Replacing the fan in my power supply

[Cyde Weys]

I have some extra 80mm Coolermaster blue fans sitting around and I want
to install one of them into my power supply. Not only do these new fans
blow more air, they're quieter and they're blue! I'm just wondering,
how do I install one in the power supply? The previous power supply I
opened up had the fan connected to wires that were directly soldered
onto the circuit board in the PSU. The 80mm case fans that I have use
the tiny mobo connector, or, via an adapter, they plug into standard
power 4x1 power cables (the kind you plug into optical drives and IDE
hard drives).

Is it possible to install this fan in my PSU in a simple way? Or would
I have to cut the wires and solder them to the circuit board, which I'm
really not interested in doing? Thanks for the help.

 

[bearman]

I have some extra 80mm Coolermaster blue fans sitting around and I want
to install one of them into my power supply. Not only do these new fans
blow more air, they're quieter and they're blue! I'm just wondering,
how do I install one in the power supply? The previous power supply I
opened up had the fan connected to wires that were directly soldered
onto the circuit board in the PSU. The 80mm case fans that I have use
the tiny mobo connector, or, via an adapter, they plug into standard
power 4x1 power cables (the kind you plug into optical drives and IDE
hard drives).

Is it possible to install this fan in my PSU in a simple way? Or would
I have to cut the wires and solder them to the circuit board, which I'm
really not interested in doing? Thanks for the help.

Splice (solder or wire nut) the wires from your fan to the wires coming from
the mobo connector.

Bearman

 

[Cyde Weys]

bearman wrote:

Splice (solder or wire nut) the wires from your fan to the wires coming from
the mobo connector.

Good point bringing up the wire nuts, I hadn't thought of those. That's
what I'll use (I definitely don't want to go messing around with
soldering). Also, my dad is somewhat of an electrical hardware geek and
I'm sure he has lots of that kind of stuff at home (I'm at college, but
home isn't very far away).

One question though: my fans have three wires coming out of them: red,
black, and yellow. I know what red and black are (that's standard
electrical "syntax"), but what is the yellow? Is that the data cable
for the fan speed? And should I just ignore it when I install the fan
in the power supply, or cap it off, or something? Thanks.

 

[kony]

bearman wrote:



Good point bringing up the wire nuts, I hadn't thought of those. That's
what I'll use (I definitely don't want to go messing around with
soldering). Also, my dad is somewhat of an electrical hardware geek and
I'm sure he has lots of that kind of stuff at home (I'm at college, but
home isn't very far away).

One question though: my fans have three wires coming out of them: red,
black, and yellow. I know what red and black are (that's standard
electrical "syntax"), but what is the yellow? Is that the data cable
for the fan speed? And should I just ignore it when I install the fan
in the power supply, or cap it off, or something? Thanks.

yes, leave the 3rd wire, an RPM pulse signal, disconnected, cut off as
close to the fan hub as possible unless you wanted to try to extend it's
length to get an RPM reading for the power supply fan from a motherboard
header.

If removing the circuit board to solder to the PCB seems like too much
work, you could instead simply clip the wires where they enter the old fan
and solder there. Solder is a much more reliable connection than crimping
on those small wires unless you have a precision crimping tool (and of
course good crimp connectors). On some fans you can even solder the wires
directly to the fan PCB, but experience soldering (and a steady hand) is
beneficial.

You mention that the replacement is both quieter and blows more air.
Perhaps the original fan is poor/junk, but in general a fan blowing more
air will not be significantly quieter... it's possible the power supply
mounting creates significant turbulence, that the new fan, once mounted
will be even louder.... perhaps you've already explored this possibility.