hiya guys.
i got few heaters in my system:
p3 1ghz fc-pga
western digital 120gb 8mb special edition hdd
radeon 9000 non-pro fanless
asus cusl2 motherboard
only fan now is panaflo @ 5v in my zalman and 90mm zalman fan that came with my cnps-6000cu cpu heatsink (that's been undervolted at 5v with zm-mc and more undervolted with the fanmate connected at 5v turned all the way down)--i'm guessing the actual voltage would be around 4v.
what is considered a break-in period for the psu? i mean... cpu will no longer work..... so do i run the system until i hear a loud 'pop' from the psu? i can barely feel the air coming outside from the zalman psu so i know airflow if any is very very low. i'm little worried.... but would feel lot better if someone can tell me they have a similiar or higher powered system working fine with psu fan at 5v.
thanks all.
zalman with panaflo @ 5v. worried.
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar
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Ralf Hutter
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Have you tried the Panaflo at 7 volts? Is it an 80mm L1A? I can't believe you'd be able to hear it at 7 volts. That's 9dB according to the SilentPCReview Fan Database, and at least you'd get some more air flow through your PSU.
How about something 5-volted on the back of your case wall to create a little air flow through your case? That way the PSU isn't bearing the brunt of the work. Right now you're depending on the 5-volted Panaflo to get rid of the heat produced by the PSU, CPU, HDD and vidcard and the poor Panaflo just can't keep up.
How about something 5-volted on the back of your case wall to create a little air flow through your case? That way the PSU isn't bearing the brunt of the work. Right now you're depending on the 5-volted Panaflo to get rid of the heat produced by the PSU, CPU, HDD and vidcard and the poor Panaflo just can't keep up.
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MikeC
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Nobody is quite 100% sure about those numbers, but even if they are correct, remember that the fan is in a PSU with all those impedances. My perception, generally, is that the PSU is the place that most accentuates fan noise. I would guess a 50% increase in noise to be typical when you stick a fan inside (spinning at any speed). 5V is still audible, as is 7 whne then Panaflo is inside the PSU.That's 9dB according to the SilentPCReview Fan Database,
This is one reason I am about to try playing with decouple mounting a Panaflo or similar on the OUTside of the PSU so that it is not as close to the impedances inside. Maybe the noise can be dropped further w/no heat expense or heat dropped without increase in noise.
Having said all that, how is that Panaflo undervolted in the PSU? Is it off a steady state 5V line or still tied to the thermistor? If the latter, then you're reasonably safe, at least the CFM goes up when the temp does. If not, then it's not as safe. Depends a lot on your particulars -- room temp, case temp, how us push the system, etc...
An alternative worth trying if you're solder savvy is to go back to tghe thermistor circuit, and use it with an additional ~25ohms in series with the original fan that was in the Zalman PSU to bring the default voltage down to 4.5V or lower. I have found this fan to sometimes be quieter than the Panaflo when run this way -- and certainly capable of ramping up to much higher speeds.
Temps?
The most important thing is making sure the temperature inside the PSU / Case doesn't rise (too far) above the manufacturer's set threshold. Is the air coming out of the PSU hot?
OK, and the onslaught of questions... is it a 150 Watt stock PS, or a 300 W enermax? What is the ambient temperature in the room? How old is the computer? How far away do you sit from the computer? What is the internal running temperature?
I personally ran a 150 W stock PS with a 20 CFM panaflo (there are different types) at 12v on a P3/800 with 2 Maxtor 5400 drives and 2 CD/RW drives, but ran into crashes / freezes if I tried to undervolt other components... I think this had more to do with the draw than the heat, but YMMV.
Quite honestly, I can't hear 5v panaflos at all... not unless my ear is physically pressed up against the medium the fan is attached to. This is probably due to living in the city. If you are worried about airflow through the PSU, why not include an intake panaflo as well as an exhaust?
And have you though of putting sound-absorption material on the wall behind the computer, then ramping that fan up to 7v?
