Noctua Cooler w/o fans?

[spence4]

I must say that for most of use modding out these cases and applying the detail into what we are doing I totally see why the fan color would throw off the whole setting.

As for that comment about buying a real Mac Pro that is not the point, the point is in the passion of making the mod look great to yourself and other people. Yeah if we all want to go the route of not ever tinkering with the system and/or upgrading then we would of all just bought Mac Pros and left it at that but we want up-gradeability and the option to make it look how we want inside and out.

Remember some people have OCD when doing their case mods and well some don't..

You hit the nail right on the head for me. First hack was just in a PC case then I did a cube and now the Mac Pro. My brother has an old iMac G4 that he said I could gut so I think that is my next project. I have seen folks use ECX or NUC but as you mentioned, I like the upgradeability of a proper mono/CPU combo so will probably go ITX.

 

[DBP]

Why not take them apart and spray paint them gray? Then you could have the color matching while maintaining the temps!

With some of the fan manufacturers claiming the texture of their fan surfaces plays an important role in managing noise, it would be interesting to compare a sprayed and non-sprayed unit at various speeds to compare the noise levels.


Regarding the noise levels of your existing fans (and not the thought of spraying quieter fans)....
In my build I'm using a Corsair Obsidian 550D case which came with some Corsair 120mm fans. I replaced some of them with Noctua fans straight off (and there's an NH-D14 on the processor) but still had some of the original Corsairs in there (the extractor at the back, and one bringing air in from the bottom). In the quest for a even-quieter rig, I've put some of the Noctua 50-ohm LNA cables on the front Noctuas and on the bottom Corsair, and added a 75-ohm LNA on the extractor (to maintain positive pressure: we get a lot of dust/cat-hair/etc).

This has slowed all the fans down, and the noise levels have dropped noticeably. There's still a fair airflow through the beast, and system temps have still been good. I may tweak the setup more of course. Sunday's predicted ambient temp of 39C should be a good test. So far I've left the NH-D14's fans alone. They're deep within the 550D's shell. I'm now trying to get the fan in the nearby UPS replaced as it's become the loudest thing in the room!


Anyway the point of that is if you're OK with the look of the fans you currently have, rather than removing them altogether have you considered just slowing them down a bit?

I wouldn't run an NH-D14 with no fans, but there's nothing to say you have to keep the Noctua fans on there if they offend you. And note that the installation manual for the NH-D14 notes that you can leave the 120mm fan off if you have space issues. Just leaving the 140mm fan in the center of the cooler might be enough for your system, and the color of the blades would be obscured by the fins.

 

[heretolearn]

I must say that for most of use modding out these cases and applying the detail into what we are doing I totally see why the fan color would throw off the whole setting.

As for that comment about buying a real Mac Pro that is not the point, the point is in the passion of making the mod look great to yourself and other people. Yeah if we all want to go the route of not ever tinkering with the system and/or upgrading then we would of all just bought Mac Pros and left it at that but we want up-gradeability and the option to make it look how we want inside and out.

Remember some people have OCD when doing their case mods and well some don't..

It's unbelevable at the pains some take to get it right but when their done they look so Pretty