taking the fan off of a psu

Mungler

Mungler

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Oct 13, 2005
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I'm thinking of a new build. But want to sanity check what I am thinking of doing.

I have done a quick mock up for illustration, below. Imagine that there are some waterblocks on the gpu and cpu and soft tubing connecting them (I'm not a sketchup whizz :) )

Contents:
2 x 240mm rads
1 x 980ti
1 x i7 cpu
1 x D5 photon res/pump
4 x 'fans'
and
1 x 750w (?) psu with the case ripped off and the fan removed

The idea is that the airflow from the two rads coming in through the front (left of picture) which passes over the entire motherboard hitting the naked psu before being pulled out of the back rad.

Is this just crazyness?

or is there a psu out there that has my name on it? searching for 'passive' psu is a waste of time. What I really need to search for is 'psu that will tolerate having its cooling coming from an extrernal source' or something close to.

Any expert opinions greatly welcomed.

desk-with-air.jpg
 
A naked PSU is a very bad idea...
There are lots of big caps in a PSU as well as 120V leads/connections, so safety is a big reason for leaving it covered in its original enclosure. Also, there is no way in hell you are going to get sufficient air flow across a PSU that has been opened up like that unless you configure a shroud and some ducting to force the air flow over/thru it.

Kudos to you for the idea, but my advice is to go with a big supply that runs cool and has a quality (i.e. near silent) fan on it.
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
Also, in your illustration, your GPU seems to be taking a nap... :)
Click to expand...

yeah forgot to mention the pcie riser. airflow would be terrible with the card vertical

p.s. since when have the good ideas been safe :) that's how we ended up with over-clocking and water-cooling in the first place :cool:

I'm thinking about ducting now :)
 
There's a few seasonic PSUs that are marketed for 'silence', I would recommend one of those. You won't hear the fan in those and you won't have to worry about it cooking itself from removing the fan
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
I was referring to your personal safety, rather than accidentally killing your equipment.
Click to expand...
The sentiment wasn't lost. Personal safety will not be sacrificed. Thank you for the concern.

streiw, thanks for the tip on the seasonic psu's I'll check them out. I was also looking at the corsair 'zero fan' models. I have never purchased a psu based on its noise levels before now.
 
Open frame PSU, not 750w though. You better ask the question on PSU review site(say johnny guru) to see which spot need more cooling. Then monitor what temp you are getting.

Ideally platinum or titanium rated for best efficiency.

Real passive PSU do exist? So I don't get why you can't find one, yes not 750w.
Alternately, some 1300w has fan of until 50% load.
 
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W.Feather said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151122

Depending on you rend power requirements, seasonic makes up to a 520w PSU that is fanless and would be perfect for your use case unless I am missing something.
Click to expand...

I did look at these, but it is clear I am going to have to nail down some of the hardware first before I can commit. I estimated a bare minimum of 600w for the system including all the fans, water pump, etc. So, much to my dismay, this ruled out those fanless psu's.

baii said:
Alternately, some 1300w has fan of until 50% load.
Click to expand...
this is an interesting idea. which I have already started looking at. the corsair PSU that feature 'Corsair Link Digital' are peaking my interest at the moment. Real time

Thanks everyone for the pointers. Getting there :)
 
OP, what 980Ti do you have? Your diagram presumes a full-cover block which not all cards have. Also some full cover blocks like say Alphacool semi-full-block are quite chunky.


baii said:
Open frame PSU, not 750w though. You better ask the question on PSU review site(say johnny guru) to see which spot need more cooling. Then monitor what temp you are getting.

Ideally platinum or titanium rated for best efficiency.

Real passive PSU do exist? So I don't get why you can't find one, yes not 750w.
Alternately, some 1300w has fan of until 50% load.
Click to expand...

Above gold you're paying for marginal gains. And even paying for gold is pushing the worthiness. Corsair has their RM650/750W that will do the job fine. And besides if you're running full-load you'll need all the cooling you have running anyway which means fan noise no matter what.

Buying a nuclear reactor that is 2X+ your needs is...well pissing money down the drain.
 
Supercharged_Z06 said:
A naked PSU is a very bad idea...
There are lots of big caps in a PSU as well as 120V leads/connections, so safety is a big reason for leaving it covered in its original enclosure. Also, there is no way in hell you are going to get sufficient air flow across a PSU that has been opened up like that unless you configure a shroud and some ducting to force the air flow over/thru it.

Kudos to you for the idea, but my advice is to go with a big supply that runs cool and has a quality (i.e. near silent) fan on it.
Click to expand...

going to have to agree here... high voltage is not something you want exposed where it can be accidently touched if you are inside your case.

On a side note, if you do decide to go this route, please slather yourself in BBQ sauce first so that when the FD shows up you will be well cooked and ready to go... :eek:
 
people, come on! Can we drop the scare stories about caps killing people. Electrical equipment is dangerous and you should never attempt repairs or mods unless you know what you are dealing with.

Message: Never work on energised electrical equipment!

But to address the points made in this thread so far (and to draw a line under it all):

- The 120V leads are dangerous when the unit is plugged in/switched on.
- Even the largest of the common caps in the PSU will only hold a charge for a handful of seconds. After which it is safe to touch.
- The most dangerous cap is the x cap, which can hold a charge for longer than the others, but even this will be discharged by the bleed resistor and be safe after 10ish seconds. In addition, the x cap is shrouded entirely in non conductive material except where it contacts the PBC.

So unless I have my hand on the underside of the x cap mount on the pcb while the machine is plugged in and switched on or I am really quick with getting into the psu area after I switch it off, I am very unlikely to die on a naked psu.

But just to reiterate for anyone else reading this thread, never touch energised electrical equipment, even if it is off, it may still be energised and it will hurt you.

But I will be slathering myself in BBQ sauce anyway, so I can include a pic in the worklog ;)

Ok, now that is out of the way......


Skripka said:
OP, what 980Ti do you have? Your diagram presumes a full-cover block which not all cards have. Also some full cover blocks like say Alphacool semi-full-block are quite chunky.
Click to expand...

I have not purchased a GPU yet. The one in the diagram is a placeholder for illustrative purposes. I am a bit on the fence with waiting until the next gpu iteration is released to benefit either from the price drop on the 980ti or to splash out on the '10xx' or whatever they end up being called.
 
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Skripka said:
Above gold you're paying for marginal gains. And even paying for gold is pushing the worthiness. Corsair has their RM650/750W that will do the job fine. And besides if you're running full-load you'll need all the cooling you have running anyway which means fan noise no matter what.

Buying a nuclear reactor that is 2X+ your needs is...well pissing money down the drain.
Click to expand...

It is more about better efficiency so it get less hot, not really about saving electricity.
 
It's possible that the 1300W platinum is less efficient at a certain load (400W for example) than a 650W Gold PSU. The efficiency curve is a lot more important than the actual rating.
 
I had not seen this article, thanks. Once again, like 'HD Ready', 'Samsung SUHD' and so many other stickers slapped on to products, it seems these are just there to dazzle and entice rather than serve any pure purpose, thanks.

I took a moment to try out some PSU calculators and most of the agreed that a 520w fanless is not going to be enough for my needs. I'm looking at roughly 545W, but I think even the Enermax Digifanless 550W is cutting it too fine. So, an 800W with some nice vac formed ducting is the current plan. and as if to answer my prayers, this article pops up just today :)
 
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