Prospect 700R: How to remove top fan of front inlet (safely without breaking anything) ?

[skybuck200156902db]

Hello,

The top fan of the 3 front inlet fans has developed an annoying "ticking" at 60% speed. I just tried removing some dust from it but it didn't help.

It seems like I may have to remove this ventilator, open it up, clean it and clean the shaft and oil it.

However how do I remove the top fan of the front inlet fans safely without breaking anything ?

I don't see a clear explanation of this in the prospect 700r manual.

I also look at the fans from the front, I don't see any screws holding them.

Is it perhaps a click system ?

Also how the writes of the fans are routed through the case is also a bit of a mystery...

Any help how to remove these safely is appreciated !

I am not sure if these front ventilaters are sleave or ball bearing and if it matters or not.

Usually there is a small little hatch on the back side of ventilators under the logo which can be removed, break the washer and the fan blades/shaft can be removed for cleaning and re-oiling, this usually solves annoying sound/rattling/ticking issues.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

 

[skybuck200156902db]

I think the screws can be accessed from the back, from inside the case itself, which is a bit akward, thankfully at least for the top fan there should be plenty of space.

My advise would be to try and put these screws on the front for easier access once front panel is removed.

Furthermore also reduce metal plates/vertical/horizontal/diagonal bars behind fans, these catch dust particles/hairs and start to form little dust balls/bunnies especially near the center of the fans and can creap into the fan internal housing itself which may be the cause of why this fan already needs surfacing after 1.5 year of use (estimation).

Though maybe the extra airflow at the top and first top fan spinning up connect to cpu header may also have something to do with it

Strangely enough the back fan seemed to be pretty clear... not sure though, so maybe most of the dust is expelled upwards by the big 140 mm fans at the top, this is good to know.
Even the back fan at the top of the case seems more clean of dust then the other two.

I am not going to attempt servicing it just yet, temperatures lower today, 22.5 degrees ambient... and can deal with any rattling for now... but maybe later in the summer I may have to and want to do it, but it's risky... and I don't like that... because I have to move the monitor and especially the pc case and I rather not do that with all these heavy components to prevent damage to the pc and also my back !

 

[Alan J T]

It seems like I may have to remove this ventilator, open it up, clean it and clean the shaft and oil it.

I would just replace the fan oiling is a short-term solution and may not work.

See this vid for a bit of help

 

[BuiltMeAToy]

I think the screws can be accessed from the back, from inside the case itself, which is a bit akward, thankfully at least for the top fan there should be plenty of space.

My advise would be to try and put these screws on the front for easier access once front panel is removed.

Furthermore also reduce metal plates/vertical/horizontal/diagonal bars behind fans, these catch dust particles/hairs and start to form little dust balls/bunnies especially near the center of the fans and can creap into the fan internal housing itself which may be the cause of why this fan already needs surfacing after 1.5 year of use (estimation).

Though maybe the extra airflow at the top and first top fan spinning up connect to cpu header may also have something to do with it

Strangely enough the back fan seemed to be pretty clear... not sure though, so maybe most of the dust is expelled upwards by the big 140 mm fans at the top, this is good to know.
Even the back fan at the top of the case seems more clean of dust then the other two.

I am not going to attempt servicing it just yet, temperatures lower today, 22.5 degrees ambient... and can deal with any rattling for now... but maybe later in the summer I may have to and want to do it, but it's risky... and I don't like that... because I have to move the monitor and especially the pc case and I rather not do that with all these heavy components to prevent damage to the pc and also my back !

I pulled my entire case apart to evaluate how I wanted to mount the two AIO liquid coolers. Mounting the front fans on the side vent or eliminating them entirely was an option.
Instead, I cheated a little. I didn't use the E-ATX plate and mounted the radiator from the GPU in the side vent position. I had to sneak some of the wiring around instead of through the wiring holes, but it is all rounded surfaces so hopefully no harm, no foul.
The entire front panel comes off and the screws for the front fan holder bracket are under the dust screen. The fan wiring is tucked in the side and looked to be a little problematic, so I stopped dissecting there and found an alternate solution to my problem.

This video shows a step by step dissect of the case.