DIY PSU cooling? passive?

[En Sabah Nur]

i replaced the fans in my psu because they were noisy. the new fans don't push as much air, so i was wondering which parts of a psu might i attach some spare heatsinks to? as in, which parts could benefit, and how to avoid shorting anything.

 

[Qianglong]

i forsee this to be a very dangerous undertaking which will permanently disable your ability to post here anymore

 

[Howard]

If you don't know, don't do it.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

SMPS cooling is second in importence only to cooling of the CPU...PERIOD.
VGA is third and everything else follows.

Read here first, note, the PSU's primary heat sink is most often hot w/160+VDC.
http://www.smpstech.com/

Read reviews on passive PSUs, like the 500W Antec Phantom(does have a low speed 80mm fan inside) or the Silverstone 300W passive or the passive cooled MGE units.

Be sure to post pics of your work.


...Galvanized

 

[alpha88]

Please remember that unplugged does not mean no potential shocks.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Meh! The storage caps drain off pretty fast. Storage caps on TVs & CRTs can stay hot for quite awhile but PSUs........20 minuets max. Generally alot less.


...Galvanized

 

[En Sabah Nur]

i'm not really trying to make it entirely passive, i just want to make sure that having my fans on low doesn't let anything get cooked. so i was going to just stick more heatsink onto another heatsink. from whatever i have lying around.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I'm going to stick with howard on this one. I've been hit by high voltage more times than I care to attempt to recall and it freakin hurts. I've killed enough of my nervous system that I have dificulty moving my pinky and ring figers independantly and I cannot wiggle my toes, can curl them but, not wiggle.

Did you remove fan grills to help with airflow? what size fans, where are they located and what is their cfm ratings?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

it's a rear exhaust 80mm and a bottom intake 80mm. 22.84 cfm each.

and i tend to have them at half speed.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: Howard
If you don't know, don't do it.

QFT.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: En Sabah Nur
it's a rear exhaust 80mm and a bottom intake 80mm. 22.84 cfm each.

and i tend to have them at half speed.

Regardless of whether or not you add aditional heatsinks to components within the PSU; you've considerably reduced the power output capability and lifespan of your PSU.

It's not like a CPU that gets inadequate cooling that simply doesn't post, boot or errors. It'll simply decide to stop working one day. Caps get hot and swell, Diodes and FET's overheat and degrade...

Prime example: Why do most CWT power supplies last a long time but Antec's with "quiet fans" fail? Hmm.....