Can you easily replace a fan inside a PSU?

[coolpurplefan]

The fan inside my Fortron Blue Storm II rattles a little so it's not as quiet as my Seasonic S-12. Does anyone here know if they have standard connectors or if they're soldered in place?

 

[PurdueRy]

They are typically just a standard 3 pin fan connector. However, some models do solder them in. Either way its an easy thing to replace. The only difficulty is that it voids any warranty

 

[SparkyJJO]

In my experience they are either soldered directly to the board or have some other connector (not a 3pin). Splicing the wires always works though. But like PurdueRy said, it voids warranties. If your unit is still under warranty and the fan is going by the wayside you could probably RMA it.

Or, the odds of a good-quality PSU failing are fairly small, so you could just save yourself the downtime, say the heck to the warranty, and switch the fan yourself

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
In my experience they are either soldered directly to the board or have some other connector (not a 3pin). Splicing the wires always works though. But like PurdueRy said, it voids warranties. If your unit is still under warranty and the fan is going by the wayside you could probably RMA it.

Or, the odds of a good-quality PSU failing are fairly small, so you could just save yourself the downtime, say the heck to the warranty, and switch the fan yourself

http://www.extensiontech.net/a...to/dk/psufan/img/7.jpg

Meant to say 2 pin! But yea, I wouldn't worry too much about them failing. I would be tempted to "rice out" a corsair with a red fan or something

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
In my experience they are either soldered directly to the board or have some other connector (not a 3pin). Splicing the wires always works though. But like PurdueRy said, it voids warranties. If your unit is still under warranty and the fan is going by the wayside you could probably RMA it.

Or, the odds of a good-quality PSU failing are fairly small, so you could just save yourself the downtime, say the heck to the warranty, and switch the fan yourself

http://www.extensiontech.net/a...to/dk/psufan/img/7.jpg

Meant to say 2 pin! But yea, I wouldn't worry too much about them failing. I would be tempted to "rice out" a corsair with a red fan or something

Have fun finding a 135mm red LED fan, but that would look cool Don't think it would match my black/green theme too well though, except in December maybe

 

[SparkyJJO]

*EDIT* double post

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
In my experience they are either soldered directly to the board or have some other connector (not a 3pin). Splicing the wires always works though. But like PurdueRy said, it voids warranties. If your unit is still under warranty and the fan is going by the wayside you could probably RMA it.

Or, the odds of a good-quality PSU failing are fairly small, so you could just save yourself the downtime, say the heck to the warranty, and switch the fan yourself

http://www.extensiontech.net/a...to/dk/psufan/img/7.jpg

Meant to say 2 pin! But yea, I wouldn't worry too much about them failing. I would be tempted to "rice out" a corsair with a red fan or something

Have fun finding a 135mm red LED fan, but that would look cool Don't think it would match my black/green theme too well though, except in December maybe

good point. You could always go with what antec does with its Trueblue series and shine some LEDs from inside the PSU onto the fan...gives the same effect.

 

[ForumMaster]

you can do it. in fact, i did it. the stock fan was loud. replaced it with the standard 3-pin coming into my case. i connected it and use speedfan to slow it down. it is silent and cool. perfect!

 

[coolpurplefan]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
you can do it. in fact, i did it. the stock fan was loud. replaced it with the standard 3-pin coming into my case. i connected it and use speedfan to slow it down. it is silent and cool. perfect!

Now, there's a novel idea. You mean you connected it inside the computer and not the PSU. Gosh, I had an Enermax for a while but it freaked me out that the fan in the back crapped out. It made some odd noises for a while then just stopped. It's too bad because that PSU had nearly perfect voltages. The rails were off by 1%. I mean, I read the tolerance is 5%.

It also got warm though. I guess maybe in my case it was the combination of the case and the fact it was only a 420 watt. My Seasonic and Fortron 500 watt don't get warm like that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've replaced 80mm fans inside of PSUs before. Just bring the leads + molex connector outside of the PSU, and DONT FORGET to plug the molex for the fan into a molex coming off of the PSU, or the PSU will cook itself.

 

[Modelworks]

Just be careful when opening the supply.
Its best to unplug everything from the supply, then connect a fan /hdd to one of the connectors and place a short jumper wire between the green and black wires on the atx connector. Of course while the AC plug is not connected.

You should see the fan turn for a split second.
This will discharge the supply helping to avoid you getting shocked while working on the supply.

 

[Zepper]

Hey CPF,

Yes, I can - but can you?..

The Antec PSUs I've opened recently have 2-pin connectors that are smaller than normal fan connectors. I don't recall seeing a lot of standard two or 3 pin fan connectors in PSUs recently - it's either that mini-2-pin or hard soldered. But it's not hard to cut&splice in either case (not hard for me anyway). If you plan to connect to the internal PSU fan connector, you want to get a fan of similar ratings for current or power and CFM so that the internal speed controller will control it correctly and you'll get the expected airflow. Dual ball bearing fans work best for PSU duty but are a bit noisier. I have brought the leads of a 3-pin fan out of the PSU case with the wire bundle, added a fan extension, and hooked it to a manual fan controller - have to be very careful though, as I almost let the magic smoke out of one of my PSUs doing it that way...

.bh.

 

[Noubourne]

I've replaced PSU fans multiple times. I always just splice.

The first time I did it many years ago was for looks - I put in an LED fan.

The rest of the times it has been for silence.

 

[jadinolf]

Another note: ignore the warnings about lethal voltages in the power supply.

Assuming the thing is unplugged, there are no lethal voltages unless you are special.