Could someone please detail the parts of a PC fan for me please? I would like to know what the 'shield thingy' is called and the 'shell' around the fan is called, for example. - well I did actually know, but I forgot and I'm really miffed about it and so I would appreciate it if someone could please revive my memory.
As far as I'm aware, there's no absolute term for either of the parts you mention- they're just generally referred to as the 'fan grill' and the 'frame'. Then you have a few arms suspending a central motor section which has the power delivered to it, and which spins the blades which do all the air-shifting Apologies that this is very generalised and vague, a quick Google and Wikipedia search didn't help me much, but it's what I personally term the various parts as. <A88>
A PC fan belongs to the family of axial fans, specifically tubeaxial fans. The square outside part of the fan is called the frame, as <A88> says, or fan casing. The frame has three or four arms leading to the motor casing which has a central shaft with sleeve, ball or hybrid bearings surrounded by motor or drive coils and PCB circuitry. On the central shaft sits the impellor, constituting of a hub with internal magnets, with fan blades protruding from it in a radial fashion. Spinning the impellor causes air to move through the fan casing in a direction parallel to the central shaft. From the fan comes a power lead (consisting of +, GND and (optionally) RPM lead) which may terminate in a two or three-pin fan header or a four-pin molex connection. Specific enough for ya?
Pictures say a great deal too. Typical axial PC fans are brushless types. Here's a great detailed review, with plenty of pictures, to really understand how a fan like this is assembled. http://www.extremecooling.org/ec/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=52
Not so much the fan as the motor : http://www.cpemma.co.uk/brushless.html In a fan, stator = fixed bit = frame, rotor = moving bit = impeller
Just expanding on Nexxo's point about the power headers- the RPM monitor lead is only present on the 3-pin fan connectors (I think as the middle lead); the annoying thing about this being that if you purchase a fan that has a molex connector, it's no use for fan controllers which display the fans speeds <A88>
