The noise of the fan on the SP20 is 90% the fan itself, very little of the noise is caused by the grill.
Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.
You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.
Instead of drilling the case why not take the fan out and run it outside the case, listen to the noise, and then you can decide if hacking the grill to bits will actually be worthwhile.
You can replace the fan easily enough with a slower less CFM model and run it from a molex converter plugged into the PSU, you are then just limiting the speed at which you can hash at because of the cooling power of the replacement fan.
Also, its probably the acoustics of the SP20 itself that causes the fan noise to be amplified. Its pretty much like a mini echo chamber.
Some, but not much, its just a noisy fan, it has a unique mechanical noise even at low speeds.
The reason why I asked if they had bothered to take the fan out and hear it just sitting on a desk (hold on to it though!) because some of us have already done that months ago.
...and adding the resonating high-pitched "whining" noise produced by this particular grill pattern on top of the fan noise would be enough to drive some people batty. Note that in the test that I linked in my OP above, the honeycomb pattern started to give off a high-pitched whining noise at low fan speed. According to the spec of the Antec 120mm Tri-Cool fan that was used in the test, it spins at 1200 RPM and moves 39 CFM of air at low fan setting. The SP20's more powerful fan most likely augments this acoustical phenomenon. I've experienced this annoying whine myself at a very low fan speed with the honeycomb grill pattern as I've stated in my OP.
I don't own an SP20 but I'm under the impression that the "whine" is what owners are annoyed about. Does the SP20 whine?
No the SP20 doesn't whine, the fan that comes with the SP20 whines, well its more like a whining gearbox noise. This whining noise goes away if you replace the fan with another fan that isn't engineered in the same way. The mechanics of the fan are what makes the annoying noise. Take the SP20 fan out of the case and it continues to make the same noise.
The grill design doesn't make the noise, it does add some air movement noise and some accoustic noise because of its restrictive nature, but its not the cause of the noise that grinds your brain to mush, thats caused by the fan mechanics.
