Antec 550TP Fans

I have an Antec 550TP and so far I like it. The one complaint I have is that there is always warm air blowing out the back of the PSU. Antec has gone to temperature controlled fans to help lower noise.

I don't care about noise.....if I did I would not have installed a Tornado! Is there a way to rewire the fans to make them run full bore 24/7. I figure the cooler I can keep it the better for the PSU and the longer it should last.

My case temp is usally around 20c, but the fan on the bottom of the PSU that sucks air into it sits right next to my SI-97. I don't think that the air that I am pulling into the PSU is very hot as I have a 92mm Tornado on the HS and there is a 120MM exhaust on the back of the case next to the HS also.

Thanks for any input!

This is one thing I'd like to see changed over at Antec's OEM, CWT - the fans on all their units run just a little too slow for comfort. Rewiring them for WFO isn't too hard... you'll need to pop the top off to get at them. Make sure the caps are drained by trying to power on the system with it unplugged, and then you can work on the rewiring without worrying it'll bite you in the process.

These units usually run more stable under heavy load with the fans moving a bit faster.

I pondered purchasing the 550TC for the purpose of controlling the fans, btu figured the extra money was not worth it. I do agree it should be a change they should make. I am all for supporting quite computers (I need the noise) but the PSU should not be the place to do this.

So I am assuming that the fans run through a temperature sensor of sorts. So the best solution would be to solder them directly to the 12V rail?

I had thought about opening up the PSU to remove some of the wires I do not use to help clean up some clutter, so maybe this is a good time to do it!

Thanks!

BC|Wulf said:

So I am assuming that the fans run through a temperature sensor of sorts. So the best solution would be to solder them directly to the 12V rail?

Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan to me... if you're not comfortable with soldering inside the unit, you could always run the fan wires to the outside of the PSU case and run them into a Molex.

Antec units aren't the only ones with slow fans... all of CWT's native designs have slow fan speeds too. Found that out the hard way when my CWT 420w blew the only fan in it and overheated.

Nice avatar BTW!

Since I am going to be opening up the PSU, what about replacing the stock fans with something with a little more cfm? Good idea or not?

Oklahoma Wolf said:

This is one thing I'd like to see changed over at Antec's OEM, CWT - the fans on all their units run just a little too slow for comfort......

These units usually run more stable under heavy load with the fans moving a bit faster.

Click to expand...

Not really that thing raised my case temps alot. IT needs better fans quite badly. If I didnt get a powerstream it would have been the first thing I would do

So it looks like i have a 92mm on the bottom and an 80mm in the back. Now I want to keep the CFM lower on the 92mm than the 80mm to keep from forcing hot air out of the PSU into my case. I figure it should work the same way with keeping a postive pressure in the case to help keep out dust.

The problem with this is a 92mm will push so much more air than an 80mm. So would it be wise to leave the stock 92mm fan in place controlled by the temperature sensor. I could then replace the rear PSU fan with some thing like this:

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2004&cat=79&page=1

Opinions?

BC|Wulf said:

Nice avatar BTW!

Click to expand...

Thanks... I filched it from a US government website that had public domain pics of wolves on it

Larva might have some input on fan modding the Trues... IIRC he's done some modding with his.

Changing out the fan with that would be fine. You might see how fast the stock one(80mm) runs at full voltage before you order, as it may be the same 2900 or so rpm.