Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

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

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Tealc99
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:54 am

Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by Tealc99 » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:14 am

I'm after a little bit of advise please.

I recently got gifted a FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold PSU which I am happy with in every respect apart from noise. I thought FSP would go with a non aggressive fan profile for this considering the most it will ever need to dissipate as heat is just 70W.

I have an Antec P183 so the PSU is mounted in the separate chamber, along with 3 hard drives and a slow moving (700 rpm) fan.

Anyway I've done some temperature measurement and the difference between Internal and External is just 1 degree Centigrade at idle (130W) rising to 4 degrees at load (350W). The lower chamber warms up a touch while at load to around 3 degrees extra over idle temperature. I don't know much about temperature differences other than those we see on SPCR PSU reviews but I would say these temperature differences are pretty good.

The original fan as far as I can tell is a 120mm x 25mm variant Protechnic MGA 12012HF-A25 which has a maximum rotational speed of a frankly ridiculous 2400rpm and output of 84.8cfm.

So what should I go with? Something around 2,000 or maybe more towards 1,600 rpm?

What's the best alternative to the 1600rpm S-Flex these days? I've already modded an OCZ/FSP SXS 600W with a S-Flex 1600.

Many thanks for your help.

Teal'c

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:57 am

Enermax Magma.

lodestar
Posts: 1683
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by lodestar » Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:16 am

You almost certainly need a fan with a low start voltage, but probably not 2400 rpm max. Suggest the Scythe Kama Flow 2 1900 rpm SP1225FDB12H model as reviewed here http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cooler ... html#sect0.

Tealc99
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:54 am

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by Tealc99 » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:27 pm

Thanks guys.

I'm going with the Enermax Magma simply because I can't seem to source the Kama Flow 2 in the UK and the S-flex are nowhere to be seen. The Magma is quite a bit lower in rpm so I'm going to monitor temperature differences again and if it's uncomfortably high I will look towards a 1700-1800rpm fan.

lodestar
Posts: 1683
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by lodestar » Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:27 am

Yes, some models of Scythe fan can be hard to find in the UK. I have bought Scythe fans from Euro/UK traders such as this one http://www.comeuro.net/webshop/product. ... 659&page=6, partly because the prices even with delivery have been quite reasonable.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:37 am

Tealc99 wrote:TThe Magma is quite a bit lower in rpm so I'm going to monitor temperature differences again and if it's uncomfortably high I will look towards a 1700-1800rpm fan.
The Magma is rated to give more CFM than almost any 1600-1900rpm low noise fan (including those two Scythe), and it's rated at 85°C (the other fans are not, the most resilient Scythe should be the Gentle Typhoon rated at 60°C but with halved MTBF, 55.000hrs instead of 100.000hrs): as a matter of fact, the Magma is the fan used in renowned Enermax PSUs, so I'm fairly confident you should not have any issue with it, for that particular job.

Tealc99
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:54 am

Re: Fan swap on FSP Aurum 700W 80 Plus Gold

Post by Tealc99 » Fri Apr 08, 2011 1:58 am

Went ahead and did the mod with the Magma.

Before.
Image

After.
Image

It looks much nicer now. Speeds are <1000rpm which is great. I ran the speed sense wire into the case but the only fan header available that monitors speed is tucked underneath the bottom PCI-E slot, why oh why do motherboard designers stick the fan headers in stupid places.

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