Argh! PSU is so loud..

[Cjwinnit]

I've been trying to quieten my rig down to acceptable levels but the damn PSU (Fortron 400 watt with standard 80mm exhaust fan) is really starting to annoy me. It has that whistling turbulent air sound that badly-designed heatsinks with overpowered fans have. I'm tempted to do major mods to try and calm it down but I thought I'd sound you guys out to see if anyone came up with an idea I haven't considered.

One thing that came to mind was unmounting it from the case and enveloping the sides with insulating foam, then making a sound-resistant shroud for the fan exhaust. Alternatively opening it up and replacing the rubbish fan with a better one with less voltage.

What do you think?

 

[cabose1227]

I took out a 80mil fan fram a load psu and put a 120 mil on the out side with a card board duct. It looked wierd but it was quite.

 

[Moto7451]

The PC Power and Cooling Silencer 360W PSU is pretty quiet if you want to just replace the PSU. Besides that, put a thermally controlled fan in there or put a rheostat between the PSU fan and the header on the PSU (you may also have to run the fan wires out of the PSU to do this but thats no biggie). If the fan is soldered to the PCB, just get a new fan and snip the old one's wires.

 

[bryan_d]

The FSP550-SLI that still runs to this day had a fan swap, that greatly reduced noise. It was not very hard to perform, but I took precaution of leaving it be for a week with it "on" with a paper clip to try and discharge (though most will argue it was not fully discharged, it was the best I could do).

It had an ADDA originally, and I replaced it with a Cooler Master low-noise; Now I would rather opt for a quality Nexus though...

Good luck, and do not blame me or other members for electric shock!

bryan d

 

[SkiBum1207]

you could take it apart and use a 120mm to 80mm fan adaptor on the back, may look a bit funky but it would work....just don't shock yourself...

 

[Ben333]

Swap the fan with another of the same or higher CFM rating with a lower DB rating.

 

[Cjwinnit]

Thanks for all the advice, i'll be putting it all in my head and doing something.

One issue with changing the fan. If it were to run from a molex or a 3-pin, rather than the original fan header in the PSU, would the PSU dislike it? (I've done it before but with a much older AT supply).

 

[stool]

I know this is not the popular quiet thing, but get yourself some sound-deadening earphones. There is a point where reality takes over, and a high-performance computer can be very loud. If you really feel the need for quiet, consider a fanbus.

 

[Omsion]

I know this is not the popular quiet thing, but get yourself some sound-deadening earphones. There is a point where reality takes over, and a high-performance computer can be very loud. If you really feel the need for quiet, consider a fanbus.

They also can be very quiet if you carefully choose case, fans, heatsink to be so. My system simpily cannot be heard if there is any other source of sound in the room (aka AC, roommate's laptop, window open, clothes rustleing, w/e). This does take much more planning, however, just with anything else.

 

[Cjwinnit]

If you really feel the need for quiet, consider a fanbus.

I have one; it's just the PSU fan that's ridiculous..