Not sure if this goes in the hardware forum for the PSU, under the modding section, or in xtreme cooling... Anyways, I have a 350W Antec PSU which is a dual fan model for those of you unfamiliar. By far, it has the noisiest fans in my entire system.. even with 6 or 7 of my case fans blowing, the PSU fans still dominate. Ideally, I'd like to make the PC as silent as possible which requires me to mod my PSU. Just wondering if anyone knows some recommended *safe* temps I could run my power supply by decreasing the voltage in my fans? I do not want to run the risk of overheating or frying my PSU so I'm a bit edgy on whether I'm willing to risk doing this mod. Also, can anyone suggest a rheostat I could find in the US where I could wire BOTH psu fans to it and still manage to operate at a safe level? thx
I suppose this article should answer my questions but the original question still remains..... Since my PSU came standard with 2 fans, would lowering the CFM cause problems down the road for my PSU? Again, what should be *safe* temps for operating the 350W PSU, thanks.
You want to be really careful when messing with the insides of a PSU m8 as they hold a lethal charge even when disconnected. Those In Modding may be able to help more, Hold on!
jamiesurfs... that guy still come around here?... Have you considered replacing the current fans with quieter ones... that would be route I would take. Just cause I wouldn't want to mess with the inside of my PSU any more than I had to... just an option.
If you have really big balls this article may be of use. I'm seriously considering it for mine, but if you're not that daring I would go with the suggestion of replacing them with quieter fans (papst etc).
like i said... computer parts + water = no buena but psu + water? thats just retarded oh yeah, replace the fans. see if you can find the dba on the fans in your psu then get ones that have less. peace. that eddie danes one smart cookie
Wow, the thought of liquid cooling the PSU did come to mind but since my 9700 pro runs hot (102-120F) and I also plan on OCing my 2.4G P4, the liquid in my soon-to-be H20 system will be pretty hot.. As for the PSU fans, I've decided to order 2, 80mm panaflos but have just realized, both fans of the PSU are not 80mm... appears the other is 90mm (92mm?) DOH!! Will have to check when I open it up... Further investigation reveals that I have a SmartPower Antec 350W.. supposedly enabling me to adjust fan speed.. or is this an automatic thermally sensed adjustment since I do not see any fan controlling switches from the outside?? The following is taken from the side of the PSU box: If this has some sort of thermally controlled circuit (which seems to be on full power 24-7) would replacing the fans with the lower CFM fans drive the PSU bonkers? For ONCE would I be making the PSU go nuts instead of vice versa! PSU is loud all the time, never noticed it quieting down and silence (for once) would be extremely noticeable by my ears! Help........PLEASE!!
Just got this thread in my sites server stats The water-cooled PSU linked to by Adam is coming up to a year old now, other than a mod to thin out the wiring and a bracket to the block to help cool a coil that was getting too hot in extended gaming, it has been running fine fanless even through a high of 38°C ambient in the summer. So far no leaks with any part of the cooling system. Psu is almost out of my "work in progress / testing" period and will finally be mounted properly in the PC case soon. Here is a current image. l33t_c0mput6r_m0dz Can't resist this, I also had a hot Radeon 9700 but it's cool and silent now.. I have accepted in my mind a major water-cooling disaster once every 2 years. So far no leaks or dead hardware, but even if I did have some disasters, forced air cooling is something I'd find near impossible to live with after having almost a year of silence It's easy to criticise, and I'm sure I will have a disaster at some point, but I try to be extremely careful with what I do and fully understand the risks. Those that are not so cautious are generally the ones that give water-cooling a bad name.
Welcome to BiT-Tech forums, BladeRunner. I recommend your site to everyone, it's some of the best craftsmanship you could hope to see on display there. And I can sure appreciate as well the effort involved in presenting so much information. My hat is off to you.
Yea, i pointed out your page myself a while ago. Could've sworn you were signed up on here. Maybe my memory's getting mixed up with procooling Anyway, nice work
WOWOWOWWWW!!!!!!!!.... NEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDD Is that a custom jobbie or are those copper blocks in production?? *droooool* Love the block cooling the RAM as well! It's a good think I didn't buy little rinky dink heatsinks which would have done almost absolutely nothing but serve aesthetics purposes... This looks pure L33T and is even functional too!
Thanks for the welcome, I do need to update my site and hope to find the time soon. l33t_c0mput6r_m0dz The Radeon cooler is a homemade design, and the first production with my new mill. Because I'm running fanless everything in my PC requires active cooling. The Radeon 9700 ram gets extremely hot, so without a fan cooling the card it wouldn't run 3d apps without locking up. This like most things I do is about my silence goal initially overclocking being secondary thing. With ram the overclocking ability is more to do with chip batch quality & overall card quality than heat issues, although overheating will cause problems. More details on the build of this cooler in this topic HERE.
