just a small gap the sound gets a lot less. The faster the fan spins the more pronounced the difference is.
@@jhautz817 Ahh so this mod is targeted to intakes trying to bring air in through a vent, to the inside of the case, rather than trying to push air from the case out.
I guess that is why the AIO does not impact much, because 1) aios have a littel gap already from their frame and 2) they are pushing air into it.
So for me it would mainly be a mod to do for my bottom intake fans pressed up against a mesh/filter/panel, rather than my rear exhaust fan. Would it hurt tho to just mod the rear exhaust fan anyway too?
As someone who wears closed-back headphones 99.99% of the time I'm on my computer, I probably would never notice the difference, however I LOVE when you dive into this stuff because you do actual testing and break it down in an easy-to-consume way. Cool stuff!
I'm always on open backs haha
On the other end of the spectrum, I only use open backs and every bit of noise reduction helps, so this is great! Even though my build is very quiet compared to these sff builds.
@@ZenTunE- Oh I still have 6 Noctua fans in my build. lol Originally it was for the sound, but now I just think I dig the aesthetics and can’t stop. haha
@@ZenTunE- i'm also on the spectrum, so every little bit of noise reduction helps me too!
@@CaseyHardman Same, I'm totally good with my case fans being cheap Arctics since I run them at like 500-600rpm, can't even hear them over the GPU. But god damn the NF-A25s look good :D
I love your videos man. As someone who does photography, it brings me satisfication seeing your videos. Perfectly executed everytime.
Yea, the guy knows lighting!
I was just thinking about this on my new sub 5l watercooling build. Admittedly, it is frustrating, but I'll have to find a way to accommodate these margins, because as you found out, quality of the sound is enormous. Thanks for the quality video!
There have been fan spacers and shrouds for years, especially helpful for radiators to alleviate the dead spot of air that is created with the central hub not moving air compared to where the blades are. Always been a smart move but rarely utilized since availability had been low. Alphacool Monsta radiators along with HWL SR line have to-spec distancing between the core and fan itself to help with this. Being that Noctua is popularizing the idea, hopefully it'll take more hold. Glad you made a video about this.
Plus there been few fans like Noiseblocker NB eLoop which would generate weird turbulence noise when they are in push pull configuration, I have run them on SR-2 360mm and hated their noise in pull configuration, then I used 5mm spacers and noise disappeared
Yeah, this is quite some old thing. They were called fan shrouds, few mm thick, I just ordered them like 8 years ago for 3 radiators on my custom loop back then.
Only problem is extra space required of course, esp. for SFF builds
I still have 4 of the clear plastic 'Admiral' 40mm fan spacers from over a decade ago. They were quite popular with custom water cooling back in the day.
@@ChatGTA345 For AIOs: I recycled failed fan's frames - cutting the fan out and smoothing out the frame's legs with a file). Both the push and pull sides benefited.
Regarding space: I basically run an open bench.
rubber/silocone/plastic fan shrouds are on the market for ages . For example Phobya ,Alphacool etc . They are working perfectly .
I'm also sometimes using old fans as a donors .Just cut out the middle motor/blade part and use the empty fan frame as a 25mm spacer.
sometimes just takes a bigger player in the market to popularize something
@noir-13 I agree but their fans are high quality and nice. I have some Noctua fans in my build that I've used for 10 years. I had some cheaper fans that died and were never as quiet as the noctuas while only being $10 cheaper than the Noctuas.
@@noir-13Noctua makes a high-quality product, it's generally better than the rest, and you pay for it. Nothing wrong with paying a premium for a better product
That's genius. Yeah they've been around but are very seldom discussed.
I haven't seen those available for purchase here in Asia. If they have local distribution like Arctic or Phanteks then it'd be nice.
You are such an inspiration, please never stop! Perfect combination of mindset, skill, tools, and you utilize it while creating such good content. its so good.
You need to change the battery on your caliper in order to stop it from flashing.
I had a few of these cheap digital calipers which are honestly not very accurate and die randomly. A cheap Japanese non-digital one was a nice improvement for me. I've never seen them flash since they die before I get through a whole battery so I assumed the flashing was from the camera frame rate 🤣
they are good enough for what they are, if you need more precision you need a micrometer anyways.
