PSU fans as case fans?

The place that my fiancee works at has a shared dumpster with quite a few places that are also in the same building. One of these places is a computer store. She was out on a trash run, so that she could have a smoke break, and about that same time the computer shop was bringing out a few trashed systems that they were just planning on throwing away. She asked if they minded if she just took them, so now I have 3 extra cases, all with PSU, Mobo, CD drives, and one also had a chipset fan, which I will be stealing for my case, since I don't have one. I was thinking about robbing the PSU's of their fans, since none of them are really large enough to run a good system with. Anyone know what the chances of these fans actually being something decent are? I know that I had gotten a 92mm Vantec from robbing a Gateway PSU, but I am not sure what these fans might be until I tear them apart. Who knows I may just end up setting up a blowhole on this computer, and maybe try setting one of these fans on the side of my heatsink to help blow the hot air out a little bit easier. Any one think this would be a good idea or a bad idea?

if you can find a good one.

Most of the fans that i find off crappy computers in their psus are slow and push like 10 cfm and really suck.

they're probably cheap 80mm fans, but they are better than nothing in most cases.

Do they have CPUs? If so, it's keychain time!

i'v ripped many Fans out of PSU's.

some have been decent, most have been slow, and doesn't pump out much air.

but i'm using one of them right now.

i have two fans blow out the back of my PC, one of those exaust fans is one of those PSU fans i found. it pumps out OK air. That specific fan isn't in a critical spot to pump out heat.

it just helps move some of the heat from the bottom of the video card ( that is, the side with the heatsink, that faces down ).

just gut them. Most likely, you won't be able to use the PSU's in any current system. So just take the fan. A fan is a fan, 10 CFM's is 10 CFMS. Better than 0.

you could always take one of those fans and slap it on a passivly cooled type of heatsink that is huge. will help pump SOME air through it, yet stay fully quiet. That, and its always nice to have extra fans around. just in case one of yours goes out, you have a temp. replacement. Kinda like a spare tire.

Doesn't hurt a think to have a spare at all.

just gut it, and splice it with either a 3pin or a 4 pin molex connector. Nothing hard at all.

i'm using a PSU fan n my case right now and it's moving about as much air as my store bought ones are.

Just a word of warning though... if you will be taking apart PSUs, be wary of the capacitors. They could give you a nasty shock. Hopefully they threw out some superflower psus... you know, the ones with the 140mm fans

I got a few panaflows, yate loon, and deltas out of old HP and Gateway PSU's. Clean the dust off of them, give them a drop of oil if needed and they should be good to go.

i dunno if this is true for all psu's but my antec sp has two 80mm fans. usually, just one is on(the one inside the case) and it spins sooooo slow that mbm5 reads it as 30,000 rpms!!! the second one only turns on if the temp gets too high. i took the 80mm fan out of my old gateway psu, so im in the same ballpark as you. but hey, its better than nothin!

Well I got 3 fans in total out of 2 of those cases. One of them is a Datech 0825-12HBTL. One of them is a Delta ASB0812HH, and the third one is some no name generic thing. All three of them are 80 mm and I am working on Googling the specs as I type this. Here is what I found for the Datech:

Specifications: Model: 8025-12HB. Voltage VDC: 12V. Power(W): 4.20. Current A: 0.17. Speed RPM: 4000. Air Flow CFM: 39. Static Pressure mmH2O: 0.2. Noise Level dBA: 41.0.

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I haven't been able to find anything about the Delta yet, but I am working on it. Hopefully I find out it is better than I am expecting.

Edit: Just noticed on the Datech sticker that the one I have in front of me is actually 0.35A. I wonder how much different the real specs on this fan are.

deadlysyn said:

Well I got 3 fans in total out of 2 of those cases. One of them is a Datech 0825-12HBTL. One of them is a Delta ASB0812HH, and the third one is some no name generic thing. All three of them are 80 mm and I am working on Googling the specs as I type this. Here is what I found for the Datech: I haven't been able to find anything about the Delta yet, but I am working on it. Hopefully I find out it is better than I am expecting.

Edit: Just noticed on the Datech sticker that the one I have in front of me is actually 0.35A. I wonder how much different the real specs on this fan are.

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I responded to your PM concerning the Delta Fan specs you asked me about. In regards to the .35A that is referring to the amperage required at startup or inrush current as it is also referred to which can be up to better then twice the running current required

Example:



In this picture you can see that this monster GFB1212VHW requires nearly 4 amps of power on startup. However while running, it only requires a total of 2.65 Amps to operate. The maximum required power is almost always listed on the fan where the operating specs are often listed on the spec sheet supplied by the company. I hope this helps clear up any confusion.

While most people think that the old fans are crap is because OEM or builder tolerances weren't so severe, nor were cooling requirements. Some of these older fans will probably outlive most of us, but they aren't really suited to a high-powered rig. However, there seem to be plenty of people looking to go quiet, and many of these fans will fill the bill.

Delta Specs:

Delta Quiet Series ASB0812HH
Sleeve Bearing
Operating Voltage (V) 7-13.8
Rated Current (A) 0.20
Input Power (W) 2.40
3250 RPM
37.43 CFM
Air Pressure (Pa) 45.08
34.0 dBA　

I got the specs in PM from EC, and I think he knows more about Delta fans than the people that work for Delta. And also EC thanks for explaining the thing about the sticker not matching the spec sheet on that fan. I thought that I was just looking at a completely different fan online. As it turns out, I think I found a couple decent fans, for the price of nothing, which to me is a very good deal. Maybe I will just go in and start asking for junk parts like that, even if I have to pay a small price for them, who knows what you may find inside.