Hot PSU

[creedog]

I picked up a cheap case at frys to put an older system into (athlon 1.8, Geforce 4 4200) and i noticed right off the bat the ammount of head coming out the back of the PSU. The system runs a bit warm for my taste. Noticed on this case that there is not an plate/bar under the psu so it basically sits right on top of the cpu.

Is it normal for cheap psus to creat such heat. Hell I feel it warming the room as I type this

 

[Degrador]

Cheap psus are often rather inefficient, and so will create more heat than good quality ones. However your parts shouldn't be putting much stress on it, and so even an inefficient psu shouldn't put out too much heat. For comparison, I have the Antec TrueControl 550W, with a lot of high wattage parts running off it (check Main Rig in sig), yet atm the psu is barely generating any heat at all. Is this happening even when the comp is idling, or only under load?

 

[creedog]

This pc is never under load, only use it to run a few office apps and work email over vpn. Case temp is 29 cpu temp is 52, and its pretty cool in my office right now. In comaparison, my antec soho case has hardly any heat blowing out the back (p4 2.4 and ati 9600) Case temp there is 20 and cpu temp is 42. These pcs are one 3 feet apart. Both pcs have similar fan setups

 

[Tiamat]

INteresting, my True Blue 480 has always run hot in the 2 systems its been in. And it has always put out hot air... seems to be fine tho

 

[creedog]

This mobo/cpu/vid card, combo used to be in my antec case. No heat issues then. The case its in now is cheap but allows for pretty good air flow. Must be the power supply. I have an older one laying around somewhere from a compaq, I may try it

 

[orion446]

Why don't you change the psu and see what happens, Do you have a spare? Are you using the stock hsf? 52c is awful hot at idle.

 

[creedog]

Ok, replaced with a mad dog 350 w unit. This one has the inlet fan at the bottom, and variable fan speed button on the back (very nice feature). The one that came with this case really felt cheap once I got it out. Put this one in and noticed right away that it is not blowing out as much hot air. However CPU is 49 and case is 28. I've got 1 80mm in front of case and 2 in the rear. My wiring job is not the best but it is pretty clean, using round cables, and have power routed pretty much out of the way.

Not much of an improvement, but it will have to do.

 

[creedog]

Shoot, back up to 51 cpu.... oh, well

 

[CraigRT]

the PSU was probably putting out hot air because it was being stressed even by your nowadays low end system.
I had a generic 300w as a replacement when the last power surge I had took out both my Antec 400W and my SPI 300W and it died after like a week. very hot air and then poof, died.

replaced with another SPI 300W and still running strong for months now.
it's all about the quality.

 

[orion446]

What HSF and thermal compound are you using?

 

[Zepper]

lAlso the fan might have been running too slow as was the case with the Delta PSU I got recently - they seem to be making their decisions more in favor of low noise than self-preservation these days or it could have just been a bad thermistor. I set it up with a manual speed control and it's been fine ever since (except on sunday when I was messing around inside my case and forgot to hook the fan lead back up properly - it got warm enough to begin to smell - Ooops!!! PEBKAC!!!) :shocked:

.bh.

There's the :sun: !

 

[creedog]

Using cheap compound and a pretty nice looking heatsink from compusa (real fancy looking). Probably could use to try better compound, but the HS should be fine

 

[0roo0roo]

go the to silentpcreview.com recommendations section. i suggest returning the maddog for a seasonic. big difference. its true, my generic 420 puts out a ton of heat powering a dinky system compared to the seasonic with its fan never breaking 1200rpm or whatever at only 300watts running an overclocked system with 4 hardrives.

 

[creedog]

Ok went with better compound. 44 (and climbing?) case is 29. My main rig is 40 cpu and 20 case