Did I make a mistake with my PSU fan?

[Candor]

I just disconnected my 120mm XClio PSU fan from the inside, cut the 2-pin connection, spliced it to a molex connected to another coming from the 2nd of 3 fans on a fanmate set at 5v. Everything seems to be fine, and I've been using it for nearly a week. However, it's (maybe) a pretty extreme way to quiet the PSU fan. It never changed RPMs even at load, by the way.

So, I'm hoping that maybe someone can tell me whether this is bad for my PSU. Plus, how many fans can I have daisy-chained to a fanmate before it's a bad idea? And, well, was the PSU really giving the fan much more than 5v anyway? It only quieted the thing down a little, and I can get it to be just as noisy by turning the fanmate up just a teensy bit.

I could post pics, but hopefully the description is good enough.

Thanks.

[dukla2000]

So, I'm hoping that maybe someone can tell me whether this is bad for my PSU.

IMHO probably not. Most off-the-shelf components (your psu in this case) are engineered for extreme conditions that may not be what you are providing.

The bottom line is temperatures: your psu probably has an ambient spec of around 40 centigrade and max power spec of 400W: as long as the air in your case is under (say) 30 and you are probably running under 200W your mod is likely to be fine, but you do need to be aware that the 'limit' of your mod is the temps of the heatsink components.

Then again there are (at least) 2 gotchas:
1) While the fan starts at 5V today it may not next month/year: you need to either engineer for this degradation (a circuit that starts at 12V and then drops to 5V is preferable) or be prepared to accept the consequences. From my sig you can see I am content with the consequences Obviously having done this mod your warranty is now that if it breaks, you own both parts!
2) You need to consider to what extent the psu fan is concerned with the case cooling: if it is then the temps you are playing with include those of components in the case and not just those in the psu.

Good luck.

[HammerSandwich]

...spliced it to a molex connected to another coming from the 2nd of 3 fans on a fanmate set at 5v.

Take care in hooking multiple fans to one Fan Mate. The unit is rated for 6W, so it's probably okay at 5V, but don't ignore this.

[Candor]

Thanks a lot. My temps are actually pretty good, so I think I'll be alright. I'm at about 27-33 ambient. The PSU seems to stay cool even at load, and still has decent airflow running through it. I'm in my case every other day roughly, so I'll probably notice if the fans stop running.

Thanks a bunch for the replies.