3 excellent mods for PSU

[powergyoza]

After finishing the mods that I wrote about here, I became more annoyed with the noise from my modded Antec SmartPower 400W PSU. The NMB 18cfm fan was still spinning @ 10.5V even though I had a intake duct to bring in fresh cool air.

I needed to mod some more and did 3 things:

1. enlarge the intake duct and vent opening for better airflow
2. make a custom fan control circuit to allow for lower fan speeds
3. move the fan outside to reduce turbulence

Eventually, I may cover the vent with modder's mesh for better looks. The duct is simpler than the one I wrote about - no complicated seams or folds. Just a scrap of yoga mat that I got from a local alternative art supply store.





I built a custom fan control circuit developed by NotSilentYet (http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewt ... =6243#6243). It allow me to run the fan (now a Panaflo L1A) as low as 4.5V - 5V.




I moved the fan outside to minimize the turbulence caused by having the fan too close to obstructions like the heatsink and capacitors.
EDIT: The fan was attached like this:


Things are quieter now. I've set the potentiometer to keep the fan spinning slower than before. At my current setting, the fan spins at ~6.8V and the exhaust is only 33C (ambient @ 22C). The noise is less than before. Now to refocus on my hard drives.

UPDATE: I've turned the fan down further. It's @ ~5 volts and the exhaust temp varies between 35 - 37C