Made myself some Hats for my Fans!

notarat

2[H]4U
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Mar 28, 2010
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I love my Noctuas, but I hate the looks of them. I think they picked their particular color scheme specifically to generate hate.

So...I decided the make some hats for them to cover them up.

Old pic of my system showing the Noctuas (and my old 7970s)
zdktMgr.jpg


The Noctuas just look way outta place

I hopped into 123Design and generated a cover for them, then threw it into the Maker software to flip it so that the grill section is on the bottom (otherwise I'd have to print supports for the grill, wasting time & filament)
9vZjP0D.jpg


Then I printed out a prototype of the hats. (I print my prototypes at low resolution and use only 10% fill so I can print them faster, but that makes them weaker than the finished product)
fxXBDqS.jpg


Then I tested the fitment of the cover.
KWu0MAP.jpg


The cover fits tight enough that there is ZERO worry about vibration. I thought I was gonna break it removing the cover from the fan, to be honest.

All I need to do now is throw on a spool of whatever color I want, then print the final hats.

The really cool thing is, since I have the 120mm x 120mm design done, I can scale it down for any fan from 40mm up to 230mm. I can also do Dual/Triple/Quad hats by simply copying and pasting the 120mm into a new file (2,3, or 4 times) and then remove a section and join them, then print them.
 
That is simply ingenious. I'm a really big Noctua enthusiast, I think you really do get a quieter system that has great airflow if you use their products, but they really are hideous. I suspect the color scheme is more just about Noctua "standing out" amongst all the rest. At any rate I use a Sharpie marker to hand paint them black. It's a pain in the ass but they look much better.
 
I thought it was about making hats for people who you knew......
like hats in TF2.....:eek::eek:

Noctura fans are FUGLY, you can't fix it......

Even those black ones look like a rat chewed on the end of the fan blade.
 
Even those black ones look like a rat chewed on the end of the fan blade.
Vortex control notches. They create controlled turbulence that smooths out the audio profile of the fans.

Normal fans tend to generate audio at one or two peak frequencies. Humans perceive this as droning, whining, or buzzing. The control notches effectively take the energy that would have all converged on ONE peak frequency and spread it out over the entire frequency range.

End result? Fans that sound quieter and smoother when used stand-alone.

There is a down-side to this design, though. If you intend to silence your case using noise-canceling foam, then you'll run into trouble with Noctua fans. Noise canceling foam only works on very narrow frequency ranges, which is good for killing the drone of normal fans that produce most of their sound at one or two peak frequencies... but not so good for killing most of the wide-band audio produced by Noctua fans.
 
I've got some more pics of the ones I'll be making when I get my next 3D Printer with a dual extruder head.

aU6bDiI.jpg
 
Wouldya mind shrinking your pics slightly mate ;)


Otherwise looks pretty slick, wish I had a 3D printer, all my experience with them is on test samples of PET for the mechanical properties, never anything cool like this :p
 
and here I thought we were all getting notarat baseball caps
 
I updated my design to allow me to print whatever color fan cover I want and then "snap-in" whatever color/design of grill I want to pair with it.
hIQGtm2.jpg


This allows me to mix/match whatever colors I want for my fan cover with whatever colors I want for my grills
 
I made a slot-load design so that the grill can be changed by simply sliding it out.
1000



Here's the cover and grill
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Here's the assembled cover/grill
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Keep in mind the opening on the prototype cover is 120mm while the grill is 118mm. I did that so I can see how the grill lines up with the cover when inserted into the cover through the slot.

The inner frame of a 120mm fan is only 116mm wide. I measured it with a caliper on the Akasa Viper Fans, 2 different 120mm Corsair fans, and my spare Noctua 120mm. The final cover will have an opening of 118mm so it perfectly matches the grill and doesn't impede air flow.
 
Or you could get some black vinyl dye and dye them. Probably a lot less work, and also won't restrict airflow at all. :p
 
It's too bad you can get clear plastic print without resorting to a resin printer
 
It's too bad you can get clear plastic print without resorting to a resin printer


Cura has a "print mold option" aka prints the reverse of the damn thing, and makes a mold.

Grease that puppy up with vaseline and pour in epoxy resin.
 
Or you could get some black vinyl dye and dye them. Probably a lot less work, and also won't restrict airflow at all. :p
Nice!

I always pictured myself solving this issue with some vinyl dye.

Lol.

While I forgot about this thread and my original reply from 2014, it looks like I haven't changed my mind in the last 5+ years :p


At least I'm consistent :p
 
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it's still in the "top ten" necros

Yeah but who cares, if the thread has a valid reason to be revisited why such a big deal. Is there some rule that states no necros permitted? Why not have the server just lock, close, and hide access to any thread over 24 hours old?

The internet is a funny place with even funnier and quite retarded expectations.

I suppose everytime you read an old book, you're necro'ing a book.

I had no idea this user could make such nice fan grills with a 3d printer. Thanks to this HORRIFIC necro by a member I now am aware and have a new idea of how to make an interchangeable fan grill.
 
Yeah but who cares, if the thread has a valid reason to be revisited why such a big deal. Is there some rule that states no necros permitted? Why not have the server just lock, close, and hide access to any thread over 24 hours old?

The internet is a funny place with even funnier and quite retarded expectations.

I suppose everytime you read an old book, you're necro'ing a book.

I had no idea this user could make such nice fan grills with a 3d printer. Thanks to this HORRIFIC necro by a member I now am aware and have a new idea of how to make an interchangeable fan grill.
yeah there is a rule and the necro post did not add anything to the thread.
(28) Thread NECRO-ING is not allowed unless specific to the old thread and necessary. Mods will determine what is necro-ing and what is not.
https://hardforum.com/threads/the-h-ard-forum-rules.760666/
nice try at hyperbole though... :rolleyes:
 
youre the one agruing, i wasnt trying to be a mod, i simply commented and then you got bent out of shape for no reason. i answered your question and you got even more high and mighty. no need to respond to this either.

Im not arguing, threads should be locked after a set time I agree. It prevents necro'ing across the board. Could be a simple batch job that's ran or something.

To be honest it's very easy to accidentally revive an old thread when they are cross linked into modern threads. That is exactly what happened to this one. Zara linked his fans and he did it another a thread and they meshed so naturally it was almost unavoidable to necro by accident.
 
I don't mean to pull this further off topic, but I don't see the problem with thread necroing as long as the topic is still relevant and it is related to the original subject.

You already have a bunch of people subscribing to the thread you know are knowledgeable or interested in the topic. It makes a lot more sense than having a million threads for the same thing, just because the last one is a little stale.
 
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