ASUS Power Supplies

[Grinja]

Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone has any experience or info on ASUS PSU's. I got one bundled with my ASUS P5K Deluxe.

Any ideas on how to slow down the fan speed?

http://za.asus.com/search.aspx...tem=1&searchkey=A-45GA

 

[jonnyGURU]

The fan is thermostatically controlled and shouldn't be running that fast in the first place, unless it's under a lot of load or sucking in a lot of heat.

What's your system specs? What kind of case do you have it in and what's the orientation of the PSU and what other fans do you have in the case and are they doing intake or exhaust?

 

[MarcVenice]

I don't trust thermostatically controlled PSU's ... My coolermaster 650w extreme power was supposed to be 'thermostatically' controlled as well, but that didn't stop it from making more noise then all my casefans together ...

 

[Grinja]

The thing is it has been loud from the get go. I remember switching my rig on for the first time and being very dissapointed. I wanted to have a quiet rig at least when the system was not under load.
It is louder than anything else in my rig period there is no variation to the fan speed hot or cold.

Maybe the thermostat is dead ...

My rig:
Antec Super Lanboy
ASUS P5K Deluxe
Core 2 E6750 @ 3.2 (stock cooling)
4* 1GB OCZ platinum (800)
Asus Radeon 1950 pro

The Case has two 12cm fans (one intake front and one exhaust)
I have an additional 8cm Vantec spot cool over ram and Northbridge

 

[MarcVenice]

Same here, mine never ramped up or down, so I decided to screw it open * long story * and replaced it with an antec tricool 120mm fan, on low setting. In my p182 it's also getting fresh air from another 120mm antec tricool, and the PSU exhaust air doesn't feel hot at all, although soon I might put the fan on medium. But then again, if the PSU dies, I'm buying something modular, with hopefully an 80mm fan, because I think those are better in p182's, straight line of airflow versus a 90 degree angle.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I don't trust thermostatically controlled PSU's ... .

Instead of "not trusting" the fan, the initial concern should be why it's running so fast in the first place. Some PSU's run cooler than others and have better air flow than others and can afford to have slower, quieter fans. They don't tend to have slower, quieter fans because someone at factory A decided to buy quieter fan than someone at factory B.

Not sure why the PSU is running it's fan at full speed right at boot up, especially since it sounds like you have adequate cooling in the case. It could very well be that the thermistor is bad. PSU fans are made to run full RPM if the thermistor fails. Doing the opposite (keeping the fan RPM's low instead) would be catastrophic to the PSU and potentially your entire computer. Perhaps you should see about RMA'ing the PSU since it's under warranty (is it not?) If you open it, it will no longer be under warranty. And if you swap the fan out with something slower, it will certainly have a shorter life over all AND not be covered under warranty.

 

[MarcVenice]

I think I threw the original fan away, but it had some fancy 'magic' kind of name. I doubt it was any good compared to an antec tricool, let alone an s-flex or yate loon fan. And the exhaust air was always very very cool, even when the fan was running at full speed, I mean, it always ran on full speed, even on startup. Besides, my lower compartment in my p182 is always very cool, I doubt there was any reason for the fan to run as fast as it did. Maybe it's not that I shouldn't trust thermostatically controlled PSU's, but more that CM psu's are crap

One question if you don't mind. I'm sure you're familiar with the p182, you think a 80mm fan that would be directly blowing air through the PSU, out the back of the case would be better then a 120mm fan blowing air out through an angle? And what's a good quiet 80mm fan PSU ?

 

[jonnyGURU]

I'm actually NOT familiar with the P182. Not enough to answer that question properly. I was kind of turned off by the whole, "put the PSU on the bottom but don't flip the board" idea of that case. I think the "chamber" idea is a good one. I just wish they had flipped the motherboard too.

 

[mpilchfamily]

The 120mm fan in the bottom chamber helps to draw cool air in from the front of the case. It pulles the cool air across any HDDs you may have in that lower bay and blowes it at the PSU. The PSU's fans then pick that air up and pulls it threw the unit and out the back. For the most part the 120mm fan will be quieter then any 80mm fan you try to mod in there and will supply more cool air for the PSu then an 80mm can.

@jonny

Why would you want the motherboard flipped as well? My exsperience has been that many new motherboards that incorperate heatpipes into the chipset and V/Rs do not cool as well when in that orientation. I have the Antec 900 case and soo no problem with haveing the motherboard in the usual orientation and the PSU at the bottom. Overall the PSU stay cooler down there. The only drawback i see is having to rought the PSU cables up to the top to reach the connectors. This isn't much of a problem as most good PSU have more then long enough cables for this. I already have a bundle of cables at the bottom of my case i don't need to be bunching us excess cables and obstructing more airflow just because the connectors are closer.

