Replace Fan on Corsair HX620

Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
12,328
Hi all,
Fan on my trusty old HX620 is making some noise at idle, like the fan is worn out, it's not super loud but used to be inaudible, but is now the loudest component in the case.

Rather than bin the PSU off, I'd like to attempt changing the fan (yes i'm aware about capacitors and discharging them before opening it up).

I have this from a CPU cooler I'm not using: pure wings 2 - 0.20.A 1500RPM PWM fan
https://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/449

Is this suitable? I've not opened up the HX620 yet but apparently the fan is 2 pin rather than the 4 pins on the new fan, Anyone know which 2 wires I need to plug in?

Apparently the stock fan is this: 0.37A
https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2006/07/16/corsair-hx620w-620w-power-supply/3/

Any advice appreciated.
 
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That PSU became outdated 10+ years ago, so would suggest getting new at most only 10 years old design...
 
Ok so the PC powers up, but the fan only twitches once on boot.
I can't remember if the fan only comes on when it needs to, but I fired up red dead 2 to put a bit of load on it, no spinny spinny.
Could feel the PSU getting warm so powered off.

Guess I need a new PSU then... so what PSU for the spec in my sig?

I really got my monies worth out of the HX620 so something of similar quality, modular and silent credentials a plus - I've no idea what's what in the PSU market these days..
Future proof too, I game at 1080p but in a year or so I intend to upgrade to a single card 4k gaming capable PC, so something with enough juice for that, would about 600-650w still be enough?
 
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If I remember right (I was thinking of doing the same thing for my own at one point, I have both the HX 620 and the HX 650 - Bronze), the issue is not joining up the new fan to the PSU fan header, but that the PSU Fan header inside the PSU does not provide enough power to drive normal fans under normal circumstances on boot up. Not unless it's one of those super low power ones. Which even that Fan you've listed might be a bit too much for it to work if it draws more on starting up. And that seems to be the case now you've confirmed it.

If that remains the case, then you will need to instead power the fan from your motherboard, and that requires drilling a hole into your PSU case, and pulling the fan through that and connecting it to the motherboard, etc. All of which adds further possibilities of things going wrong (nastily). But if you're cool with that, then it's something you may need to consider.

If you want 600-650W, I think you might have trouble with 4k gaming, depending (on a variety of issues). I would say aim a smidgen higher, 700-750W for a bare minimum and you should be golden for the forseeable future (so long as you stick with 1 GPU). Aim for Platinum Efficiency or Titanium Efficiency if possible.
 
Thanks,

SO I've looked at a few

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £619.61 (includes shipping: £11.70)

The RM750 seems good at £110, I can't really see a compelling reason to spend more unless I'm missing something?
 
Ok so I've done a bit more reading about efficiency, and I can't really see a need to go for Platinum or titanium, over say gold just for power savings. i.e.
Gold being 90% efficient at 20% load
Platinum being 92% efficient at 20% load

My logic currently is things like better capacitors (longevity?) and fans/fan control (noise and longevity) are desirable and they typically come on Gold or higher rated PSUs?

So I've narrowed the choise down to:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £233.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

Gold rated, full modular, seems like both have good adaptable fan/cooling.
Both currently in stock, which to go for, or should I look at something else?
 
You can't go wrong with either of them really. Both are fully modular, gold rated and have 10 year warranties sp take your pick. If space is a issue the Seasonic is 20mm shorter than the Corsair but other than that there is nothing that put's one above the other.

I agree about the platinum and titanium. Unless you get a very good deal on one then you will never make the savings in electricity to justify the extra cost.

If the psu is going to power the pc in your siggy then a 550w unit would be more than enough by quite some margin.
 
If the psu is going to power the pc in your siggy then a 550w unit would be more than enough by quite some margin.

Thanks
Yeh it will go in my current PC which I intend to keep for another year or two, but then I intend to upgrade to something a bit higher end for 4k gamimg.
Dunno what power consumption cards in two years will use, I know things tend to get more efficient but also I'd be looking at a higher end card rather than something strictly mid range.

So basically, want a reliable long term PSU that has enough grunt, as my outgoing HX620 was a bit over-specced when I bought it, but it's lasted through 3 builds. i.e. no point buying an £80 550w unit now only to buy another £100+ 6-700w one in 2 years if i need more power, if that makes sense.
 
Ahh well, corsair 750RM ordered - should have headroom to run pretty much any single GPU system I want when I upgrade the rest of the PC
 
Gold Efficiency will be viable, it's just that if you're going for lower power PSU, higher efficiency gives you a bit more headroom if you upgrade and find you add more stuff in that sucks up power, in order to prevent it from going down in Efficiency enough where it can't power your system enough anymore.

