WARNING to 7V fan modders
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:57 pm
Most of you will be familiar with the 7V mod, and the accompanying possibility of damaging the PSU.
However, there is little talk of other dangers, specifically; what happens when the 7v mod is used when the fan's molex adapter also has a male 3 pin attached to the motherboard with a ground wire on it (like this).
I was experimenting with a very similar adapter this evening when I accidentally discovered exactly what happens in this situation:
As you might expect, this released quite a significant amount of smoke during the 3 seconds it was turned on for, and as my head was behind the motherboard tray at the time (yes, tinkering while it was on ) I saw the smoke coming out of the PSU exhaust and feared the worst. I was then delighted to discover that I'd only burned the adapter.
Lesson: When mucking about with power leads and plugging them into things the wrong way round; make completely sure that you aren't about to do something regrettable!
Side note: the 80mm Akasa Emperor Blue fan (which is actually a bit quieter than the Nexus) that was attached to said adapter is now making a very noticeable buzzing noise and spinning about 100 RPM faster than it originally did. I', still happy because its quite a lot cheaper than the PSU I thought I'd blown!
However, there is little talk of other dangers, specifically; what happens when the 7v mod is used when the fan's molex adapter also has a male 3 pin attached to the motherboard with a ground wire on it (like this).
I was experimenting with a very similar adapter this evening when I accidentally discovered exactly what happens in this situation:
As you might expect, this released quite a significant amount of smoke during the 3 seconds it was turned on for, and as my head was behind the motherboard tray at the time (yes, tinkering while it was on ) I saw the smoke coming out of the PSU exhaust and feared the worst. I was then delighted to discover that I'd only burned the adapter.
Lesson: When mucking about with power leads and plugging them into things the wrong way round; make completely sure that you aren't about to do something regrettable!
Side note: the 80mm Akasa Emperor Blue fan (which is actually a bit quieter than the Nexus) that was attached to said adapter is now making a very noticeable buzzing noise and spinning about 100 RPM faster than it originally did. I', still happy because its quite a lot cheaper than the PSU I thought I'd blown!