Replacing PSU fans

[RecklessLeper]

Hi,

I've narrowed the source of excess noise in my machine to the PSU fans. There's 2x 80mm ATE-branded (anyone heard of them?) fans, both of which put out a considerable CFM value, but also a great deal of noise. Infact, I reckon the dB level fell a couple of notches when I tested the system with a single-fan PSU!

So, I'm going to replace the fans, and I have a choice between Akasa glowy-uppy ones and YS-Tech plain black ones.

Which ones should I pick?

TIA!

Jon

[Blastman]

You might want to get an adjustable fan so the rpm can be turned down. Like ... this...

http://www.xpcgear.com/en80speedman.html

[agw_01]

Those Akasa LED fans arn't exactly silent (I have a green one and it is quite audible with the case panels on).

YS-Tech do silent fans which spin at about 1500-1900rpm, Arris recently aquired one, so perhaps he is the man to talk to

Hope this helps.

[Justintime]

7v mod time, all my psus cept the ones with good electronic or manual control are

[NewBlackDak]

None of mine are vModded, but I do cut out the grills, and put 2K RPM or less fans in them.

[agw_01]

Originally posted by agw_01
Those Akasa LED fans arn't exactly silent (I have a green one and it is quite audible with the case panels on).

I take that back

It was my noisy-*** sunbeam fan which makes all the noise. Those Akasa fans are very nice

Perhaps get 2 of those, and as Justintime said, 7v mod em

[Todd a]

Antec makes some very good LED fans that run about 28db. They are pretty quiet and have a seperate RPM sensor wire along with the two wires. This would quiet things down and look cool at the same time. They are a bit pricy at about $15 a peice, but they are of very good quality, but will likely last a very long time. If you ever ditched the PS, you could take the fans out and use them for something else. I have one of these on my CPU heatsink.

[krupted]

question: i have a cheap 400w power supply. I am worried about changing the fan in it because i cant tell if the unit overheats.... i dont want to burn my place down.

Do i have to worry about that? how many cfms do i need for a replacement psu fan?

[agw_01]

Any 80mm fan should be fine.

I used to run the fan in my PSU at 5v, and it pushed f*ck all air.
Was fine for a few months but I decided against it, when I realised I didn't have the cash for a nice Enermax 350w PSU.

I know have an Akasa 80mm fan in there (no leds as I ripped the led strip off) and it is very quiet and pushes quite a nice amount of air.

I would say, that a fan with 20-25 CFM would be far more than enough to keep your PSU running smoothly.

Another thing to do (which I am doing soon) is to cut a fan hole in the PSU casing and fit another fan in there. I am going to run both fans in serial from the 12v line (6v each) and this should keep noise levels and temperatures nice and low

Not forgetting the fact that I'm going to have a RED led fan in there

[krupted]

well that cheap svc fan i bought is 32cfm at 28db, so if its quieter than whats in the psu now ill use it for that. My psu fan really isnt the noisy part though, its my volcano 5 4800rpm 60mm little hell raiser, not to mention no case cover

[agw_01]

Yeah that fan will be fine, seems nice and quiet aswell.

I used to have a 6000rpm 60mm delta in my machine... so glad I got rid of it tho

[MuFu]

Hey - just be careful when replacing PSU fans, guys. I seem to be doing such a thing on almost a weekly basis now for one reason or another (mates' PCs getting dusted up etc...) and have started using gloves, removing watches/chains etc. Although it's quite easy to replace a rear PSU fan without touching any of the PCB-mounted components, even after a week enough charge is retained by one of those large caps to kill you or at least deliver a shock that will knock you out cold. Not very nice... =\

MuFu.

[krupted]

hey, good heads-up.... they do store a good amount of power. trying to turn on the computer without the power supply plugged into the wall (but still hooked up to the mainboard) should drain some of the juice.

[evetsrim1]

I noticed some stores like Computer City now sell 3 speed adjustable switches for $5. I bought 2, they work great.

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/...ductingMod.htm
Per the above link Thermaltake offers a plastic extension for their Volcano 7+ with both noise reduction and better cooling, the idea being more air flow at center of heatsink.

I have a Volcano 7+ and could not find a place to buy this plastic extension so tried a home made version and took the fan and placed it in front of the housing and used electrical tape over the holes to hold the screws in place because the holes were too large and obtained a similar effect. The 2 sides were still open so used electrical tape on the two sides as well.

Now run the 3 speed fan that came with it using another $5 3 speed adjuster at 2500 rpm and a 92mm fan in front of that at 2500rpm and seems quieter and cools by temp reading better.

[Todd a]

Yah. I always unplug it then hit the power switch. The LEDs turn on for about a second then fade. I also use a grounding wrist strap for static electricity. I use insolated needle nose pliers for unplugging and plugging the fan back in so I do not touch anything. I also keep an anti-static mat on my work bench.