Easy to do, and might be very effective..

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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ez2remember
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Easy to do, and might be very effective..

Post by ez2remember » Mon Feb 17, 2003 4:42 pm

I have always believed pushing air through a power supply is more effective than trying to suck hot air out. A good example is with CPU heatsinks where blowing is certainly more effective than flipping the fan upside down.

My ears has become even more sensitive to noise since my PC has gone very quiet now. My friends and relatives were quite suprised how quiet my PC is, they say they can't hear it and call it silent. I have to disagree, the lightest of sounds to me seems to be louder than before.

I mean I can still sleep with it on @2m away but I can hear it. Oh god I am suffering a sympton? Nah quite good fun modding and getting rewards of near silence.

I modded my PSU with a panaflo @ 7v but it's too noisy for me. I can clearly hear a big difference if I stop the fan altogether. This is mainly due to air impedance inside a cluttered PSU. I have thought about suggestion of taken the fan outside of the PSU, but too me this will only take it 1inch away from components. Will this be quiet enough? hmm..

So here is my idea, why not flip the fan around and secondly flip the PSU so it now sticks out of the case. Okay it won't look great but it will be pretty easy to do since you can just screw it from the inside of your case. Now you have ample of space for your heat generating components; this will allow for better airflow and secondly the fan is now blowing through the PSU and heat is going out.

__________
|. . . . . . . . . .| [||PSU] ---airflow-->>
|. . . . . . . . . .|
|. . . . . . . . . .|
|. . . . . . . . . .|
|. . . . . . . . . .|
|_________|
^^ . . . . . . . ^^
front--------- back of case

Look at the two vertical lines suppose to be the fan.

Explanation of PSU
=============

Was exhaust side (fan flipped)-> [||PSU] <-intake vent, now exhaust
-------------------------------------- airflow ------------------------->>>


I think I will give this a bash tomorrow and probably lower the panaflo to 5v if it can keep the PSU cooler than my previous setup.

Hey, any idea where I should place a thermometer to test if my PSU is more effective this way?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

El_Duderino
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Post by El_Duderino » Tue Feb 18, 2003 4:17 am

Excuse me for being dense, but I don't think I've got a clear idea of what you are doing? You got a picture or two? :-)

ChiefWeasel
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Post by ChiefWeasel » Tue Feb 18, 2003 4:25 am

You'll need pretty long power cables tho wont you? And some place to put them thru the case... dont think mine would reach that far. Assuming i right in thinking that the power cables would now be sticking out of the back of the computer? Also you would need to feed the mains power cable into the computer so it will plug intto the PSU?

ez2remember
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Post by ez2remember » Tue Feb 18, 2003 6:03 am

El_Duderino wrote:Excuse me for being dense, but I don't think I've got a clear idea of what you are doing? You got a picture or two? :-)
Sorry dude I really should invest in a digital camera.. I have not got pictures.

1) What I am saying is you turn the fan inside your power supply so it is now facing the other direction. So now it is pushing air through the PSU and air will come out of what normally should be the intake vents.

2. Now the fun part comes, you now turn your PSU 180 degrees and mount the PSU on the outside of your case. So what was your exhaust is now your intake, and what was normally the intake vents becomes your exhaust. Have a close look at the ASCII drawing again, I think you will get it.

Regarding the cable lengths yes you might need extensions, but for me I got too much cable and would cleans things up inside. I heard Enermax PSU has very long cables, would be perfect for those who have it. Yes you would need the cables to go back in somewhere, for me I would go in either through a PCI slot or go in through where all the mobo connectors are: parrallel, serial, USB etc. There is a backplate there that can easily be removed. I would also cable them underneath the mobo if you have long enough cables. Clean and tidy this way.

El_Duderino
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Post by El_Duderino » Tue Feb 18, 2003 7:49 am

Interesting. That's exactly what I thought you did, but my next thought was "No way he did THAT"... :-)

Ok, so let us know how it turns out.

ChiefWeasel
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Post by ChiefWeasel » Tue Feb 18, 2003 8:08 am

You sure you'll be able to fit the connectors thru the case? The ATX connector and mains connector are pretty big, not sure if i could find a hole big enough to get them thru... unless you were thinking of unwiring them?

I'd thought of doing something similar to this, but fixing the PSU on the back of the computer vertically. So that the intake and exhaust were both exposed to 'outside' air. This would create a vertical chimney thru which you could draw cool air.

................^...... Airflow out of PSU
________----
|.............||..| <-PSU
|.............||..|
|.............|----
|.............|.^.. Air into PSU
|.............| <-Case
________

The dashed lines '---' are the grills on the PSU and the fan draws the air upwards thru the PSU. So not only does the PSU get colder 'outside' air, the cooling is helped by convection too.

ez2remember
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Post by ez2remember » Wed Feb 19, 2003 4:02 pm

Yep I have also thought on similar lines but just maybe sitting on a bit of foam on top of my case. Anyway your way is more effective. The only thing is how do I mount the PSU to the side? It's pretty heavy.

I think I will definetely do some kind of mod to the PSU, to me this and my FDB drive on foam is the only thing that makes any noise now. Also I did not even notice before my monitor actually has a very low buzz which was droaned out by my modded PSU with panaflo @ 7v. If I stop the PSU fan I can hear it.. I deal with that later for now I will concentrate on my PSU.

jinu117
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Post by jinu117 » Thu Feb 20, 2003 11:52 am

So... you would like to dump hotter air into case (especially with 7v fan vs 12 stock).
Good luck... (I hope you have decent set of exhaust in case right around PSU fan)

ez2remember
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Post by ez2remember » Thu Feb 20, 2003 12:37 pm

jinu117 wrote:So... you would like to dump hotter air into case (especially with 7v fan vs 12 stock).
Good luck... (I hope you have decent set of exhaust in case right around PSU fan)
Who said about dumping hot air into the case? I think you missed what we were discussing about. We are taking the PSU completely out of the case.. :D

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