@@ZILLA.... Mitutoyo makes great calipers!
@@ZILLA....They are very precise and accurate. You don't know what you are talking about
@@dimitrijekrstic7567 Cheap digital calipers are repeatable but they do have a reliability pitfall, where they can just randomly skip 5mm, which is very not nice when you need to rely on a measurement. It's also the question of how well the surfaces are machined, on cheap ones ones you often have usable outer jaws but bad inner jaws and bad depth tongue, which affects accuracy. So yeah it can make sense to use vernier scale or dial calipers if you can find ones which are well made. Unless you're willing to get digital calipers from an actual major quality brand, which is very expensive.
A way to make cheap digital ones more reliable is to strip them and cover the back of the PCB with Kapton or PET tape, since bad mask resin is the cause of several of their issues. But that doesn't help the machining quality.
Here he's using plastic digital calipers which are extra cheap and i actually don't hate them, they're sort of more reliable than metal digital cheap ones, and you can use them around electronics without fear to damage valuable things, but resolution is reduced to 0.1mm instead of 0.01mm, and they're so floppy that they are not precise at all and surfaces have draft angles. Vernier calipers are usually 0.05mm resolution on the low end.
I love how adventurous you are with solving problems. 3D printing your own parts to fix problems is insane!!! Super inspiring bro. Keep it up! Love your content!!
watching your channel feels like a breath of fresh air in the current tech youtube space where everyone is pumping out awful sponsored content, keep this up 👍
This channel continues to be awesome for actual geeks. No clickbait, just pure technology and modding.
quality of the content is unbelievable. I have been thinking about the same issue for so long!! Thanks man.
Thank you SOOO much for testing this. This is a huge problem in so many cases and I can't believe noctua didn't make a universal adapter!
Optimum is next level... a league of your own in terms of these 3d printed gismos that should make their way into just about every system. I'd like to see included 5mm spacers either for all fans or something that could be included onto the rail of a case say on the front intake or top exhaust.
There has to be a very small percentage of people who ever notice this noise at all. Very unnecessary, but I appreciate the effort you put into this.
Hi, i'm from Brazil, and i've have learned so much about small form factor build's and building small pc's with you!
Because, the quality of your videos and how you test things and explain the differences are memorable and mindful for adopt in my case, my projects....
Tks for all the work and help man!!!
This depends on which side of the fan is sitting flush against the grill. The side with the "struts" already has the blades distanced from the grill, which is the orientation for exhaust fans. However for intake fans, the blades will be too close to the grill and cause turbulence, which the spacer will most definitely help. However there is another option, and that is reverse flow fans. These are specifically for intake usage and were designed to make the RGB lighting look better by moving the "struts" to the other side of the fan. However this also results in a natural spacing of the blades away from the grill, and so reduces turbulence noise. But if you are using normal fans for intake, sucking through a mesh or grill, then spacers will make a huge difference to noise quality.
This is why I love this channel. Nobody covers small but very relevant quirks to PC building like this
I wonder if printing the spacers in TPU or another flexible filament would see additional improvements? Especially if you also have a problem with vibrations causing additional noise - I get these with the stock exhaust fan on my Meshify 2 ARGB at low fan speeds.
Coincidentally, I just printed a fan shroud for my GPU that is made out of TPU and houses two 140mm fans who are elevated 10mm (0.4 inches) from the cooling block.
Aside from the noise from the airoving through the fins the card is basically silent now. No vibrations/ additional frequencies whatsoever.
An old mod people have been using for years is weather stripping. I used 1/4in (6.35mm) thick strips for my cpu fan. Worked wonders for sound and temps as it acted as a barrier to keep the cpu cooler from recirculating hot air.
@@peepeezzaI'm afraid I don't follow 100%, did you put these on the fans (that are between your cpu cooler grills)?
@@cyprian4869 So in my case, the cpu fan is close to the side panel of the case. This causes turbulence. If I apply the weather stripping around the outside edges of the side of the fan facing the side panel it creates a duct that helps with turbulence and temps. Granted I inly saw a 2 degree drop, it was still a difference and it was much quieter.
probably not since the fans that are mounted have their own and vibration rubber. but if the fans you have don't have that rubber piece then yes it will improve it.
