Trying to mount a Fractal Design silent Series 140mm Case Fan t the front of a Fractal Design Define R5. Sounds easy!!

[Daynhg]

Hello. I am trying to mount a second Fractal silent fan 1400 to the front of my new fractal design define r5.
The problem I am having is.

You mount the fan from the front I imagine (as there is no instructions) Even though I'm usually pretty good with this type of thing.
But mounting from the front does not let you put the rubber screws in the case first.

So I pushed one through the fan itself (to try) and then tried to get the approx 1mm that sticks through the other-side of the fan through the tiny case hole that's level with it.
But having no access to the rubber thing (as its between the fan casing) and the fan is inserted into the case (from the front) No way was I going to be able to access, let alone pull the 1mm through.

The only other way was the tiny grub screws also included. Now these are Way to short to screw from the front through the whole depth of the fan. And I cannot screw them through just one plate of the fan casing as (again) it is inaccessibly, inserted as it is in the PC case.
And they are to fat to go through the tiny holes on the inside of the front of the Define r5 (that wouldn't let me access the rubber tips of the rubber screws) So The grub screws are also no use.

Now I do not know if these fans http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fractal-Design-Silent-Series-140mm/dp/B007XVLMZ6/ref=cm_cd_al_qh_dp_i
Are only meant for the bottom and top of the case.

But from all I read before buying This fan-- (I didn't pay 36 quid BTW, I paid about 10 pounds) --it did not say anywhere they could not be attached to the front. I want to put it on the front for maximum noise reduction.

I hope this makes sense.
Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Ralston18]

As I understand it, you can mount that fan anywhere in the case with respect to the 140 mm standard.

Not sure that I understand all of what you attempted but I would hold the fan inside the case and push the rubber "screw" (narrow end first) in from outside the case and into the hole in the fan housing. The rubber screw would not necessarily go all the way through both sides of the
the fan housing.

Rubber screw ----->| || ||

The first | being the casing and the first || being the fan housing up against the inside of the case. The rubber screw tang may or may not go all the way through and out the second || representing the inside fan housing.

That said, I believe that one of the moderators will need to transfer your posting to the hardware forum (probably components) for additional assistance if I have gone a bit astray here.

 

[TheHorse_1]

what I did, and sorry if this is too late for you - it might help someone else, was hacksaw off the font corners of the fan case on just one side, exposing the back plate and allowing me to screw it in from the front, negating the need to remove the hard drive trays and mess up the excellent wiring arrangment that PC Specialist did on my build.
The issue I ran into was the case hole were far too small to use with the grub screws so I inserted a small grommit on a longer M3 screw and hacksawed carefull the screw down to the 4mm or so length required.

 

[thehorsetowater]

Hi
I've done exactly what you are doing. You should have gotten a welcome pack from pc specialist which includes four longer screws.
Snap the entire front of the case off from the chassis carefully thus exposing the wiring from the power / USB / fan controller at the top. A little gentle fishing around should produce a two pin plug. This is the third fan socket for the controller. Thread the three pin from the fd140 fan through the chassis up behind the fan controller and plug it in.
Use the four spare long screws to screw the fan onto the other front mount.
If you haven't got these extra screws contact pc specialist or a more extreme measure is to cut away all four corners of the fan on one side thus allowing a shorter screw to be used
Fractal r5 fan holes are smaller than the grommet screws their own fans are, funnily enough...
I didn't find that pc specialist has used grommets on other fans in my build so I omitted them from this mount.