How to modify your Decklink Quad 2 Fans to Noctua Fans for quiet operation

In the steps below I will outline how to modify the fans on your Decklink Duo 2 to use Noctua fans whilst still fitting in our Decklink Duo 2 Enclosure. The outcome is near silent operation whilst still keeping the card well within its thermal limits (assuming a reasonable environment temp). I will still note that airflow around the enclosure is still required. It only requires some basic DIY/Soldering skills, and it fairly low risk to your Decklink Quad 2.

Items required:

1: Safe place to work – A silicone matt is perfect for this

2: 2x Noctua NF-A4x10 12v 3 pin

3: Soldering Iron

4: Heat shrink 1.5mm and/or electrical tape

5: Flux

6: Side snippers

7: Philips Screwdriver

8: Glue – I recommend e6000, you can use Super Glue if you trust yourself not to be messy!

Step 1:

Remove the existing fans from the Decklink Quad 2: Each ‘fansink’ has three philips screws holding in the fan. They can be easily accessed, unscrew these and remove the fans.

The Fans removed:

Step 2

Snip and strip the fan wires:

(We only want the connector, so you can snip quite close to the fan)

You should end up with something like this:

Step 3

Snip and strip the wires from your Noctua fans:

Step 4

Snip the arms that holds the fan blades to the fan shroud:

(snip as close to the shroud as possible)

You should end up with 2 fans looking like this:

Step 5

Prep and solder the wires together

Fortunately everything matches up colour-wise, so red to red, black to black and yellow to yellow. I strongly recommend using flux to aid in the soldering – and if you have some then don’t forget your heat shrink! (don’t worry if you don’t have heat shrink, you can just use electrical tape in a pinch)

Once you have soldered the individual wires, wrap them in a small piece of electrical tape to keep them from moving about too much:

Step 6 – Time to glue

Add a thin layer of glue to the bottom of the fan, I like to use a small piece of plastic packing to smooth/even it out. Then place the fans into the heatsink and press down firmly.

Step 7 – Leave to dry

If you aren’t using Super Glue then put something like a book or other moderately heavy item balanced on top of the fans. Be careful not to knock them out of place.

I used a screwdriver set:

All Done!

I didn’t get mine perfectly central in the heatsink, but that’s ok, it still works perfectly – and more importantly, silently!