Will A PSU Work Without A Fan?

[dorimon81]

I've got a few computers that are fairly old, but they are still in working condition and my brother uses them. I want to take the fans out of them and put them in my case, but I don't know how the PSU will work if I take them out. My guess is that for the old systems like the 486's and pentium 1's, the fan in the PSU is not needed because the PSU is only 235 Watts in mine, but it's just a guess.

Anyways, help would be good because I've got these old system that people in my house would want to use and I want to still be able to use them without the fans.

Any help is good.

Thanks

 

[9mmCensor]

yes it will work but it will run real hot

 

[dorimon81]

Well, the computers are only on for not even an hour when they are on and that's like once every couple days. My brother just uses them to play old games.

But thanks for the reply

 

[dorimon81]

How bout a 486? Will that work without a fan? One time, I forgot to plug the molex connector for the fan to the PSU and I didn't even notice until about a month later. I think that a 486 would work without a fan. What do you guys think?

 

[Robrules18]

yea it should work but if you do that you might want to cut holes in the case of the PSU for extra ventilaton.

 

[madsam]

see here how temps hamper performance of a typical psu:

http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

keep in mind that when the psu is hot, it is not going to produce power like it does running cool, and the drop in performance is more than a little... add that to the fact that the pc is using this limited power....which i believe would load the psu more than if it was cool....this brings you closer to instability, and psu failure.

may i ask why you don't just buy some cheap case fans instead of killing your family's pc's to save a couple bucks?

 

[dorimon81]

Well the computers are old and I've got 3 of them. I guess I could buy a couple fans. They're worth 10 bucks at the local computer store. If I bought 2, i would pay 20 bucks. I mean, were talking about a 486 PSU that just sits in the basement.

Oh and one more quick question.
How many fans could I put on one molex?

 

[madsam]

how many fans per molex will depend on how much power your psu has, and how much of that power is alreay used, and whatever is left can be used for fans, but each fan is different.....i have tornados that eat tons of power compared to the average case fan.

it is tough to say for sure.

also, if you shop around online, you can find fans cheaper...i'm sure of it.. 10 dollars poer fan isn't the cheapest price, but i have paid as much as 20. the fans that come stock in most average old psu's aren't high quality, and don't move much air, and usually can't cool an entire case, but rather, are used to cool the psu only.

i'm sure if you were to but 10 dollar fans, they would be a bit better than the stock old psu fans you have .

 

[dorimon81]

What type of fan should I buy and what size? I'm trying to keep the case silenced, but still have good airflow

 

[madsam]

the average case fan is 80mm x 25mm, and moves around 30cfm. if you were to go extreme, and buy the tornados, you would have up to 84 cfm, and they are loud as heck....sound like a vacuum cleaner.

right now there are coolermaster 32cfm fans at newegg, which also have 4 blue led's, and have the patented "rifled" bearings, which claim to be quieter, and long lasting. these fans are 8.99 each, shipped, and as low as 4.49 each shipped, if you were so inclined to buy 10 of them....obviously, you don't want to buy 10, but this is an example...... http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProdu...Go&description=coolermaster,blue&searchdepa=1

it is hard to suggest any single fan as there are a lot of folks who love and hate the same fans, for their own reasons.

also, svc usually has tons of cheap fans to choose from: www.svcompucycle.com

 

[dorimon81]

What would be the dB for a silent fan? What would be more quiet? 32 or 35 dB and how many dB's less would there have to be on a fan to hear a significant change?

 

[dalilman52]

well obviously a lower db would mean less noise, and a difference of 3 db wont be THAT noticeable..maybe something like 10 db would be very noticeable

anything in the <34 db range is what i would consider silent, or near "quiet"

 

[dorimon81]

My HSF is around 36 dB and it's so loud. Something lower than 32 I think would be near silent.