Fan mod on NorthQ NQ4775-400 Ultra Silent PSU

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:06 pm

I have said PSU (NorthQ NQ4775-400 Ultra Silent PSU) in my case .. I want to see if I can silence it a little more - it's already ok quiet, but it's the loudest part of my setup, except for my Raptor HDD (which will go in a Scythe Quiet Drive soon).

Anyways; this PSU has a Yate Loon 140 mm Fan in it, namely a D14SM-12, sleeve bearing, medium speed fan. I'm wondering if I can just swap it for a D14SL-12, which is the low speed fan, rated at 25 dB, compared to 29 dB for the current fan. Surely it has less air flow (1000 cfm compared to 1400 cfm), but is this something to worry about?

Anything I should know before doing this? I'd love to hear from people who have done similar mods to their PSU!

Thanks,
Anders

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:08 pm

By the way great forum!!
Additional information:
Yate Loon: http://www.yateloon.com/detail/38839/38839.html
NorthQ NQ4775-400 Ultra Silent PSU review with pics: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Nor ... lation.htm

williamn6133 · Post by **williamn6133** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 4:49 pm

I have replaced two 120mm PSU fans in my time.

My Seasonic 330W currently has a Scythe fan fitted to it, which spins extremely slowly. The air coming out is certainly warmer than before, but I am not too worried. (Apart from the fact that the fan won't start without a little nudge, for which reason I want to replace it.)

Rackafella · Post by **Rackafella** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:56 am

I would do the change. Cant belive that it would be a problem.
Or if you dont want to spend money on a new fan, just rewire the old one to 5 or 7v from a molex instead of the internal connection. (then the fan wont go up and down in speed)

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:33 am

Okay, thanks, so nothing to worry about in terms of excessive heat?? I hope they overbuilt the fan, so I won't have any problems with the lower rated one.

williamn6133 · Post by **williamn6133** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:52 am

As long as nothing else in your tower is on fire you should be fine.

I actually ran my last power supply without the fan spinning at all for a while (I didn't realise at the time). It would only cause a shut down when running power hungry things (games, full screen DVD's at 1680x1050) for 25 mins on average. But then I had a decent case fan and my other temps were healthy.

So give it a go, if you experience unexplained shut downs (I doubt it, but you might), then re think.

Monitoring other temps can help you understand how temperature influences your PC's operation. I use the following tools, because I hate speedfan and rivatuner.

Core Temp (for my intel chip)
MobMeter (hard disks)
VDOTool / Nvidia monitor (for GPU temp)

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:51 pm

Okay, I'm just worried about burning down the house with a PSU with a void warranty, lol!

But it seems like it shouldn't be a problem, from what you guys say.

By the way, I am already monitoring all temps (except PSU temp) with lm-sensors under Linux.

Gonna get rubber mounts for the fan and one of those silicon PSU-mount gasket'ish thingys too. Hope this'll shut up my PSU! Thanks!

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 3:11 am

Ahh, went ahead and did the fan swap just now. The difference is immense!! I thought that it was my Raptor making all that noise. Turns out that it was my PSU that was the primary source of noise. Ahh, guys, I can't tell you how happy I am with this mod. It's like a completely new PC! Now I can't wait to get Scythe quiet drives for my two HDD's. The Raptor has some sharp seek noises I'd like to get rid of and the secondary (Always forgets whether it's a Samsung or Seagate - think it's a Samsung 7200 point something) has a nastier spinning sound, but inaudible seek noises.

I have two 120 mm fans, 1 intake and 1 exhaust, plus a 80 mm intake right above the Ninja HSF, so I should have plenty of air flow to not make the PSU overheat. Plus it's rated at 450 W, I think my computer would draw 150-200 Watts MAX, which is way below any critical load, in terms of heating up the CPU. All case/cpu are running at 5V - the PSU fan is soldered to the wires for it's predecessor, with the yellow leg put into the "PWR FAN_1" plug on the motherboard.

Thanks guys for the help, it's so great when you achieve something like this. I mean .. makes my day so much better, haha.

williamn6133 · Post by **williamn6133** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:28 am

Monumental day Strid. So happy for you. Super. Let me know if the power supply exploded into a smoulder creator will you?

Hah hah, just teasing.

You know what to do about the hard disks right? The answer is in my sig.

SUSPEND THAT BABY!

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:49 am

williamn6133 wrote:Monumental day Strid. So happy for you. Super. Let me know if the power supply exploded into a smoulder creator will you?

Hah hah, just teasing.

You know what to do about the hard disks right? The answer is in my sig.
SUSPEND THAT BABY!

Haha, no molten lava flowing from the bottom of the bottom of the case yet, lol. Already ordered a Scythe suspension kit for the Seagate hard drive and a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure for the Raptor. I figured that was the way to go, since the Raptor has loud seeks, but quiet spinning, while the opposite is true for the Seagate - the seeks are barely audible, but the spin is loud and you can feel it if you put your hand on the case innards.

Now, only thing left to order is a E8400 processor, MB and RAM, when I get my next pay check, lol. Also reseated my Ninja with Arctic Silver 5 and shaved a couple of degrees off my CPU temps. Great stuff. Dang, the Ninja mounting on socket 939 is really really sucky.

Thanks, man! m

williamn6133 · Post by **williamn6133** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:56 am

Strid wrote:Haha, no molten lava flowing from the bottom of the bottom of the case yet, lol. Already ordered a Scythe suspension kit for the Seagate hard drive and a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure for the Raptor. I figured that was the way to go, since the Raptor has loud seeks, but quiet spinning, while the opposite is true for the Seagate - the seeks are barely audible, but the spin is loud and you can feel it if you put your hand on the case innards.

Now, only thing left to order is a E8400 processor, MB and RAM, when I get my next pay check, lol. Also reseated my Ninja with Arctic Silver 5 and shaved a couple of degrees off my CPU temps. Great stuff.

Thanks, man!

My pleasure. ;D

Hey let me know how that HDD enclosure gets on. I have heard that they were s-h-i-t.

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:58 am

Shh, don't tell me. I just spent a evenings worth of drinking money on that thang. I'll let you now!