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Replacing PSU Fans

J

jpnelson83

Gawd
Joined
May 13, 2002
Messages
736
I'm going to be replacing the fans in my enermax PSU with some alternates. Right now the stock fans are a reported ~33dBA and thats a little loud for me. There are two different fans one is a 92mm and on is a 80mm fan. I found an 92mm OEM fan at frozencpu.com that has a 28dBA rating at 49CFM so I've got that one taken care of. At the same place they have one of those aluminum fans with a 26dBA rating at 37CFM. Both of these fans have comperable CFM ratings while being 5-7dBA quieter so I'm not going to be scarificing cooling ability for quieter fans.

Now my question is how wise or prudent would it be to be sticking an aluminum fan inside of a 350W PSU?

Opinions?
 
yea...have you seen frozencpu's shipping charge?

check out svc.com

newegg.com

xoxide.com

case-mod.com

just some to get you started.
 
as long as it doesnt touch anything, u should be fine:D
have u done this sort of stuff before?
make sure u dont kill ur self, let the capacitors discharge fully before touching it!!!
 
Originally posted by ST|FFY
as long as it doesnt touch anything, u should be fine:D
have u done this sort of stuff before?
make sure u dont kill ur self, let the capacitors discharge fully before touching it!!!
Click to expand...

I've never plugged it in and I respect electricity. I've bee shocked with 240v before, it only went through my hand but it sure did smart. Besides I'd like to think that I'm pretty good with electronics. I did help rewire my entire house.

Originally posted by _Sin_
yea...have you seen frozencpu's shipping charge?
Click to expand...

no, but they have this really neat $20 PSU sleeving kit I want to get and I've heard their heatshrink is some of the best. Not to mention some rounded cables that are sheiled that I've never seen cheeper elsewhere.
 
i ripped out the 2 fans in my Enermax and replaced them with a single 80mm Panaflo L1A... it's significantly quieter now, and a bit hotter...

i dunno if i'd put in a fan which can conduct electricity to the shell of the PSU... it's your computer however ;)
 
Ya thats what I got to thinking but I could insulate the fan with electrical tape. The only reason I'm looking at this fan is that is a higher CFM to dBA level than any other 80mm fan I've seen so far.
 
... case is connected to the PSU electrically, but I wouldn't put the fan inside the PSU :rolleyes: Aluminum fans =! conduct electricity to what they are attached to.

Edited bc I can't speel
 
i did a similar mod (one of the few i actually accomplished), and i noticed a burning smell about 20 minutes after i put the thing back together and fired it up.

turns out one of the connections i had insulated with electrical tape was touching one of the hotter psu components and was making a stinky.
 
Vantec stealths are a very good choice IMO, I own a half dozen, but every time I spend 5-8 bucks on a single 80mm fan it hurts, not to mention the $15 they want for 120mm.
 
Hope I'm not getting too off topic here, but which 350 enermax do you have. Theres a couple of different models of it. I own the Whisper model and that damn thing is quieter than my Panaflo L1z at 7v. Just curious since i'm poking at mine too/ replacing fans.
 
maybe I'll just put two vantec stealths inside and call it good.
Click to expand...

I recommend against Vantec Stealth 80mm's for reducing noise. I tried a couple of them in a PSU once and they "whined" less than the stock fans, but were actually louder overall.

While they push a lot of air for how loud they are, they're still too loud for a quiet PSU.

Go with Y S Tech or Enermax adjustables so you can tailor the noise output.
Just make sure the controller cable insulation remains intact and does not ground on the PSU - I had an ah, issue with some exciting sparks when such a thing happened to me in a modded PSU.
 
I've got acase full of stealths right now and they are fine. Its actulaly my current PSU that makes the most noise. However I am going to be making a fan bus so I can switch between 12v and 7v and off. I might hook the PSU fans to that.
 
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