Mounting intake fan in a tricky spot

Ok my case is the Antec Sonata II case.

Overall i've been very happy with it. Since it's made to be a "quiet case" it comes with only 1 fan (exhaust) but there is a space available to add a fan as an intake.

Unfortunately, it's in a very tricky spot (as you can see in the picture below) right against the hard-drive cage. The hard-drive cage can't be removed, only the rails for the individual hard drives are moved (u slide out the individual rack, mount hard drive, then slide it back in). The problem with this is that as a result of this the fan can not be screwed in since 2 of the screws are on the motherboard-side of the case (and that side can't be opened).






The way antec meant for fans to be installed here is with rubber grommets (pictured below), which is why they included a bunch.






Which is meant to be used with fans, such as the one below:




My problem is that the fan i bought is the following:




Which means that the grommets can not be used, since there is no "space" in the corner tube areas where a gromet can be used.

I am out of ideas with how to mount this thing!

I tried using string to tie it to the slots (getting it through the 2 holes on the far right was extremely tricky!) but the problem was that it resulted in a lot of noise because of the fan vibrating against the metal cage.

Any ideas? Preferably a solution which will limit noise as a result of the fan being directly against the metal (which is why antec meant from gromets to be used).


[i cant return it btw ]

I'm not entirely sure I see the exact nature of the problem. But could you trim your fan with a dremel so that the grommets would fit?

Navig said:

I'm not entirely sure I see the exact nature of the problem. But could you trim your fan with a dremel so that the grommets would fit?

Click to expand...

The problem is that instead of there being seperate mounting holes on both front and back of the fan, there is a "tube" in which the two holes are connected.

Like you recommended, a dremel could probably solve this, but I don't really like hacking-and-slashing things and plus i don't have a dremel.

zipties might work.

SuperZ said:

The problem is that instead of there being seperate mounting holes on both front and back of the fan, there is a "tube" in which the two holes are connected.

Like you recommended, a dremel could probably solve this, but I don't really like hacking-and-slashing things and plus i don't have a dremel.

Click to expand...

Super,

Try clear silicone RTV adhesive, stick your fan right on the floor of the drive cage where you want it. Clean both surfaces off with rubbing alcohol. The RTV will deaden any sound or vibration and you can flex it off if you want to move it. The RTV peels right off and holds it solid. RT

Sorry, I wouldn't consider it hack'n'slash to cut out the tunnels--its a fairly common problem among cpu heatsinks and even popular companies that use mounting clips to mount fans to their heatsinks ie Scythe. Could be done with a tin snips or even any short stubby cutter (bolt or wire clipper) and sandpaper, I suppose.

Is there a possiblity of using machine screws and washers with rubber washers? 8 or 6-32 1/2in machine screw is a nice nice to mount a 25mm fan with a some extra length to fit a rubber washer.

If all else fails....strong double sided mounting tape or a hot glue gun.

Navig said:

Sorry, I wouldn't consider it hack'n'slash to cut out the tunnels--its a fairly common problem among cpu heatsinks and even popular companies that use mounting clips to mount fans to their heatsinks ie Scythe. Could be done with a tin snips or even any short stubby cutter (bolt or wire clipper) and sandpaper, I suppose.

Is there a possiblity of using machine screws and washers with rubber washers? 8 or 6-32 1/2in machine screw is a nice nice to mount a 25mm fan with a some extra length to fit a rubber washer.

If all else fails....strong double sided mounting tape or a hot glue gun.

Click to expand...

Glue gun sounds like a good idea, going to try that

thanks!


(i was going to try that RTV stuff the other person mentioned, but I didnt really know where I could go to buy it)