Dell T20 T30 front intake fan mod using Lian Li 7H-1B grill
thingiverse
The four HDDs in my Dell T20 cheapo server can get a bit warm especially during the summer when ambient temperature is higher. For the past year I was running with a pair of 80mm noctua fans cable tied to the front grill. It was ugly, noisy and a little dangerous for pets etc (bare fans). I didnt try or check this with a Dell T30, but as far as I am aware they share identical chassis/case and bezel, so I would expect this mod will also apply for Dell T30. YMMV as always :) I decided I would try to get some bigger fans for better airflow, lower temps and lower noise. The problems to workaround are that the T20 front bezel grill is not much bigger than an 80mm fan, and the space behind the bezel is low (apparantly its possible to fit a slim 120mm fan in there, but wiht limited airflow from the restrictive bezel I didnt see the point). Based on the above I decided that I would look for a solution where I would remove the out-of-box bezels grill, and enlarge the hole for the best airflow. (Actually I got a spare bezel from ebay so I can work on that without turning off my 24/7 server). I found that Lian Li sells the "7H-1B" - an aluminium fan grill for 2 x 120mm fans that is supposed to fit on to top of their PC-7H case, but also happens to be a few mm smaller than the width of the Dell T20 front bezel. Perfect :) Next I needed to design a way to actually mount the fans in the 7H-1B. I rejected the approach to make holes in the grill to mount the fans. It would have been the easiest way, but also the ugliest. The construction of the 7H-1B includes a small lip on the top and bottom. I made a design that will use this lip to contain printed fan brackets. Two designs were made for different fans. First I started with some spare NZXT case fans I had but the static pressure of these fans is not hign (they are airflow fans for exhaust). Given that there is quite a lot of obstructuve metal case behind the T20 bezel I decided to pay up for some Noctua redux with better static pressure. Hence this Thing has models for both types of fan, and you need to print twice - one for top and one for bottom. I included a 2-3mm channel on all three sides of the brackets to allow for cable routing, but in the end I didnt need these. Print the mounts on their side with supports enabled. I tweaked overhang to 30 degs to avoid prusaslicer creating supports for the small overhang of the cable routing channel. For the NZXT there is also a connector model to join the two fan in the center. For the Noctua I used cable ties. Finally there is a small triangular section piece that will block airflow from the bottom of the grill. One of the images shows approx where I made the cuts. My cuts were pretty rough using a coping saw, but since its all hidden by the grill its OK by me. The fans were connected using a splitter cable and a SATA power to fan cable. I also used a Zalman fanmate 2 mounted on the rear to allow manual control so I can ramp up the RPMs in the summer for optimal noise vs temps.
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