I think some of the noise from fans is caused by vibration because the fans are fixed absolutely solid to the mounting. You can get silicone rubber fan mount devices, they are pushed through the screw hole and when the lump/point exits the screw hole it expands and fixes the fan. Used with a support made of silicone rubber or foam it should considerably reduce vibration. If you have driven an older farm tractor, compared with your car you will realise the benefit of rubber mountings that are not solidly fixed, the car is much smoother in operation.
If you have a 3D printer you could also make fan exhaust mesh covers with a central ring the same size as the fan hub and cap this central ring. Then make 2 or more rings progressively larger than the central one from the central ring to the outer part of the fan mounting with only a few very thin supports. Say , 2, 3 or more thin rings 1mm thick/wide with 5mm depth, you only need the fan grill to stop fingers and cables from touching the fan. Having rings around the central hub like this should cause a laminar flow, like they use on water fountains, the ones that have a solid jet and not a 'spray effect'. I don't have a 3D printer, so cannot make these myself.
I just run my fans at low speed using the motherboard controls, so I don't need to worry about noise.
optimum it’s actually crazy i had no idea you had this big of a youtube channel. played with and against you a fair bit in competitive on overwatch and i’ve had this channel recommended to me forever now. i had no idea why i never connected the dots LMAO.
awesome stuff man
Warning for the Americans: lots of talk in millimeters instead of washing machines per football field or whatever you guys use
😂😂
Laughed out loud god damn haha
Conversions are difficult
😂
And not to forget the increments with 7/8 of an washing machine per footballfield
Simple channel posting simple day to day usage videos man I love it
As an engineer, I love this. Such a simple solution that's cheap and easy to implement.
I didn't know Noctua made those.
Your latest videos are cool, mostly about ways to increase cooling efficiency and reduce noise.
The fan spacer is an excellent way to reduce noise. When they are in push, such as exhaust, they aren't as bad, in pull at the front, they do get noisy.
Nice work!
Would love to see your 3D printable designs on Printables. ;)
You mentioned exactly what i was going to say around 4:00 , It might not be much quieter but the sound and noise it makes is much more pleasing to hear
Most entertaining and professional TH-camr, I can’t wait until you reach 1M subscribers
The biceps, the hair, the production quality…
Frankly it’s overwhelming. Keep it up
Bro keeps getting buffer
There are some 5-7mm fan shrouds/spacers available to decouple fans from case/radiators. Some are rubber, and also work as a gasket to better seal the fan to the radiators... this concept isnt new, but glad that you are bringing light to it. Many cases where the fans are butting up against a grill/mesh when pulling through it will make a lot more noise than even spacing it out 5mm as you show in your testing.
Totally off topic but I recognize your username from the mini-z forums 😂😅
Yeah, spacers aren't new, and they been around for ages but somehow forgotten.
@@Limeaway You found me out!!! Im a PC hobbyist too!
Link?
You can always buy a 3rd party rubber gasket thats the same square shape as a standard fan.
Some problems your solution address: Gaskets tend to compress a lot upon installation. You have to be careful in ensuring they don't deform and make contact with the fan. Finally, they need to be sandwiched between the fan and the panel, as screws wont secure them.
They worked well for case intake, but didnt work well for my blackridge. Highly recommebded for thise who don't want to go through the 3d print route.
fan spacers have been around for a decade or more. the problem was cases didnt have much space, so adding spacers would make it harder to fit thick fans into it.
space is a premium, bigger case is more expensive.
and people back then didnt have as high of rpm fans as of now, partly because high rpm = high noise.
but noctua has raised the rpm with their fan designs while minimizing noise.
so the air flow turbulence is higher when its closer, so the spacer has become relevant again
the reason why spacers and shrouds appeared was watercooling was using a car's heatercores which didnt have the frames modern computer radiators have.
they stopped really doing fan spacers but back over a decade ago they were pretty common. I still have 4 of the 40mm primochill admiral fan spacers I use mostly on external rads now.
I just took a look at my bequiet case, and it is actually shaped to give the fan about 5mm space between the grille and blades! Neat.
