Why not run my PSU without its cover/enclosure to cool it better?

[puddnhead]

Originally posted by: HardWarrior
This trails nicely into what I just said. Forums like this are littered with people who say the same thing of just about any component. They do so mostly as a justification for turning their noses up for no REAL, concrete reason. Again, if you want to do this, just do it. You don't need majority approval, do you?

Sigh. No, I don't (didn't). What I wanted/needed/asked for is clearly spelled out in the very first line of my original post: "OK, I know one obvious reason -- so I don't electrocute myself. But why else?" And then most of the replies I got dwelt on the one things I explicitly said I wasn't asking about.

Anyway, while anadtech forms are a great place, it obviously was not the ideal place to pose this kind of question. But I found another forum with members that have more direct personal knowledge & experience & got most of the answers to the questions I was actually asking. Thank you all again for your time, and thank you especially the ones who tried to answer my questions!

 

[HardWarrior]

What did you expect, puddin'? There was no way for the folks here to magically understand your complete mindset on the subject, or your skill level. You came off as combative, arrogant and hyper-sensitive, and this after asking a QUESTION. Even on the way out you take the time to serve up a back-handed "compliment" to people who tried to help you.

Nice.

ANYWAY, GL with the project

 

[puddnhead]

Sheez, Hardwarrior, was I really so bad? I dunno, I jsut went back and reread this thread and it seems like every one of the "combatitive" words -- "hypersensitive", "idiotic," "turnning noses up", all that -- didn't appear in MY posts.

 

[HardWarrior]

You don't have to ask me this, puddin'. Look closely at the reaction you got from some of the posters. Frankly, you should have expected that you'd be patronized a bit. For some reason, it goes along with asking a question in places like this.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

my thoughts are,

take the cover off, and mod the intake grill with a dremal, cut out the waffle grill (with the exeption of the rubber cable harness), and put the cover back on, this will give you the extra flow and some reduction of turbulance, and still give you the extra insulation between the psu and the seperator plate, while keeping the psu chasis less flexible (the extra flex in the psu would create more vibrations than it's worth to take the psu cover off.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: puddnhead

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
That wasn't my point. The fans, the housing... they're all part of the solution. The heatsinks run perpendicular to the fans. The air flows across these sinks and then are exhausted out of a vent or second fan or however the PSU is designed. Take the housing off and the fan doesn't have a direction to blow. The air just sort of turbulates about, if you know what I mean.

The Antec Truepower 380s is a single-fan-cooled unit, the fan is mounted flush to the rear of the case, blowing air OUT of the PSU.

Correct. And when the housing is attached, the air this fan PULLS across the heatsinks cools them.

Do you think fans only push air and not pull air? Do you think fans have to blow ONTO something in order to cool it?

Why do I feel no matter how many of us try to answer this for you, this is going to go round and round. I know HardWarrior already addressed this with you, but I too have to point out how argumentative you are.

If you want to know from someone that's done it... I've done it. I opened up my Enermax 365 and ran it for two months without the cover. Know what happened? It died.

 

[puddnhead]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU

Originally posted by: puddnhead

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
That wasn't my point. The fans, the housing... they're all part of the solution. The heatsinks run perpendicular to the fans. The air flows across these sinks and then are exhausted out of a vent or second fan or however the PSU is designed. Take the housing off and the fan doesn't have a direction to blow. The air just sort of turbulates about, if you know what I mean.

The Antec Truepower 380s is a single-fan-cooled unit, the fan is mounted flush to the rear of the case, blowing air OUT of the PSU.

Correct. And when the housing is attached, the air this fan PULLS across the heatsinks cools them.

Do you think fans only push air and not pull air? Do you think fans have to blow ONTO something in order to cool it?

Why do I feel no matter how many of us try to answer this for you, this is going to go round and round. I know HardWarrior already addressed this with you, but I too have to point out how argumentative you are.

You wrote that there was a PSU fan that blows air across the PSU heatsinks, and possibly a second fan. my ENTIRE reply that was:

The Antec Truepower 380s is a single-fan-cooled unit, the fan is mounted flush to the rear of the case, blowing air OUT of the PSU

i.e. that there was no fan blowing air on heatsinks.

I wasn't "going round and round," I wrote one factual sentence in reply to you, clarifying something. I wasn't being argumentative, I stated a fact, without a single word that even remotely implied judgement. "Argumentative?" I'm not sure how I could have possible put any LESS emotion in thet reply. This is a discussion thread, and to continue our discussion, shouldn't I tell you that you were writing about parts that don't even exist in my PSU???

I'm sorry, I really don't know how much better I could have done in writing a reply that shouldn't set anyone off. I'm sorry you perceive so much malicious in my words. i honestly don't see them, or see where you see them. I don't see why you feel so defensive about the fact that you don't know the exact construction of my PSU. So what, I bet no one in the world knows how every PSU is built. Why get so defensive about it.

f you want to know from someone that's done it... I've done it. I opened up my Enermax 365 and ran it for two months without the cover. Know what happened? It died

thank you for your that. That was exactly what i was asking all along, does anyone have experience in trying this. But why didn't you just tell me that you did it in the first place? Why tell me only after three posts, posts seemingly critical that anyone would even ASK about trying it? Now it comes out that you have actually DONE it yourself. I don't get it. I am beyond confused now.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Your confused because everyone gave you a correct answer but you didn't want to believe them unless they did it themselves?

Look... it doesn't matter if your power supply has one fan or two. One heatsink or two. You could have come in here and not even stated what kind of power supply you had. This is where I get the impression that you're argumentative. You get an answer but you refuse to accept it because you think your situation is a special case. All power supplies are different, but the principle is still the same. That's all EVERYONE is trying to tell you, but you weren't willing to accept the simple answer.

Wow. Ask a simple question, get a simple answer and it's STILL not good enough.... now I'M beyond confused.

For the record, the PSU died because of heat. I took the housing off because the PC's ambient temperatures were hotter than I wanted. I figured removing the restriction of the PSU housing would remedy this. I took off the housing and the ambient temperatures went UP. They didn't go up to a critical number, so I continued using the PC this way simply because I didn't have the time to open it back up and put the housing back on. One day the PC just shut down. I opened it up and the PSU was incredibly hot to the touch. I let it cool down and when I powered it back up again, I got nada. I replaced the PSU and everything worked great again.

But that's WAY MORE information than you should need. The correct answer is "the housing is there to maintain airflow provided by your fan or fans in order to keep the PSU heatsink or heatsinks cool." That's all. Just like hondAS2ooo170 said four days ago.

 

[puddnhead]

johnyguru, you win. No argument here.

Thanks for the further details on your experience.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I win? Oooh.... I don't like the sound of that.

No hard feelings? Beer? :beer:

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
No hard feelings? Beer? :beer:

:thumbsup:

 

[puddnhead]

no hard feelings