-C
OK, and the onslaught of questions... is it a 150 Watt stock PS, or a 300 W enermax? What is the ambient temperature in the room? How old is the computer? How far away do you sit from the computer? What is the internal running temperature?
I personally ran a 150 W stock PS with a 20 CFM panaflo (there are different types) at 12v on a P3/800 with 2 Maxtor 5400 drives and 2 CD/RW drives, but ran into crashes / freezes if I tried to undervolt other components... I think this had more to do with the draw than the heat, but YMMV.
Quite honestly, I can't hear 5v panaflos at all... not unless my ear is physically pressed up against the medium the fan is attached to. This is probably due to living in the city. If you are worried about airflow through the PSU, why not include an intake panaflo as well as an exhaust?
And have you though of putting sound-absorption material on the wall behind the computer, then ramping that fan up to 7v?
-C
Hello guys! thanks for your replyas
-ralf hutter - at 7v, i can hear it distinctively. at 5v, it's DEFINITELY at a virtual silence level, but i can still hear it in a very quiet room at night. and in a normal situation, i can hear it if i concentrated 2-3 seconds to hear it. i thought of putting the last panaflo i got as an exhaust fan so it'll take heat made by the cpu away from the psu. but i just don't have any good measuring stick for the psu temp... whether it'll be okay then to run the psu fan at 5v indefinitely. so that's a dilemma. now i've set the psu fan at 7v, it's loud but would be much quieter and less expensive than the big bang i may hear if i were to run the psu fan at 5v for a long time.
-mike, it's set at 5v from zalman's multiconnector (so permanently at 5v). well now it's at 7v (the black connector with zalman) by the way, is black connector 7v? noise difference is huge. maybe it's at 12v, which i can believe. my soldering iron's handle just melted off from the metal stick so i need to go purchase some decent iron this time. but yea that's no problem and it's a solution i'll try in the future. it's interesting to find that zalman stock fan is actually quieter... because the sucker was louder than the panaflo at 12v. well i thought so... maybe not... i didn't mean to directly compare them... so my memory could've been little subjective at the times. resistor sounds like a good idea.... do i just go to radio shack and just ask for 25ohm resistor? and solder two metal part sticking out to the red wire between the fan and the power and shrink wrap it? i got load of shrinkwrap from frys... i don't think i can ever run out of those.... as long as i'm shrinkwrapping relatively thin wires oh by is there any directionality with resistors?
seishino- at 5v, you can't really feel any air coming out... plus it's freezing here and my hand will sense any warmth if it's warmer than 0*C. i got 300w zalman psu.... what is a psu power failure like? it just powers down? or what's the story? i just don't want to do any permanent damage to the psu... but i'm willing to push it to a reversible level of 'thermal meltdown' figuratively speaking of course.
-ralf hutter - at 7v, i can hear it distinctively. at 5v, it's DEFINITELY at a virtual silence level, but i can still hear it in a very quiet room at night. and in a normal situation, i can hear it if i concentrated 2-3 seconds to hear it. i thought of putting the last panaflo i got as an exhaust fan so it'll take heat made by the cpu away from the psu. but i just don't have any good measuring stick for the psu temp... whether it'll be okay then to run the psu fan at 5v indefinitely. so that's a dilemma. now i've set the psu fan at 7v, it's loud but would be much quieter and less expensive than the big bang i may hear if i were to run the psu fan at 5v for a long time.
