Question regarding removing a fan from a PSU

[MongGrel]

Basically what I was wondering was if you clipped the wires on the fan of a Antec TPQ-850 and removed it, would it destabilize the operation of the PSU in any way.

I know it's designed to run with the one that's in there, but it's the loudest thing in my system ATM.

And if I could rig up a spare 120mm MFDB I have that's quieter, and a higher CFM fan in a box over the opening to the rear on the case would be nice.

I was just wondering if anyone electronically inclined could through me a bone on this one, maybe Oklahoma if he cruises by.

I'd actually wonder if it wouldn't run more stable by taking the fan directly out of it and running one externally, but why I'm asking I guess



I just didn't want to open it up, clip the wire or remove it, and have the whole thing become unstable.

*edit* Actually, I've a much better plan B if removing that fan does not affect operation any.

I doubt it does, but I'm trying to be safe

 

[stevejr]

I have replaced a few psu fans. Someimes the fan is plugged into a regular fan header...3 pin is what I have seen...which makes fan removal real easy. I had a psu...a crappy, older psu...that had the fan hard wired and I just clipped the wires to remove the fan.

As far as I know, there is nothing else wired into the fan that would affect the operation of the psu if the stock fan were to be re-placed or removed completely.

But...I'm no expert on psu fans...just what I have messed with myself.

Just look at the fan in your psu and notice how it is wired up....that should indicate if there is anything else going on besides a straight forward fan connection.

Of course, if Oklahoma cruises by, he will be the guy to listen to.!

 

[MongGrel]

Well, I took that noisy little bugger out of there, the wires to the thing were tied to some others, so I just cut the wires, I think was a connector but I wasn't going to dig around in areas where I didn't know what I was doing too much.

Then I cut the fan out of the shroud with some aviation snips, and remounted it just to have a better flowing port there and the grill back on.

Took the cover off took it to work, and milled a rectangular opening in there on my break the same spread on the clips on the tunnel attachment that came with the Antec 1200 and just enough for them to attach to the top. That left .125 gap on the sides, so I epoxied some aluminum .125 strips the same length as the openings under the edges of the tunnel attachment.

So now I took the MFDB fan that was on my Sunbeam CCTF which runs high CFM quietly, and mounted it pulling air in from the top through one of the Antec filters directly onto the heatsinks that are on top of the PSU up there.

I went to Oklahoma Wolfs review of it last night to get a preview of the layout on the PSU before I even opened it up.

The results are pretty fantastic I'd say, after replacing the case fans and doing this, about all I hear is air moving, and not very loud there. The whole computer very quiet now compared to what it was, which was the idea to begin with I guess.

I've just installed it, but was running Prime95, and my south and northbridge temperatures have even seemed to have dropped about 6-7C, the CPU still runs the same, I didn't really expect to see any change there.

I think its actually expelling a lot of air that might have been hanging about the bottom rear of the case. It should be expelling some out of the front too, I left it open also, but the rear is a lot less impeded air route. I really hadn't expected to see the NB and SB drop, nice benefit though.

Here's the real kicker, it may sound crazy or just cause the thing had been running awhile and had a bit of a buildup in it.

I swear I used to run Prime and had looked at my APC 1500 LCD and it would read around at least 535W when running Prime, I thought it was even higher recently, and now hovers around 450-460.

?????

Am I possibly misremembering something or did cleaning it out or mounting a 120mm fan increase the effeciency ?

Maybe I'm being crazy, hard to imagine it changing that dramatically.

*edit* duh, that was during the two 3dMark's, not Prime. It did used to max out at 635-645 though and maxes out at around 600 now though.



Before and after picks I guess. It is nice having more air through there and a filter on top, hopefully it helps. Running very well ATM though.

 

[stevejr]

Congrats...!! An interesting and obviously beneficial mod.

It sure is nice to have a machine shop of some type to do some work, isn't it!

With your cramped spaces, all the airflow that you can get will help...glad your idea actually worked.!

 

[xtkxhom3r]

nice little mod man

i used to have a bfg psu and man that thing was so noisy so i just swapped the fans out with some better fans of the same size

 

[Rich'[ard]]

i changed my PSU's fan 2 weeks ago.
from being as loud as a vacuum cleaner, my PSU is near silent now.
i can easily sleep through it, sometimes i have to really listen to hear if it's on.

i swapped a Scythe Slipstream into it.
the only disadvantage i can think of is that, the fan will no longer increase/decrease speed according to the PSU's temps.
althought the temp sensor might still work with your fan if you connected it back into the adapter inside the PSU. my PSU had a 2 pin socket though, so my Scythe had to be powered from one of the molex connectors.

 

[MongGrel]

I just leave it up on high which is twice the CFM of the original fan, and still a lot more quiet.

The Sunbeam fan is pretty good about noise at higher speed, why I tried that one out.

Yeah I believe mine was a two pin also it looked, I didn't even unbundle the wires to get to it just sniped em

Working in a tool shop does have it's advantages

It's less cramped in there than it appears from the picture actually, I get pretty good airflow of the 3 HD cage fans, too.