The three screw rule I learned the hard way

Last month I spent an afternoon mounting a radiator in a Corsair 4000D using only two screws per fan because I was too lazy to fish for the third one. Three days later the whole assembly was rattling like a loose washing machine and one fan had shifted enough to nick a tube. A buddy at a shop in Portland told me he always uses all screws on anything that spins faster than 1000 RPM. Has anyone else had a part shake loose from cutting corners on fasteners?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_ramirez6715d ago

Two screws per fan is usually fine for a case that's sitting still, but I run my radiator fans pretty fast and never had one rattle loose. Sounds more like you either didn't tighten them enough or your mounting points are a little wonky. If the screw holes line up right and you crank them down, that third screw isn't doing much extra work. I've seen builds run years with two screws per fan and zero issues, so your buddy might just be paranoid. That said, if you bumped the case around or have cheap fans, maybe that changes things.

wren_smith4415d ago

Two screws is fine" is what they said about my first PC case too and now I've got a fan doing the cha-cha slide inside my rig every time I boot up Cyberpunk. Maybe your buddy just needs a hobby if he's counting screws on other people's builds.