Neopower 480 running hot?

[Kid Vicious]

Just put a nib neopower 480 into an older SLi system: Asus A8N SLi Deluxe, A64 3500 Winnie, EN6600GT, 1 GB PC3200, 1 Optical, 3 HD's in a super lanboy case. CPU has a stock HSF and both of the 120mm case fans are routed through the neopower's fan only management plug. On boot the CPU/Mobo temp are around 29/30C, then after an hour cook up to 38/39C with loads (1 Game + 2-3 bgnd apps) up around 45/48C. I guess these temps seem normal, but the neopower is roasting, heating up the top and the back half of the case to above laptop warm, and the PSU fan spins up with a soft continuous whine.

I'm just wondering if this was normal for the neopower's design with the PFC and ergonomics, or if the fan management is interfering with proper case cooling. Have been considering getting a CNPS 7700 AlCu, but i wasn't sure if it would make any difference.

Side Note: As part of my cable management i sandwiched the 12V cable between the mobo and aluminum backplate. Not sure if this was a good idea or if its ok.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Slow down the rear exhaust fan. Unplug if if you have to.
Run the front intake only. See if this helps. The rear exhaust may be deverting air from the PSU's intake. Give it a try.


...Galvanized

 

[Kid Vicious]

Thanks for the reply, i'll try that out see if it makes any difference. I also remembered that I have cool and quiet enabled in the bios. Dunno if that makes any difference.

 

[Bobthelost]

So the PSU is getting really hot? Take a little strip of paper, say a 1cm across and about 10cm long and hold it next to the PSU exhaust fan. If it's working right it should be blown away from the fan. Otherwise you might have a pressure problem where air is being forced backwards through the PSU.

Try turning down the rear exhaust fan, it looks like a tricool in the stock photos, if it's one of the three speed ones try it on medium or low.

 

[Kid Vicious]

I disabled cool n' quiet and there was no change. did the paper test and both the rear 120 and the psu were exhausting air.

 

[Bobthelost]

Hmm, Cool n quiet shouldn't make any difference other than dropping your idle power draw, which won't be huge anyway. Equally even though the efficency is low (60%) at low loads according to the tech sheet the amount of power generated shouldnt' be that much.

Sounds like the fan isn't running fast enough to cool it off, do you have speedfan or another monitoring app that can sense the PSU fan speed?

It's either a defective model or a bad design, either way if it can't be sorted an email to antec wouldn't be out of the question imo.

 

[Kid Vicious]

been using asus pc probe for monitoring. not the best, i know, because its software based, but I don't have access to any sophisticated hardware monitors. I found a copy of speed fan and the numbers were identical in comparison. my hardware temps in the bios are skewed about 2 degrees lower than what pc probe posts.

I think I might have felt the case with cold hands so it felt like it was burning up; 5+ hours of Civ 4 + not moving = cold hands. So that only leaves the annoying fan noise that kicks in as the ambient temp peaks out. Maybe, if i upgraded my case fans from stock and put in the Zalman HSF, I could shave a few degrees and bring that fan back down.

So far the neopower has been stable, tho the 5V rail is coming in around 4.89 in the software. Better than those three Ultras I went through by a long shot.

 

[rise]

a good buy to get along with a dmm is a little indoor/outdoor thermometer. $15 well spent, imo anyway.

you can get them at the same store usually and position the outdoor probe of the thermometer up against the psu exhaust grate to get a better idea of temps.

 

[MadScientist]

I purchased this power supply from Outpost last month when they had it on sale for $60. It appears to be working fine. I'm using it in a Lian Li PC-7A aluminum case with 2 - 120 mm fans. I have not noticed any change in case or cpu temps. The top of my case above the psu is cold. My old power supply also had a 120 mm fan. I'm using a Sunbeam Rheobus fan controller for my fans, not the neopower's dedicated fan-only connectors. Did you plug the psu's 3 pin fan speed connector into a system fan plug on your motherboard so you can monitor the speed of your psu fan? According to Speed Fan my psu fan is running 850 rpm.

As for Cool'n'Quiet, did you set the system to ?minimal power management? in Control Panel, Power Options? You should see a drop in CPU voltage of about 0.2V under light load. I've noticed only a 1 to 2 degree drop (may or may not be real) in cpu temp with Cool'n'Quiet enabled. When your under heavier load, like gaming, the cpu voltage will go back up to stock voltage.

 

[AntiStatic]

the fan only line on the neo480 is like 7v... it's making your fans run slow. put your fans on a real line.

 

[Kid Vicious]

Originally posted by: MadScientist
Did you plug the psu's 3 pin fan speed connector into a system fan plug on your motherboard so you can monitor the speed of your psu fan?

I did hook it up the Chasis 2 connection, 3 pin connector right near the one for the cpu fan, and it doesn't seem to detect anything. However there is one marked 'pwr_fan,' wasn't sure if that would be more appropriate.

Originally posted by: AntiStatic
the fan only line on the neo480 is like 7v... it's making your fans run slow. put your fans on a real line.

I was afraid it would be something like that. They seem to be spinning fine, but i'll test them on a four pin molex to be sure.

My system is still idling in the high 30's low 40's C, which i know is not normal for a 90nm cpu. Since AntiStatic mentioned it, I'm pretty confident the fan controller has something to do with it. I'll try out the minimal power management settings with cool n' quiet the MadScientist recommended too. I was using an AMD power management tool before, that cycled voltages and fan speed with the amount of load, but I think that shorted out my last PSU. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[furballi]

Open the case and check the CPU temp. If it drops by more than 2C, then you need to fix the air flow across your PC.

I have a Sempron 3100 130nm chip. Current idle temp at 70F room is 27C (cool n quiet ON), and 31C (cool n quiet OFF). This processor is overclocked to 2.44GHz at 1.54Vcore. Maximum load is 46C.

 

[mindwreck]

Is the fan spinning faster than when you first turn it on? It sounds like the fan inside isn't reacting to the increasing temps, which then means its RMA time.

 

[Kid Vicious]

it was the fan controller. hooked them up to a normal molex and they are moving are a lot better psu and case temp feel normal and my system is idling around 31 C again. the psu fan has dropped the whine too so everything is nice n' quiet. shame the fan only connections can't hold up, they were nice for cable management. thanks for everyones input.