As a fellow photographer, witnessing your content brings me immense satisfaction. The execution is flawless every single time.
Brilliant ! - Merry Christmas to you and all your viewers
Absolutely love your videos man, specially those with experiments and 3d prints, like the mice, and case cooling....
Keep up the good work man ! ❤
This guy is severely under rated.
Have just given this a go on my NR200p with two arctic P12s on the bottom, the difference is amazing for the amount of effort! Went from 41dB to 36dB (measured with a phone app only) and the subjective difference is huge. A much "cleaner" noise that's much easier to block out.
My GPU has high pitched annoying fans, and the new mounts mean I can blast it with the case fans, which has a decent effect on the GPU fan speed. Thankyou for testing this!
how did you attach the fans with this gasket to the housing?
@@mr.sousay9011 standard fan screws are long enough to go through the duct as well as secure the fan
I bought your wallpapers when you realessed them and I am very happy with them. I really want more products from you. And hopefully cheap stuff so many of us can buy them. Perfect video as you always do man. You’re insane
if you're lazy or you don't have a 3D printer you can just buy a silverstone SST-FF121B . It's an air filter, you can just cut off the filter and use it as a spacer. it's like 4 mm
you should do a vid where you try to cool a laptop to the best of your ability. great vid as always!
The *geniuses* at Noctua made a spacer.
1:20 Nice to see Noctua down with modern lingo “thicc” on their official website 😉
I have to thank you for this video. Had a new AIO for a couple of months now and a slight intermittent droning noise was driving me up the wall. Tried different configs but no dice. Then I saw this video and the penny dropped. wind turbulence. replaced the AIo fans with a couple of noctua NP12 and the problem is no more.
Ive been doing something fairly similar for all my builds, I use thick double sided mounting tape as a spacer to reduce turbulence :) works just fine
This dude is literally optimum human.
best yt channel, always trying new things that are worth testing.
Finally. Some one bringing core knowledge to the masses! Thank you!
I like this evolution of your channel
We need more 3d printed-tech related content! This was awesome
Thank you my dude! This is exactly what i need. Can't wait for them to pop up on the UK Ebay
I bought some AF120 RGB Elites from corsair for all my case and AIO fans. My god they resonate like absolute CRAZY! Like I can hear it over my headphones even with intense action while in a game. I bought some 3mm silicone 120mm fan spacers to try to take care of it and it helped a ton but there was still a certain range that they mad the *wub wub wub wub*. I didnt even think of printing some TPU spacers! I was able to test each fan individually and set a step graph instead of a normal curve to avoid the ranges that resonated but what a pain that was. I even kept a positive pressure and found the perfect variables for my fans to react to in Fan Control. That software saved me so much headache! Great video tho wish I would've found it 2 weeks ago!
HUGE thanks for posting the files for free!! Printing a set now !
At this point, with the knowledge, testing and innovation at cost you do, someone's got to pick you up to do a full custom case and cooling build. I think there's a massive mini-ITX opportunity for good cooling and in general, a large 3 slot GPU case that's missing both a good case, and effective AIO cooling.
That would possibly be one of the most watched videos on the internet in the PC case and specifically the SFF community :)
This definitely needs to be added to every new build guide!
I'd recommend printing these in TPU instead of a hard material. This basically turns it into a gasket helping to seal better against radiators and can further minimize vibrations (which may or may not be noticeable).
On my front 280 rad with fans pulling exhaust, I combined a single 'gasket' for both and have it on the radiator and case sides. This is a bit more convenient to take on and off and should theoretically seal even better but I doubt it's notable over single spacers. Either way reduced vibrations at high speeds resonating through the case. Adding a gasket between the case and a 360 rad in push config didn't matter, only direct contact with the fans.
Iam glad you guys talk alot about air flow but why is noone ever mentioning grounding and ground desync effects on gaming preformance and el interferenceid.. Adding interesting fact: ever since i propperly grounded my case and usb controllers i went from 46% avg accuracy in apex legends to avg 68% in a day .. To get to 46% avg i needed over 3years.. I truley bilive its a big deal and i hope mesaurments and propper testing is comming soon
1:25 broo those tolerances are thight! 🥵🥵🥵🥵
Would you get any benefits to printing this in a flexible material like TPU? Perhaps it would squish some to prevent air escaping between the fan housing and whatever it is mounted to and perhaps it would work kind of like those rubber tips on Noctua fans that seem designed to reduce vibration and further isolate the fan from the case?
