watercooling a psu

joshcowin · 16 Feb 2013 at 19:27

hi their i was wondering it would be possible to watercool a psu.i know water and electrics dont mix but it would be a lot quieter and more efficent

*Rich* · 16 Feb 2013 at 20:02

You can buy liquidcooled PSU's, have a look around. Probably not cheap though.

OptimaLnrg · 16 Feb 2013 at 20:59

A good psu doesn't need watercooling

mjones1 · 16 Feb 2013 at 21:18

Seems pointless since you would have to cool the total wattage of the psu & the components, if you want true silence buy a passive PSU.

joshcowin · 16 Feb 2013 at 23:00

Passives are good but dont come in 1200 watt psus

BluD · 16 Feb 2013 at 23:20

Maybe just try putting a resistor on the fan, or even replacing the fan with a quieter one if its standard size, then just keep checking its not overheating.

I imagine watercooling a standard psu would be difficult, cause even if you could make a water block to replace the big heatsyncs in there, im sure theres probebly lots of little parts that are normally cooled by the fan, even if they dont have heatsyncs.

OptimaLnrg · 16 Feb 2013 at 23:26

joshcowin said:
Passives are good but dont come in 1200 watt psus

My psu fan only comes on if I am playing an intensive game, and even then it's so slow it's inaudible.

pgi947 · 16 Feb 2013 at 23:43

Can't even hear the fan on my near 5 year old HX1000. Should probably check its actually working

If it was viable to do then kits would be available, all I've seen is a relatively shoddy looking 1000w unit from koolance, which costs more then an AX1200i and performs worse (bronze vs platinum).

*Rich* · 17 Feb 2013 at 08:14

I have a CM 1000w Silent pro Gold, very quiet. Even when playing games.

joshcowin · 17 Feb 2013 at 08:48

I have a cx600m i was just wondering if their was one made thats all i was thinking of my next build

*Rich* · 17 Feb 2013 at 09:25

I take it you're trying for silence then? How loud is your current PSU?

joshcowin · 17 Feb 2013 at 12:43

Well i was trying to have a full wc setup,trying to keep it a quite as possible and have it more efficent

*Rich* · 17 Feb 2013 at 16:18

I personally think just a really good efficient PSU is ample enough, gold or platinum in some sort of silent branding

JonJ678 · 17 Feb 2013 at 18:30

Of course it's possible. Just not sensible. Don't cool a live heatsink, i.e. if a multimeter reads mains ac, don't cool that bit.

Kelt · 17 Feb 2013 at 18:46

Running a 5 year old 850W Cooler Master PSU here, still as quiet now as when it was new. Totally inaudible.

Frozennova · 17 Feb 2013 at 18:48

JonJ678 said:
Of course it's possible. Just not sensible. Don't cool a live heatsink, i.e. if a multimeter reads mains ac, don't cool that bit.

How is your PSU Jon? I remember you watercooling one and receiving some shocks when touching certain components

JonJ678 · 17 Feb 2013 at 19:32

The PSU is fine, though it no longer has a waterblock inside (corrosion problems). There's a 1" hole cut through the steel casing, which is ugly, but appears to make no difference. Voltage still within spec (based on multimeter, not oscilloscope) under load.

I wouldn't recommend repeating the attempt, but it doesn't seem to have caused any damage.