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Got another project idea brewing... need inputl

PsycoGeek

PsycoGeek

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2000
Messages
1,226
The idea is to cool the power supply with a separate self-contained loop. Has it been done before? Can it be done? Can anyone post pics or links to a water cooled power supply?
 
There were water-cooled PSU's a long time back. But I don't understand the real need for it. *shrug*
'
My 550w has two fans and I never hear them on full.
 
My 480W coolergiant has its fans set to minimum and is always room temp or just slightly warm. Not too much to be concerned about. I have seen , in the past, occasional messages about PSU blocks but those are always on crazy German boards or something.

On the other hand the temp of the PSU plays a huge part in how well it operates so keeping it pretty well dead on room temp isnt the worst thing you can do. Are there other options to water? Ie: improved/larger cooling fins? More fans? shrouds? I havent spent much time checking out Modded PSUs tho I know they are out there.

Im thinking that if PsycoGeek doesnt have a project to keep him occupied his head will explode or something. ;)
 
Spidey329 said:
There were water-cooled PSU's a long time back. But I don't understand the real need for it. *shrug*
'
My 550w has two fans and I never hear them on full.
Click to expand...

It really isn't a noise issue I am concerned with, although the PSU fan is the loudest thing in my system setup right now. I have a PC Power & Cooling 510w PSU and it can get mighty hot. The air coming out of it is always extremely warm, which I know means that the fan and heatsinks are doing their job, but...

If I were to put a higher speed fan in there to move more air I would suffer with the noise. And if I were to put a lower speed fan (moving less air) the PSU would probably burn itself out from the heat under the heaviest of loads. I am looking to add water cooling to it to :

1. As MikeP said, keep it more stable and have it perform better,
2. Make it quieter while doing so.

Mike... larger fins really aren't possible, although I have been looking at how to change the fan to inprove cooling. Water just seems like the better way to do it though. Here is a link to the web page showing the inside of one of these things:


http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/highperformance/turbocools/510/index.htm
 
I found a few links to water cooled PSU's. There are some interesting ideas there, now for some brainstorming... ;)
 
PsycoGeek said:
I found a few links to water cooled PSU's. There are some interesting ideas there, now for some brainstorming... ;)
Click to expand...

Oh sure, dont share the links with us...

The one in Bio Hazards link- 179 Pounds! thats a hell of a lot of money specially if ur replacing a decent PSU to start with. Guess there is no way to make ur current SPU into a water cooled one?
 
MikeP said:
Oh sure, dont share the links with us...
Click to expand...

LOL... Here you go...


http://www.zfz.com/projects.asp?a=cat&artCatId=3

http://www.digital-explosion.co.uk/index.php?articleID=65

They are both home-brewed and require desoldering components from the PSU's PCB. I was looking for a way to do it without doing that, and I have a few ideas (I just need to validate them before they get posted).

killernoodle said:
Why on a different loop? There are no advantages...
Click to expand...

During recent excursions near the 4ghz mark MBM4 was showing a temp on the PSU of 57c... It is normally around 33c @ idle. Would you want to dump that heat into your cooling loop? I would rather put it on a different one.

I like the looks of that PSU Bio-Hazard, but compared to the PC Power & Cooling 510w I have, the guts seem a bit weak. Their cooling solution looks like a heat transfer plate with the water block outside the PSU... which gives me even more ideas.
 
I may have actually been able to achieve my goal of dropping the PSU temps without water. I ghetto'ed a piece of cardboard into the top two drive bays all the way back to the front of the PSU (essentially a big open channel to feed the PSU air from outside the case), and did a little modding on the PSU itself.

The mod consisted of two things, the first being moving the fan outside the PSU housing. Why? It was crammed right up against the heatsinks and was having trouble drawing air. Now it has roughly 26mm of space to begin pulling air.

The second was to cut a rectangular hole in the mesh in the rear of the PSU, right above the PCB where the power leads are soldered on. Why? The wires were blocking the mesh in that area pretty good. Cutting the hole and feeding the power lead wires through there instead of having them run to the bottom of the PSU opened up the area directly in front of the heat sinks allowing a lot more direct air flow over them. This also allow easier routing of the wires.

I will post pics tomorrow. The two mods have already proven to be worth all the trouble of doing them. As I am writing this 2 copies of Prime95 are running the "Large in place FFT's (both instances), and the PSU temp is 48c (Vs. 57c without the mods). I expect the max temps to peak at no more than 50c MAX.
 
As promised... a pic.

DownthethroatoftheBeast.jpg


One problem has developed though. The PS worked fine for a while last night, then the system shut down. I tore it apart again to see what I screwed up (I was getting tired while working on it), but to my releif nothing I did seemed to be at fault. I then noticed the burnable fuse (it's a thin strip of exposed copper that is designed to burn out in the event of a severe overvoltage, thus protecting much more expensive equipment attached to it) was burned through, which was what caused the system shutdown. After some inspection I have found evidence that the PSU had experienced too much heat before the mod. I should have checked before even doing it. There are a few areas where heat damage is apparent around various components. I repaired the burnt fuse with a piece of wire and some solder... but do I trust it? I really don't think so, even though it seems to power on OK.

I'm looking at new PSU now. Do I go with another PC Power a& Cooling that I know I will have to mod to keep it from burning out? How about an Ultra X modular (or will I have trouble with the 6800 Ultra because it requires two separate connectors and the Ultra X Connect has all leads on one rail inside the PSU)? Maby an OCZ Power Stream? Help me decide.......
 
MikeP said:
The Ultra Xs are reboxed Powmax's! Stay away!. Read the sticky in the powersupply forum. They are def not a good choice for anyone. They sure look purty tho.

Linkage: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566
Click to expand...

Wow... Thanks MikeP. I didn't go with the Ultra-X anyway. I did a bit of research on them and they got ruled out for another reason... all of the molex cables plug into the same set of rails inside the PSU. I was thinking "If Nvidia says you have to have two separate leads for the 6800 Ultra's how will it work with this power supply? Probably not too well. The current draw on the one big supply rail will more than likely burn out the PSU in short order...". and so I got an OCZ Power Stream 520. Less expensive than the PC Power & Cooling 510, just about the same ammount of amps per rail, and it's cooled better.

Now, don't get me wrong, the PC Power & Cooling unit was great, but I don't think they really had the PC enthusiast in mind (specifically overclockers) when they designed it and the cooling. From previous overheating damage and the recent fuse burnout event (still unknown what caused it) my 12v+, 3.3v+, and 5v+ are all dropping voltage every time I power on my PC with it. I can't adjust them either. Luckily the OCZ is on it's way from Newegg.

Important lesson learned? Pay WAY more attention to how hot the PSU gets as it is just as every bit important as the CPU temps...
 
Ooh, I forgot to say this... the above cardboard tunnel mod WILL be going in on the new power supply. Have to make a filter for the front and find a way to make it all purdy. Right now it's ugly al all hell, but the darn thing works... ;)
 
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