But as you know Lian-Li makes pletty of cases with bottom mount PSU that flip the motherboard.

 

[JEDIYoda]

My exsperience has been that many new motherboards that incorperate heatpipes into the chipset and V/Rs do not cool as well when in that orientation. I

My experience has been just the opposite,
But hey I actually own one!

Peace!

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily

@jonny

Why would you want the motherboard flipped as well? My exsperience has been that many new motherboards that incorperate heatpipes into the chipset and V/Rs do not cool as well when in that orientation. I have the Antec 900 case and soo no problem with haveing the motherboard in the usual orientation and the PSU at the bottom. Overall the PSU stay cooler down there. The only drawback i see is having to rought the PSU cables up to the top to reach the connectors. This isn't much of a problem as most good PSU have more then long enough cables for this. I already have a bundle of cables at the bottom of my case i don't need to be bunching us excess cables and obstructing more airflow just because the connectors are closer.

But as you know Lian-Li makes pletty of cases with bottom mount PSU that flip the motherboard.

I haven't experimented with heatpipes to say how much gravity plays a part in the motherboard's orientation. But when the liquid in the pipe is in a vacuum and the heatpipe itself is bending and twisting in every direction on the board, it's hard to fathom an "up."

I imagine the "logic" behind a flipped case with an "upright" motherboard, like the P182, is the whole "hot air rises" principle. But only stagnant hot air rises. Fans can move hot air in any direction. I do like the idea of the PSU at the bottom because the PSU's fan can aid in the evacuation of heat from the hard drives without introducing the heat from the hard drives into the rest of the case (blows my mind that most cases HEAT UP intake air by sucking in air across the hard drives). Also, despite the PSU getting heat off of the hard drives, it still runs cooler because it's also not sucking heat off of the CPU. If you flip the board, you can install a front fan above the hard drives, but below the opticals, to bring cool air in just for the CPU, NB and first x16 slot GPU. A rear fan would exhaust the heat so you would have a front to back airflow just like the BTX concept. A fan on the top of the case would exhaust heat from cards in the slots that would otherwise be blocked by the first graphics card. Also, you eliminate the problem of stringing your power supply cables across your entire motherboard just to plug in your 24-pin, 8-pin and PCI-e. The only cables you have to worry about the length of is those powering your opticals, but those tend to be pretty long to begin with and any "upside down" case is going to require long cables because you're going from the PSU down below to opticals up high.

 

[MarcVenice]

Well, the 120mm fan from a PSU in the p182, wether you flip the PSU upside down or not, only has roughly an inch of clearance between the 'chamberwalls'. I thought/think that because there isn't much clearance, there might be more turbulence and/or not enough cool air to draw inside the PSU. Besides that, since the fan is drawing air from up or beneath, and the middle fan in the p182 blows air 'straight' into the PSU, things might get mixed up as well. An 80mm fan would receive the air from the middle fan in the p182, and give it another 'boost'?

And since you're not to familiar with the p182, flipping the mobo might work, but if you've got a qaulity PSU you can reroute any if not all cables behind the motherboard, and bring them up almost exactly where you need to plug them in. So you won't have any cables impeding airflow. You can allready install a fan in the middle HD bay, below the optical drives, that could supply the CPU/GPU with fresh air. The way you suggested it does sound interesting though, since heat does rise, and if everything is orientated upwards that should help things a little as well. It be really weird for the backpanel though ?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
...but if you've got a qaulity PSU you can reroute any if not all cables behind the motherboard, and bring them up almost exactly where you need to plug them in.

Since when does "quality PSU" automatically mean "long enough cables?"

I can't have a crappy PSU with long cables or a good PSU with short cables?

 

[MarcVenice]

Of course you can, but I simply figured most 'qaulity' PSU's come with long enough cables, why spend extra bucks on qaulity caps and a well designed PCB layout when you're going to skimp a few pennies on the cabling ? And a 12v 4 pin extension cable can be had for 2$, so didn't think it would be a problem if the PSU didn't have long enough cables.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Longer cables aren't a matter of cost. It's just a matter of either not wanting to make the cables "too long" giving the inside of the case a more cluttered look or simply taking into consideration weird chassis designs that require longer cables. 500 to 550MM to the first connector is the norm. Anything longer is actually the exception.