-mike, it's set at 5v from zalman's multiconnector (so permanently at 5v). well now it's at 7v (the black connector with zalman) by the way, is black connector 7v? noise difference is huge. maybe it's at 12v, which i can believe. my soldering iron's handle just melted off from the metal stick so i need to go purchase some decent iron this time. but yea that's no problem and it's a solution i'll try in the future. it's interesting to find that zalman stock fan is actually quieter... because the sucker was louder than the panaflo at 12v. well i thought so... maybe not... i didn't mean to directly compare them... so my memory could've been little subjective at the times. resistor sounds like a good idea.... do i just go to radio shack and just ask for 25ohm resistor? and solder two metal part sticking out to the red wire between the fan and the power and shrink wrap it? i got load of shrinkwrap from frys... i don't think i can ever run out of those.... as long as i'm shrinkwrapping relatively thin wires
oh by is there any directionality with resistors?seishino- at 5v, you can't really feel any air coming out... plus it's freezing here and my hand will sense any warmth if it's warmer than 0*C. i got 300w zalman psu.... what is a psu power failure like? it just powers down? or what's the story? i just don't want to do any permanent damage to the psu... but i'm willing to push it to a reversible level of 'thermal meltdown' figuratively speaking of course.
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MikeC
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The black Z-connect has a yellow & a black wire, remember? The yellow almost always carries +12V, & black is always ground. You're running at 12V.
You must have cut the leads from the Zalman? If I recall, it was soldered. Should make it simpler to wire in the resistor -- you can even use heatshrink exclusively to hold it in place and keep it insulated temporarily without soldering. ONLY if you play it REAL safe & cautious. No self-zapping on my acc...
More or less right. "splice it in" somewhere in the red lead. Try higher --30 ohms. Will barely register; may be another 0.1V drop. Resistors are cheap; you can play with a few. Less than 25 ohms is not worth bothering. Fan probably won't start much past 35-40 ohms. (voltage will drop below 4V, I think.)ask for 25ohm resistor? and solder two metal part sticking out to the red wire between the fan and the power and shrink wrap it? i got load of shrinkwrap from frys... is there any directionality with resistors?
You must have cut the leads from the Zalman? If I recall, it was soldered. Should make it simpler to wire in the resistor -- you can even use heatshrink exclusively to hold it in place and keep it insulated temporarily without soldering. ONLY if you play it REAL safe & cautious. No self-zapping on my acc...
zalman
seishino- at 5v, you can't really feel any air coming out... plus it's freezing here and my hand will sense any warmth if it's warmer than 0*C. i got 300w zalman psu.... what is a psu power failure like? it just powers down? or what's the story? i just don't want to do any permanent damage to the psu... but i'm willing to push it to a reversible level of 'thermal meltdown' figuratively speaking of course. [/quote]
Zalman's PSU, according to tom's hardware, shuts down nicely and cleanly when overburdened for voltage. If the PSU is heating up, that should increase resistance and trigger the system, but YMMV. If it is actually 0 C in your room, the PSU should be FINE. Of course, burdening a power supply in such a way shortens the life, so if you are expecting to make this computer into a firewall in ten years...
BTW, I run a PS2 with a 5v panaflo... There is enough cooling to keep it from shutting down if I put the end up. That system probably runs hotter than yours, and with miserable air circulation.
[/quote]Zalman's PSU, according to tom's hardware, shuts down nicely and cleanly when overburdened for voltage. If the PSU is heating up, that should increase resistance and trigger the system, but YMMV. If it is actually 0 C in your room, the PSU should be FINE. Of course, burdening a power supply in such a way shortens the life, so if you are expecting to make this computer into a firewall in ten years...
BTW, I run a PS2 with a 5v panaflo... There is enough cooling to keep it from shutting down if I put the end up. That system probably runs hotter than yours, and with miserable air circulation.
Zalman
I put in a Zalman PSU and was not very happy about it's fan noise, but hesitated about replacing the fan, which will void the warranty.
I finally replaced my Zalman PSU stock fan with a Panaflo, what a difference it makes! To me it's definitely worth voiding the warranty and shortening Zalman's life span, if that ever happens. I did a direct replacement with Radio Shack butt connectors.
I finally replaced my Zalman PSU stock fan with a Panaflo, what a difference it makes!
To me it's definitely worth voiding the warranty and shortening Zalman's life span, if that ever happens. I did a direct replacement with Radio Shack butt connectors.