The foam ones should work basically the same I guess.
This is clutch, because there’s someone who does this and a lot of 3D prints for SSUPD cases and this helps me making my decision to buy one.
I use double sided foam tape to space out a fan and it works really well with little cost involved. I think the vibration isolation from the case also brings down the noise level a lot.
Is there a particular type or brand of foam tape you went for? I could use foam tape for a couple vibration reduction jobs (both in the PC and in the car) but after a terrible experience with disintegrating foam tape used for A/C weather sealing I've been kinda leery of it.
I used Scotch brand double sided mounting tape and wasn't too concerned about looks since it was only for a top mounted exhaust fan for the computer, underneath the case. I'm sure i could have done a better job but it's out of sight plus i was only concerned with reducing coupling noise. Maybe some type of thin sound deadening material would be better. @@Khrrck
Seems even some washers between the fan and case, or even some bits of cardboard with hole-punched screwholes could achieve the same thing. Would be nice to see testing of this. I presumed when i've done this with cardboard any improvement was due to vibration damping, but looks like it's not the whole story.
@@joby602 I think allowing flow around the edges might allow for more turbulence, but nothing really to do except experiment. I was thinking of just getting some dense foam sheet from Amazon and cutting out an appropriate spacer.
NF-A12s also have built in space between the actual blades and the front frame. Therefore even without any spacer, they can remain relatively quieter when pulling air from an immediate restriction.
I printed these and realized the screws I had were too short and can’t seem to find any longer than 12.5 mm but I think you need around a 15 mm screw. What screws did you use?
Just taking a guess that he used radiator mounting screws since the gap from rad fins to the fans is similar to the gap introduced by these spacers
If noise is particularly the problem and what you are trying to avoid, there is always been a simple equation... Increase your radiator surface area.
Adding more radiator surface area allows you to have more fans and/or larger fans, they can then spin at a lower RPM making much less noise.
My system would comfortably be cooled by one 360mm and one 240mm, however, I installed two 480mm so the fans are almost never spinning, it is passive 90% of the time, unless the system is being stressed and then they switch on at 25% and barely ever go above 35% so they are almost inaudible from 1m away.
I have 5-10mm spacers on every case fan. It's a game changer. Highly recommend it.
THANK YOU printed with extruder tpu on p1p .. work like a charm
Wouldn't foam spacers be better than 3d printed ones (not only on the black ridge but also on the side panel) since they, additionally to the reduction of turbulence, also decouple the fan and therefore reduce vibration and noise?
maybe, I will try to print these in TPU.
@@ehdbomor take a foam and cut it instead
This channel is legit on par with GN. Keep up the good work!
funny, I just posted it on their discord, along with a pic of one I made from a cut up fan years ago. years ago the grief I got was surprising to say the least when I first talked about cutting up fans to do this, it works tho.
For a second I got excited and thought you’d slap it on the X1 for some reason. Quiet pc means nothing when that X1s chamber fan is screeching lmao. Neat though. There’s so many improvements we can make with simple prints like this!
curiously clicked on this video. now im subscribed
This is the exact pickle I was in with my Ghost S1.
Most coolers that would fit in here are absolutely flush with the side panel, which is a prime case for turbulence. One configuration I've been toying with is an ID-Cooling IS-55, but with a standard 120x25 fan. That would bring the height to a total of 65mm, which allows 2-3mm of clearance for something like a layer of foam I can cut out.
I printed a 5mm spacer for the 4010 hotend fan for my printer. Yes it is still noisy but at a more tolerable level. thank you for the information.
I was wondering why there was a hum in the fan. I will try ! You are great !!!
amazing how you incorperate so many interests in your videos: PC building, cinematography, audiophiles, engineering, ect...
I'm loving this 3D printing content.
I use the Noctua spacers on my slim 120mm noctuas. I had to trim the pegs on the spacers with a hobby saw which took about 5 minutes. Now the fans can run at 2k rpm without sounding horrid. Greatly improved CM NR200 bottom intake noise.
