Changed my psu fan, but iv got questions.

IceShock · 14 Jan 2014 at 22:55

Hey there, iv just changed the fan in my PSU because it had developed a squeek or two, but it was a 140mm fan, which i didnt have any of, so iv fitted a 120mm fan (with double sided sticky tape i may add haha), and iv lead the wire out of the psu and into my fan controller, now iv got a few questions, what would happen if it got too hot from running it silent, would it just get too hot and shut off or would it go pop? and is there any way i could tell if it does get too hot to turn it up a bit? been running it silently for 25 mins on a game and the air coming out the back is still pretty cool not even a smudge on the air coming out of my idle gpu or cpu fans.

thanks

OvEr_KiLL · 14 Jan 2014 at 23:49

i would say you really want the fan connected to the psu as then it will change speed accordingly itself, have a look around the net for adapter cables

and why on earth use sticky tape? you could have used zip ties couldnt you? thats what i did on my xfx recently..what you have done sounds dangerous to me and yes if it gets hot it will either burn out or it will shut itself off
if it is an xfx psu then have a look on here for my thread.
edit. you also want a 120mm fan that is rated airflow near enough the same as the stock one that broke

IceShock · 15 Jan 2014 at 03:42

was all out of cable ties lol, and its heavy duty sticky tape, as a tester, i wanged the psu shell through the air at full force a few times, it moved nowhere

and nope its a tagan piperock 700w psu. famous for being a piece of dogs dinner, but its done me fine touch wood. and iv ran games all night running it in silent with the wood burning stove in the same room sat in nothin more than a vest cooking away and it seems to be doing the job nice and silently the 120mm fan, might treat it to a new 13.5cm fan which is the size of the one i took out, and also hook that up to my fan controller.

one thing iv noticed, is iv tried a few different 120mm fans, and they are all a bit louder than the other ones in my case even the ones i have spare that are the same, the ones in my case are 90% silent when running on lowest speed. and the one in my psu, i can hear it about 20% more, not sure if its the way the heat sinks are sat inside the psu on parts i know little about that are reflecting air back on the fan making it a bit louder, but aye, still compaired to the fan i took out, its like pouring custard vs gravy granules into a cup lol.

Tealc · 15 Jan 2014 at 06:56

Maybe it would be a good idea to measure the temperature of the PSU when it is under load and the fan is running slowly. A fan controller temperature probe would do, or you can get USB ones. I put my temperature probe directly outside the PSU in the airstream and compared the temperature to ambient and also to intake temperature. I forget what the differences were exactly but despite driving the fan at around 500 rpm lower than the stock fan in my PSU my exhaust temp was not really affected that much.

Ideally I'd have shoved a probe right inside on one of the heatsinks but I didn't fancy that.

The PSU is still working some 2 years on with no stability issues. I just replaced a 2,300rpm fan with a 1,500rpm fan and connected it to the PSU PCB. The fan normally runs at about 1,000rpm +/ 100rpm.