Basic q about mounting PSU's

[arkyfedobolan]

this is probably a silly question, but i just want to make sure.

i want to upgrade my PSU. many of the better ones look like they have the
fan on the top of box. does this mean that (a) i have to cut a hole in
the top of the case for the fan? or (b) that it is an intake, not exhaust
fan, meant to face inside the case and pull air through psu and out the
back grille?

i have an antec 160; the power supply that's in it is an SPI that's fine
but really loud, so i want to replace it with something quieter, maybe
seasonic or thermaltake.

actually, speaking of the antec case, it does have this one mysterious
quirk; the fancy rotating front jack panel seems to be real sensitive,
touch it wrong and it flips the restart button...

anyway, so please tell me the answer is (b) and i don't have to get out a
dremel. also recommendations for good quiet power supplies would be great
.... it's the one thing i didn't think about when building this system
originally. rest of system is an athlon 64 X2, nvidia QuadroFX card, only
1 HD.


--arky

 

[Paul]

this is probably a silly question, but i just want to make sure.

i want to upgrade my PSU. many of the better ones look like they have the
fan on the top of box. does this mean that (a) i have to cut a hole in
the top of the case for the fan? or (b) that it is an intake, not exhaust
fan, meant to face inside the case and pull air through psu and out the
back grille?

i have an antec 160; the power supply that's in it is an SPI that's fine
but really loud, so i want to replace it with something quieter, maybe
seasonic or thermaltake.

actually, speaking of the antec case, it does have this one mysterious
quirk; the fancy rotating front jack panel seems to be real sensitive,
touch it wrong and it flips the restart button...

anyway, so please tell me the answer is (b) and i don't have to get out a
dremel. also recommendations for good quiet power supplies would be great
... it's the one thing i didn't think about when building this system
originally. rest of system is an athlon 64 X2, nvidia QuadroFX card, only
1 HD.


--arky

+----------+-----------------------+
Exhaust | | | Front of case
<---- \/ | |
/\ | |
+-- \_/ ---+ |
| / \
|
^
| Air moves up into PSU
|

The purpose of the lower fan, is to pull air away from the CPU,
up through the PSU, and then out the back of the PSU.

I have seen the odd instance, where the mounting holes on
a PSU are designed such that the fan ends up on the top of
the PSU, rather than the bottom, but that is probably a design
error. The internal fan should end up oriented so that it is
not blocked by computer case metal, and pointing down is the
way to make it work properly. Imagine if millions of system
builders had to use a dremel to install a PSU - they'd go
nuts if they had to do that...

On my Antec Sonata, the rotating jack panel is made of plastic,
and it has a coating of chrome on it. The only way it could
reset the system, is if the reset wire from the front panel,
is near the thing, and static electricity is jumping from
the rotating cover to the wires. If you reposition the
reset wires where they go to the motherboard, you should be
able to stop this problem from happening. Just keep the reset
wires away from the rotating cover. You could use a piece of
tape to hold the wires in place.

If you read the customer reviews on the Newegg site, you can
find out which supplies are quiet that way. There are hundreds
of supplies on there, at every imaginable price.

Several of the Seasonic supplies are high efficiency, and
what that means is there is less waste heat created inside
the supply. That is a useful ingredient to making a quiet
supply, as less heat means less fan speed is needed to keep
the supply cool. But the Seasonic supplies are a bit pricy.

Paul

 

[Adam S]

i want to upgrade my PSU. many of the better ones look like they have the

fan on the top of box.

This is because they have turned the PSU upside down when taking the picture
to show the fan.

Adam S