Go figure, Noctua knowing (and publishing) just the right mm that provides improvements. Great video, and just reaffirms that Noctua is just so damn good at what they do!
It's always interesting to see what sort of questions keep other people up at night.
Thanks for reminding me, in this and your last video, of Remi Mercier's Fan Control. I started using it a couple of days ago and my not SFF PC is quieter in general use and also quieter and more performative when being stressed. For an SFF build it is prolly essential. I recommend his work - and yours - to everyone! Thank you!
Hey, cloning protected things is number one thing of open source existing. Its called other terms piracy but open source makes it sound more fun.
I love Optimus vids ALWAYS good knowledge at the least
Boy you always delivering the best content
Truly the most optimum tech there is.
Printed this a couple hours ago from TPU. Had a hell of a time trying to put it on my AIO but after a little tinkering it fit.
The RPM is now solid rather than bouncing around (at max RPM). Which means its quieter to the ear. Not sure about actual decibel value.
It would bounce between 1960 and 2040 RPM and now its just 1980 solid on one and 2002 on the other. Quiet mode it makes little to no noise even before adding the spacer.
So listening to it now I can barely hear my PC. Maybe it helped maybe it didn't. It probably did something at least.
It would probably have been better to print 280mm in my case but I don't even have a printer capable of that (235mm max). I printed it with 2 bottom layers 2 top layers 1 was "surface". First layer 20mm/s gradually increasing to 50mm/s on layer 4. Then I used Gyroid at 20% infill with connect lines enabled. 2 walls. 0.3mm layer height. 0.4mm nozzle.
If I would print this again I would probably change the wall count to 1 and remove the connect infill lines. Because it felt squishy except for the edges.
The weight is about 16 gram each.
I laughed when you said you were curious if Noctua did their research on thickness and if a shorter/longer spacer would matter. If you go to Noctua's website and look at their published scientific articles, you'll understand that these guys are major league geek engineers. There's no question whether they would test it, and probably so thoroughly it would be considered overkill. Noctua fans are always amount the creme de la cremeist because of their colossal amount of research and development. That's been a point of contention with the fans, they take forever to build what many assume are easy to make parts, Noctua takes literal years for R&D, fans get impatient and are understandably a bit upset. But at the end of the day, Noctua fans are the best in the business because of the sheer researching, iterating, etc that Noctua does and that's why we love them!
The Bambu PEI plate is amazing if you don’t already have one. No glue needed.
The "geniuses" at Noctua DID NOT invent this. Fan spacers and ducts have been commonly available for WELL over a decade. Though I am sure being a sponsor, Noctua will just love your hyperbolic statement. 😆
It for sure improves the ramping up sound of the fans which in my opinion is the most noticeable.
Hello, your air duct improvement is really amazing. I'd like to try it myself. May I ask if you used PLA material or ABS material? I'm very grateful to you.
I've used a "gasket" cut from an old neoprene suit to solve this before. I wanted top and front intakes in my Fractal Node 304, and it worked great!
Great experimentation. I’ve used washers to gap the fan/screen space which has lowered the sound level. Obviously some situations will have better airflow with a contiguous enclosing spacer, such as for exhaust. I suspect intakes would be more efficient airflow without an enclosing spacer ala Bernoulli effect.
What a cool, quick and easy mod with nice improvements, thank you for the video :)
I do that with TAPE & using whatever for spacing. Its not just for sound, it actually cool the radiator/heatsink slightly better.
Wonderful video, these look like something people could fabricate themselves even without a 3d printer.
However, it would be interesting to see how different the sound is from other materials like TPU or carbon fiber and nylon.
Additionally, one other modifier i would like to see tested is hole diameter. I imagine most of the turbulence is coming off of the fan blades outer edge/tip.
Would bring in the diameter help to dampen or direct the air in a different way, especially on a TPU printed one.
This is already a long comment, but the pitch of the hole might also make a difference, ie a sloped edge going towards or away of the fan center.
Great video as always!
I love this, I have been thinking for a while with all the restrictive front mesh cases, that spacers would be really helpful.
Make sure to use PETG/ASA/ABS instead of PLA due to hot air.