SPCR

I just picked up a Shuttle SB51G refurbished from newegg for $150 shipped (not a bad deal if I do say so myself) and have instantly grown to hate that little psu fan. I am about to order a Panaflo L1A and a Fanmate to take care of the case fan, but the power supply noise still remains a problem. I have thought of 3 solutions so far and would be open to any suggestions or comments. (p.s. im a starvin college student so money is tight, so im trying to fix this as cheaply as possible).

1. Add a second 40mm fan to the psu and try and reduce both of their speed to try and copy the Shuttle Silent X power supply.
2. Most desireable option -> Somehow trade in my 200watt psu for a Silent X psu. (Someone else on this forum did this, and I really want to know how).
3. Mod my psu to be fanless. I have 3 large heatsinks laying around from such things as a radeon 9700pro, a P4, and an old PII. I was thinking I could hack them up and have some big headsinks sticking out of the back of the case or possibly make the whole psu external to improve the passive cooling. My only question about this one is, can it be done safely and reliably? I don't want to burn my apartment down.

Thanks!

I would say option 1 is possible. Obviously option 2 is the easiest option.

But option 3 - in my opinion no way. I cant see the 200W psu running fanless successfully no matter how many heatsinks you have lying around. The case temps in a shuttle would be too high to accommodate a fanless psu. Hence the reason, the ST62K's fanless psu is external.

spazmo wrote:possibly make the whole psu external to improve the passive cooling

I was open to making it external, because the case would be too hot and small. But the question still stands, could this be done safely?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 005&depa=0

Quite a bit better I think. I also replaced the ice fan for a Panaflo.

#2 is the safest solution, IMHO. Anything else, and you're risk hurting or destroying your power supply, and possibly yourself if the capacitors aren't fully discharged.

MikeC does the external power supply, but with normal computers rather than Shuttle SFFs. It should be relatively easy to do this, but who knows how effective it would be in quieting the power supply.

Swap out the fan in your PSU for an ADDA 0412MS-G70, I did this in a SN41G2 and it was silent and completely stable.
The fan can be found in the UK from Ultim8pc.com, or you can get it in the US in the CompUSA Chipset Cooler Kit.