Any truth to Honeycomb Fan Grills actually making fans work better?

xtian63

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Apr 26, 2010
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do these things actually work to improve airflow or just a marketing ploy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999217

12651288538690c8ebae.jpg
 
Solution
well, if ur talking about the grill, this:
120mm_fangrill_billet_aluminum_mnpctech2.jpg

is gonna be quite and less restrictive than the spirally ones with small holes in the lower part of the back of this case:
ws_rear_case.jpg

This is simply a filter to me, and this cannot possibly "improve" airflow but more likely reduce it a little. The only way to actually improve airflow it to clean cable clutter inside the case and change/add higher cfm fans. The push/pull config inside the case is also very important because you don't want a fan blowing hot air back into the case when another fan worked hard to get it out 😉
 

The honeycomb design on a grill is to to help airflow , because, as you pointed out, it is less restrictive, the filter media itself negates much of what the honeycomb does.
The fact that the Silverstone filter is nothing but sheet metal means that it cannot "direct" airflow the way the thicker honeycomb in the link I provided does.