Replace Fan on Corsair HX620

mattyfez

mattyfez

mattyfez

Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
12,337
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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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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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?
 
pastymuncher said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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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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
 
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.
 
Yeh, I've ordered a new PSU now though, the 620 certainly gave it's monies worth. don't want to go too ghetto with it. the dust inside the PSU casing was pretty impressive too (my fault as the PC stits against a wall and it's ot had one side panel on for some time.!

Not sure why the silent wings fan wouldn't spin up, maybe it had to be non PWM which the silent wings was, but i was only using the Ground and +12v fan cable. the silent wings fan is rated at 0.20A, and lower 1500RPM, so I guessed if anything it would be working too hard... maybe it's something about PWM fans The PSU didn't agree with, although as I said, I only connected ground and +12v wires.
 
Well so far so good with the new PSU.

Initial observations:
  • Cable length is fine, slightly longer than those supplied with the HX620, at least the main Mobo/CPU cables are - the cpu cable on the HX was a bit of a stretch in my case.
  • The unit feels slightly lighter than the HX620, but not much, feels well built though.
  • It doesn't look too fancy, its a pretty plain looking black box, but the matte black look quite sleek and minimalist. Will fit into any case colour scheme if that's your thing.
  • The beveled edges of the casing make fitting easier if you have a tight cage/psu slot/bracket etc.
  • The semi passive fan is great, it spins up on startup so you can see it works, then just stops unless needed, PC is defiantly quieter now, although the fan on the outgoing PSU was worn out, to be fair.
  • Comes with 3 PCIE twin connectors (2x6+2 on each cable) which seems excessive, and as I only use one 6+2, I had to cable tie a plug back
  • Combined with the semi passive fan feature, the ultra light load efficiency is really good, from what I can gather it can deliver as little as 15watts (2% of the max-rated-output)? if the rest of they system doesn't call for more, which would work well with CPU power saving/down-clocking modes and GPUs that essentially go into standby if just doing desktop work.
 
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Yeh seems so from other replies too, how do you find such a fan though? most case/cpu fans just state rpm and amps on the spec
 
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