Removing the FAN from a PSU

[marklbreen]

Hello All,

I have a few Corsair 430 Watt builders PSU's.

The fan is not absolutely silent, and I was thinking about having a go at simply removing it from the PSU completely and assessing the need for it.

Of course I know it is supposed to be in place and of course I know it will invalidate my warranty, but has anyone else done this? Simply removed the fan from the PSU? I can install a quieter fan but I am curious to know whether it will overheat without it.

I am running an i7 ivybridge 3770K and no graphics cards, and only one SSD disk. I estimate I will never draw more than 100 Watts and I have an instinct the PSU can cope with just convection cooling.

Any thoughts?

Mark

 

[nath247]

Seems risky as the fan is usually there for a reason. Some PSU's can run and only spin the fan when required (Corsair AX1200i) but may not be the case for other PSU's.

I remember removing a fan from an old cheap junk PSU and soldered on a molex connector and used it as a case fan so shouldn't be too difficult to replace the fan.

 

[Tealc]

A PSU designed for active cooling won't work so well passively. Heatsinks for passive cooling tend to be of a different design that those that are cooled by a fan.

It's possible that with only a maximum power draw of 100W that you could have the fan running more slowly than the onboard fan controller determines but you'd need to be careful and monitor internal and external exhaust temperatures to be sure you aren't damaging things.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

Go for it.. I think it will be fine.. Or even just put a variable resistor on it and then turn it down till it is barely spinning just in case..

 

[C64]

be very very very careful they can still hold a charge

 

[Kosmiche]

be very very very careful they can still hold a charge

they DO.

Be very careful, read up on how to do it, watch some youtube videos on how to do it until you know exactly how to do it.

And its probably not even worth attempting just buy a new psu.