I have a Sparkle 300W with the 120mm fan (FSP300-60PN) and the 120mm fan runs very loud since my power supply is getting warm. Is it a good idea to switch it to a Nexus 120mm fan even at this temperature?


And I will like to know if the Sparkle 300W is quieter than the Coolermaster Real Power 450W?

Thanks

Hello & Welcome to SPCR!

What brand is the fan -- if it like the Fortron Source (who make the Sparkle, IINM), then the fan is a Yate Loon medium speed unit (~1650RPM). Yate Loon make the Nexus, and it is a special "extra" low speed model (1000RPM). So yes it would be quieter, but the real cause of the noise is that the case is too warm. That is unless the fan controller is significantly different than the FS -- it *should* be able to run slow enough to be very quiet.

What is your case, and how is it set up for fans?

If it's running hot you shouldn't really drop the flow through it with a quieter fan. Perhaps better airflow elsewhere venting case heat away through an exhaust would limit the heat through the PSU thus making the fan run slower.

Sparkles are the same same as fortrons. Do you know for sure that 300 watt FSP's all use D12SMs? Cause I have a 350 watter that came with a D12SH - 2200rpm.

I had a 120mm Fortron 300w FSP300-60PN(A)PF, the fan controller spun up to 8-9v at a fairly moderate load, it then stayed there and was loud to be fair.

The fan that was in mine was a Yate Loon 120mm D12SM-12 but was a slightly different fan from what we normally see, the fan hub is bigger and is not that quiet at 5v, could be the ball bearing version?

Here's a pic:



So anyway I ran the psu with an evercool 120mm at 5v(~30cfm) wired externally. Air coming out the removed grill was fairly warm. Ran it for just under a year. Was much quieter, but no way near as quiet as my current older gen seasonic 300watter w/ 80mm L1A (never goes over ~5.5v).

I can't guarantee it'll be safe, but mine seemed alright.

That hub looks huge, 6cm or so. It looks like an AC fan. It must be a tripple ball bearing version or something.

D12SM-12
DC; 12 Volt; Sleave bearing; Medium speed; 120mm

So definately not a ball bearing nor an AC model. Just a different model as we are used to.

I didn't mean to say that it might be an AC fan, just that it very similar.

I missed the details in model number, but I did hear that a lot of "sleeve bearing" fans in PSU's are ball and sleeve bearing. So I don't think it's impossible that this could be a single ball and double sleeve bearing fan, or something like that. Or maybe it's a tripple sleeve bearing fan, that would probably be very good for reliability at lower speeds.