How much heat can a PSU take?

chiLLZ

chiLLZ

chiLLZ

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Reason I am asking is I have built a micro atx x58 system in a silverstone sugo sg01 case.... Its much hotter then i expected with the cpu heatsink directly below the psu. The heat pipes are so hot that its hard to touch them for long and the back of the psu is quite warm and it smells like warm plastic and the air coming out is very warm also. plus theres 2 gtx 280's so that does not help.

I am not keen on leaving it on when i am away either incase it bursts a capacitor or something and catches fire. am i being paranoid>?

psu is corsair hx750w modular

thanks for any replies :)

edit: i think the reason its so hot is air is coming out the top of the gtx 280's opposite their fan and its going directly into the psu and cpu heatsink, never took that into account
 
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It depends on the psu. A good one is rated up to 50 degrees ambient, so there's your sensible limit. A crap one will be rated up to 20 degrees ambient, and wont last long.

Without knowing your corsair personally, or what temperature the internals are at, I can't say. Hot plastic smell isn't a good sign though, I wouldn't run that. Aftermarket cooling for the cards possible? Or can you do something featuring changing/adding fans? GTX280 in sli on matx was always going to run very, very hot.

A passive heatsink on the i7 was brave too. Undervolt the processor at least, see if it'll do 3ghz at 1V or so. Graphics cards are probably the issue though
 
95thrifles said:
are you not meant to attach 2 120mm fans to that cooler?
Click to expand...

yes

JonJ678 said:
It depends on the psu. A good one is rated up to 50 degrees ambient, so there's your sensible limit. A crap one will be rated up to 20 degrees ambient, and wont last long.

Without knowing your corsair personally, or what temperature the internals are at, I can't say. Hot plastic smell isn't a good sign though, I wouldn't run that. Aftermarket cooling for the cards possible? Or can you do something featuring changing/adding fans? GTX280 in sli on matx was always going to run very, very hot.

A passive heatsink on the i7 was brave too. Undervolt the processor at least, see if it'll do 3ghz at 1V or so. Graphics cards are probably the issue though
Click to expand...

Good idea, i think I will undervolt it and try to have it at 3.0ghz, in stead of a big oc. I read that the capacitors are rated at 50c after a google search, but I dont know if that means that the whole thing will be ok. Capacitors are the most vaunerable part of a psu right?

Maybe i can put a thin piece of material between the psu and videocards also to keep the heat away with some aftermarket coolers and then have two fans drawing the hot air up out of the case.

thanks for the replies :)
 
two very power hungry gpu's in a sugo. yes, its going to get very toasty. I wouldnt have even tried it, i would have done it with a bigger case. sugo's are not designed to cope with that sort of thermal output.

corsairs are rated at 50c btw
 
Can't say I'd have tried it either, at least not on air. Good to know the corsair is rated at 50.

Going to need more fans I think, and a divider separating gpu area from cpu is a good idea. What temperature are the graphics cards running at?
 
I am about to install all the drivers now, the cpu it at 54 idle at default settings, I ave to say that i know what i am doing is not sensible, It just looks so nice and compact, i cut out side windows and everything, I will post again wen i can test all the temps, for sure they will be really high, I posted before when the case cover was off!!
 
matx systems are lovely I agree. However I do think this one's a bit optimistic :)

Hope it runs sufficiently cool to be stable
 
I was able to run prime95 for 10 minits for a quick test it hit 83c Will do some more testing tomorrow hyperthreading is off and vcore is at 1.0v

microatx.jpg


heres a screenshot of arma everything on high, 82c at that point thats as high as i could get it. Videocards are undervolted although they manage stock clock settings.

arma22009-10-0202-00-59-02.jpg
 
If thats your system linked in sig, then those fans look to be the Akasa AK174CB-4BLB 120mm Blue LED Fan, which provide good airflow.

One thing i would say is that with 2 fans on the cpu block and 1 on the back, the psu fan will definatly be pulling in less airflow.

the only way your going to get a cooler pc in that case is to change your gfx cards for the 55nm ones or remove one of them - which isnt going to be very cost effective solution.

If your overclocked on the i7, revert it to stock. Apart from changing the case there isnt much else you can do
 
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