I've read the articles about replacing the fan, and moving the thermal doohickey in a stock Enermax PSU.
I'm finally done exams, and ready to mod the noisy Antec SmartPower in the 3700AMB. I have more time than $, so not looking to do a fan swap yet. So far my options are:
1. Remove the 92mm entirely, cover up the hole on the bottom, enlarge the holes opposite the fan, and either move the thermal doohickey or hard wire it for 5v.
2. Remove the 80mm entirely, make more holes at the back of the PSU, cover up all holes except the intake for the 92mm, and either 5v or run off the thermal doohickey. (Kind of a budget version of a 120mm PSU).
Any thoughts or experiences? My thinking is that leaving the 92mm in just makes more sense. Would a single 92mm at 5v likely be enough to keep the thing running cool enough?
Stock PSU mod alternatives push or pull the air?
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The 92mm fan that comes with it will probaby be OK at 5v, but I dont know much about the design of the SmartPower PSU - if it has small heatsinks or runs hot it may not suffice. Could you post a pic of the PSUs internals?
I would suggest you leave the 92mm fan in there as it moves more air per dB and as its further in the case it should be pretty quiet at 5v.
Q: Do you have the specs of the 92mm fan? Or a model number. This way we can project/estimate what the airflow will be like at 5v.
I would suggest you leave the 92mm fan in there as it moves more air per dB and as its further in the case it should be pretty quiet at 5v.
Q: Do you have the specs of the 92mm fan? Or a model number. This way we can project/estimate what the airflow will be like at 5v.
The 92mm is a "Top Motor" brand (Dynaeon Industrial OEM) DF1209SH. The 80mm is the same OEM, DF1208SH. Same model minus the size. So it seems evident that the 92 will move more air/db.
The heatsink internals are none too impressive compared to a quality PSU. No pics, sorry. I think I am going to run just the 92 for now, and worry about undervolting later. See how it runs before going any further. It does seem to run a little hot. Immediately after turning off the computer, the PSU case is warm, but not hot, to the touch.
The heatsink internals are none too impressive compared to a quality PSU. No pics, sorry. I think I am going to run just the 92 for now, and worry about undervolting later. See how it runs before going any further. It does seem to run a little hot. Immediately after turning off the computer, the PSU case is warm, but not hot, to the touch.
Re: Stock PSU mod alternatives push or pull the air?
Definitely #1. You don't want the warm rising air from the CPU to go through the PSU. Rather, you want the rear case fan to exhaust CPU air, and the PSU fan to cool just the PSU. Closing the hole on the bottom gives you that.mrzed wrote:So far my options are:
1. Remove the 92mm entirely, cover up the hole on the bottom, enlarge the holes opposite the fan, and either move the thermal doohickey or hard wire it for 5v.
2. Remove the 80mm entirely, make more holes at the back of the PSU, cover up all holes except the intake for the 92mm, and either 5v or run off the thermal doohickey. (Kind of a budget version of a 120mm PSU).
Any thoughts or experiences?
You can take this one step further and build the PSU duct. See recent related thread for details.
I was wondering about that. It seems logical, but the rise of the 120mm PSU craze has made me wonder.
I was already planning on ducting the PSU to an empty bay, as mentioned by MikeC and the other thread you pointed out. That's the long term solution. The short term is already done, I removed the 80 (it may go back in after the ducting mod) and now the result is similar airflow with slightly less noise.
The main problem is the restrictive fan grille on the AMB, which is getting cut out this weekend. I'm positive that aside from the noise, the reduced airflow is having a direct impact on PSU temps with the current setup.
I was already planning on ducting the PSU to an empty bay, as mentioned by MikeC and the other thread you pointed out. That's the long term solution. The short term is already done, I removed the 80 (it may go back in after the ducting mod) and now the result is similar airflow with slightly less noise.
The main problem is the restrictive fan grille on the AMB, which is getting cut out this weekend. I'm positive that aside from the noise, the reduced airflow is having a direct impact on PSU temps with the current setup.
Well, for now I'm running with just the 92mm. I haven't volt modded yet, but the air coming out the back feels about the same temp as before.
After finally getting around to cutting out my rear 120 fan grille, it's even better. I'm certain that the reduced airflow through the stock grille was forcing too much CPU heat through the more open PSU path. I'll keep it like this until I get around to the ducting mods later in the season.
After finally getting around to cutting out my rear 120 fan grille, it's even better. I'm certain that the reduced airflow through the stock grille was forcing too much CPU heat through the more open PSU path. I'll keep it like this until I get around to the ducting mods later in the season.