I'd be very interested in those blocks you produce, both for the GPU and RAM of the 9700. You say you have a Connect 3D Radeon. Would the layout be the same for the ATI Radeon 9700? Also, what kind of GPU temps are you getting now with your waterblock, both idle and under load?? Would it be possible to fit a TEC under your GPU block as well and lastly, how much would you ask for such a lovely piece of machinery? EDIT>> BTW, I plugged your waterblock thread in my thread over in the Extreme Cooling forum
hey bladerunner, i meant no offense by the "retarded" comment. just not a fan of water cooling. i might have drowned in a former life, i dont know. no hard feelins. i went and looked around your site and thats one hell of a rig. you can see that you put a lot of thought and labor into it. kudos and welcome to the board. l33t_c0mput6r_m0dz , maybe you should get an enermax that has the manual fan control on the back. check pricewatch. i need some friggin coffee
zackerouac No offence taken, and what you say is true, PSU voltages + water is retarded I just had to try it because I wanted a fanless system. Of course I'd much rather buy a better designed PSU, (at much higher cost if need be), that doesn't require fans from the outset, but until someone makes such a thing then................. When I started the project I really only half believed it could work, and even then thought it might work but be unstable. I did try my best to investigate it before hand as much as possible, and outline this, along with the dangers in the build article. It does appear to work fine and system stability is better than ever now everything in the PC is effectively cooled. It is however an end user mod, and the PSU could die tomorrow for all I know. I'm of course not the only one that's water cooled a PSU, or even the first, there are others. Most people should see this as unnecessarily extreme, read it enjoy it, and then just buy some low db rated fans IMO. I do however find it funny when people tell me it wont work, I had a recent e-mail conversation with a Bang & Olufsen engineer that sounded like he was convinced the world would end if I did it, (hence the sig quote), As for the rig it needs to be tidied up a bit really..... still too messy. I intend to build a custom case, (partly because I want the motherboard laying flat, (in a traditional way like a desktop PC case. It will be much larger however, and feature carbon fibre in the design. Like you say though, water-cooling isn't for everyone and Anyone that does it must accept the consequences of a disaster, because the odds are it will happen eventually. l33t_c0mput6r_m0dz No definite plans are there for a kit yet as it still needs to be costed out. If you read the topic I have shown that water-cooling the ram alone hasn't helped the rams ability to overclock much, at least with my card. This would therefore be a very expensive way to cool your R9700. I don't want anyone to think that this cooler will bring amazing results, as said in the build topic it's more card / component quality that's the overriding factor. Effective cooling can't hurt of course. A volt mod which I will be doing in due course might help, and at least this can be done without heat issues. It's probably not something those new to water-cooling should rush into either. I started out with a simple overclockers hideout CPU block, (now called the Z3), and connected it to the cold water tap initially just to see what it would be like. It's best to start out basic until you've learnt a bit IMO. If I do make a kit it would probably be expensive, (or seem expensive), not because I'd be trying to make myself rich, just the shear amount of time and work that is required to make something this complex, machining, materials, finishing, testing etc, (just the 6 pipe fittings used cost over £10 UK).
*Me raises glass to BladeRunner* Glad to see you're still pulling off top quality work! Must start a thread on the use of w/c manifolds some time.. there's still a lot of confusion on the subject. (I seem to remember when I first read about you doing the GF3 mem blocks - IIRC, when the nVidia CEO wrote you to ask for a sample - you thought it may be a hoax and asked for a t-shirt - he wrote back to ask "what size?") Mucho respect! BTW - if you ever need help getting a retail project off the ground or anything, drop me a line - I may be able to help out with fittings at least. L_C_M - As you've probably read - capacitors in your PSU hold a hell of a charge. If you are going to open a PSU - set aside a couple of days beforehand where you won't be using it. Unplug the power cable and soft power the machine after you last use it - this will help drain some of the residual power first - in a couple of days it should be safer to work with but still, take care with it. It is possible to safely discharge them - ask a local EE if you're not sure.
Back on topic... My panaflos came in yesterday and only had the chance today to give it a new home As stated earlier in this thread, I purchased 2 80mm panaflos but realized later that my antec psu has 1 80mm, and 1 90mm fan.. I removed the loud 90mm fan so my PSU currently only has the low CFM panaflo. (I remounted the PSU upside down so the bottom "blowhole" is now fanless and facing the top of the case) Upon firing up my computer, the noise level seems almost identical before the fan swap!! It is a tad softer without the 90mm but STILL the new fan makes the PSU sound like a refrigerator The fan sounds silent when tested out in open air, but once mounted and confined to the PSU, the noise is generated again. Can anyone help? Is this the sound of air flowing thru the PSU vents or fan vibrations? As of now, this sound is tolerable but I know after a week or so, the constant droning will drive me nuts! Would it also be safe to run this 350W PSU fanless? HELP!!!
Have no idea what I did... Just unplugged everything, pulled out the PSU, put it back in and plugged everything back in and she's silent as a whisper now! The HSF is the loudest at a slight hum (25dB approximation) and I can hear the occasional tapping sound of the HDD reading but once the H2O cooling is setup, noise levels will be limited to fans on heatercores.. won 2 heatercores off ebay for a total of $29 which will be placed in a soundproof shroud or several feet away from my desk which will help control the noise edit>> actually... figured it out.. forgot to plug in my video card cooler that time which was the real culprit for making all that noise...