As an example, I found out lately after adding more fans, and running the fans slower to keep noise down but temps a bit more toasty inside the case, that the Efficiency of the PSU goes down from the increased temps.

And the % (going up from Bronze to Silver, Gold, etc) would make a minor enough difference where it won't freeze/stall the system as it does now where I prefer not to up the fans to help cool it enough so it's efficiency maintains just enough for my rig right now. So had I got a Gold Efficiency PSU, the stalling issues I experience wouldn't be happening, as the PSU will be able to accomodate the drop in Efficiency from higher temps whilst producing the power I need. That's really the only reason to go higher Efficiency on a lower wattage PSU. Not really the power savings, but to make sure it stays within margins to power the computer in my eyes.

But, what you ordered sounds about right. 600-650w would have been too little for a future setup as well. 750w seems like it should be able to at least keep a future rig running at base settings at the very least.
 
@Meddling-Monk

Psu's get their ratings at certain temperatures, most common being 40 degrees C. However, there are more and more quality psu's now getting their ratings at 50 degrees C which include a large portion of Seasonics current psu's, Corsairs TX-M/SF/RMx/RMi/HX/HXi/AX/AXi series, EVGA's G1/G2/G3/GS/GQ/P2/T2 series, Superflowers Leadex Gold/Platinum/Titanium series and quite a few others from different companies. At the low end most of the budget offerings are only rated at 30 degrees C and some such as the awful HEC built EVGA uncertified 550w/600w/650w/750w units are only rated at a pathetic 25 degrees C. I would avoid any psu that is rated at less than 40 degrees C.

To keep psu temps down the psu should be used with the fan facing down (providing the case has a filtered vent for it) so that it can suck cool air in from outside the case and not use the psu as a exhaust fan sucking hot air from inside the case and possibly shortening it's life/diminishing it's efficiency.
 
the 650-750w seems to be a very competitive space for PSU's, that's probably a good thing, I just hope I've made the right decision with the RM.

If it's as good as my old skool HX, then it's all good.
 
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@Meddling-Monk

Psu's get their ratings at certain temperatures, most common being 40 degrees C. However, there are more and more quality psu's now getting their ratings at 50 degrees C which include a large portion of Seasonics current psu's, Corsairs TX-M/SF/RMx/RMi/HX/HXi/AX/AXi series, EVGA's G1/G2/G3/GS/GQ/P2/T2 series, Superflowers Leadex Gold/Platinum/Titanium series and quite a few others from different companies. At the low end most of the budget offerings are only rated at 30 degrees C and some such as the awful HEC built EVGA uncertified 550w/600w/650w/750w units are only rated at a pathetic 25 degrees C. I would avoid any psu that is rated at less than 40 degrees C.

To keep psu temps down the psu should be used with the fan facing down (providing the case has a filtered vent for it) so that it can suck cool air in from outside the case and not use the psu as a exhaust fan sucking hot air from inside the case and possibly shortening it's life/diminishing it's efficiency.

Aye, read up on these lately regarding temp certification, and that's certainly explained the PSU problems I've had before now and what I want to look for in a replacement (as the HX650 I have can't sustain the current setup when its loaded for long). Looking to want to get the Fanless Seasonic 700W, but unsure if I want to go with the higher w semi-passive versions instead. But will keep an eye on the certification and when the Fanless becomes available to make my call there. If only this info was more prevailent 10 odd years ago, would certainly not have got the current HX650 Bronze. But that's dissemination of information for you. Was much less talked about back then.
 
Semi passive seems to best of both worlds to my as I use my PC as a media center for films and music too, so quiet when I'm quietly listening to something. If I'm gaming I'll have the volume higher or have headphones so it doesn't matter if the fan kicks in to help with cooling
 
Assuming the fan is the only thing wrong with that psu, i'd just replace the fan and run it until it died. My hx520 has outlived both my 650w Be Quite dark power pro P7 and my 650w superflower leadex II :rolleyes:
 
Yeh I thought about sourcing a suitable fan but it was proving difficult to figure out what I wanted... I need to get back up and running and whilst I can still use the pc for watching iplayer and desktop stuff (the PSU doesn't even get luke warm despite no fan) I can't risk doing anything that would draw any significant load.

Just hope these newer RM units are on par with the old HX.

It was a bit of a coin toss really between the corsair and the seasonic, the seasonic has a switch on the back for different fan modes which is interesting, but the corsair runs at zero rpm up to a certain point anyway so that's much of a muchness really.

I did read in one review the mobo power cables was a little short, my PSU is in the bottom of the case in a sperate compartment (full size tower case) so that basically swung my choice.. I couldn't find info on how long it is in the corsair.. The old one was a stretch but was just long enough.
 
In the past when i had a fan fail i used a 4 pin molex fan connected to the psu externally
Worked fine for ages :)
Soon as power went on to the psu fan came on
 
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