Tutorial: Swap the fan on a PSU.

According to a review the fan in the Joule (nice name for a PSU) 1000W seems to be a 0.45A sleeve bearing job so I'd expect that to be fairly fast spinning. The Xigmatek orange is only 1500 rpm so you may run into heat problems, especially if the stock fan is a near 3,000 rpm model. If you can load it up to your maximum watch for temperature differences between intake and outtake, or even get a temperature sensor inside the PSU.
 
Aeleys said:
+1. i'm surprised you didn't sneak some LED's in :p
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I probably would have done if my PSU didn't reside in the lower compartment of my P183, which considering the unholy mess of cables down there, I'd rather not have lit in glorious orange. Still an opportunity missed.

Could even have had a LED readout on the side showing internal temperature.
 
@ Tealc
Just for clarity, the wire in the orange braid is connected to the enermax fans 'sense' wire. Then that whole single wire in the braid is connected to a 3 pin connector (only 1 wire connected), which in turn is connected to a 3pin header on the mobo to show RPM's? Have i got that right?
 
I understand what you mean tealc, but my system is probably at most take 500w, I upgraded as I want to go crossfire 5870 and a 2500k in the future, which according to a psu calculator would take about 640w with the rest of the parts in my system along with a couple upgrades, anyways here is mine:

Before:


DSC_0020.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

with it's top off :p


DSC_0021.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

Here are the connectors for the original fan, it has a, quite literaly, rgb led fan with a switch to switch between the leds being of, green, red or blue, but I decided that since I wanted the fan to have a constant brightness on the leds, that I wouldn't splice the connections and I just took out the main fan connector along with the switch:


DSC_0028.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

the main fan connector:


DSC_0039.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

all done :) (I will braid the fan connector in the future, but just now you can't see it at all when installed in the case :)


DSC_0044.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr

pic of it running with my pump along beside it :)


DSC_0064.jpg by Kieran Horne, on Flickr
 
That orange does look really nice Kiiyzoo. Nice job there mate.

@Abz- A three pin fan is basically a two pin fan with an additional sensor that has a signal down the third wire. The motherboard uses this to determine speed.

A four pin fan is similar again but has a few additional components to allow fast switching on and off, the signal for which comes down the fourth wire.
 
Thanks :D I also want to add that when taking apart the psu (at least with mine anyway) I took out all of the screws, which you don't need to do and will be slightly harder to hold the psu whilst attaching the fan, I found that if you only take the screws out of the top (where the fan is) of the psu, you are still able to take apart the psu, but the other parts will not move around
 
If only I had this last year when my PSU fan stopped working. I had to end up having the PSU fan beind powered off the motherboard! Bit of a catch 22.
 
@Tealc
The bit thats confusing me, if i have got it right, is that the connector in the mobo, only has one wire in it right? Thats the wire you connected to the fans 'sense' wire. Would that sense wire (in the 3pin connector) not need a live and ground too in the mobo?
 
It's fortunate the motherboards don't really care about the fact there's no fan taking current from the fan header yet still reports the speed. Maybe some motherboards have some kind of preventative measure that allows the sense circuits to be utlised like this but happily mine isn't one of them.

It's also true that the sensor will require a circuit to operate and it just wouldn't work if the PSU fan wasn't itself grounded by it's black wire direct to the PSU. If I was to remove the fan and create a different ground potential using +12v as ground and +24v as live it might totally mess with the sensor, but I'm not going to do that.
 
I'm seriously considering doing this with my Corsair TX750 as it uses a really noisy 140mm Yate Loon fan. The fan is rated at 2200rpm and I guess it must be spinning at 1500rpm idle, judging by the noise.

What would be a good choice of 140mm fan to replace it with? Someone mentioned an Akasa Apache in another thread, but that is a 4 pin PWM, so not sure how I would wire it up. Are there any decent 3 pin 140mm fans?
 
Mark A said:
Someone mentioned an Akasa Apache in another thread, but that is a 4 pin PWM, so not sure how I would wire it up. Are there any decent 3 pin 140mm fans?
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Depends on the PSU (and whether it has a connector for the fan or not) but you'd only wire up the red and black wires anyway. You'd lose the PWM of the fan but it'll just operate like any DC fan.

I'd say an Apache would be a decent choice beccause it has highish airflow and a hydro bearing. Had a quick look on OcUK for fans and the majority of 140mm fans seem to be slower spinners.
 
Ah thanks, I think i'll go for an Apache then as I got the 120mm version for my cpu cooler and its very quiet. In fact the Viper might be a better choice, If the specs are accurate its still far quieter than this stock fan at the highest speed and less chance of it overheating with 110cfm.

I have actually swapped a PSU fan over on an old Hiper psu before but with this being a £70 PSU I'm a bit hesitant :p. I'll try giving it a blast of air to remove dust first.
 
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Tealc said:
Depends on the PSU (and whether it has a connector for the fan or not) but you'd only wire up the red and black wires anyway. You'd lose the PWM of the fan but it'll just operate like any DC fan.
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just like you extended the rpm wire, couldnt the rpm and pwm wire be extended to the motheboard to run the pwm function too? :)
 
panyan said:
just like you extended the rpm wire, couldnt the rpm and pwm wire be extended to the motheboard to run the pwm function too? :)
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They could both be extended but that would totally mess up the fan control as you'd then have a mismatch of DC control by the PSU and PWM control by the motherboard, and besides the PWM would then not be related to the temperature/workload of the PSU.
 
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