- Aug 4, 2012
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First, a warning:
This will void your PSU warranty. You may also put your power supply at risk if you replace your fan with one that doesn't move enough air. Proceed at your own risk.
Difficulty: Easy, but only attempt it if you know the risks and have the basic skills required.
So I bought an HX1050. It's a wonderful power supply. It just happens to be quiet 90% of the time and unbearable the other 10%. As soon as it has any load on it, it kicks into high RPM and sounds awfully loud in comparison to most of my components. I usually run Cougar fans with a fan speed controller. They're already relatively quiet, but I have them nearly silent, with my temperatures remaining exceptionally low (in part thanks to my delidding of my CPU).
So as somebody who doesn't mind destroying my warranties, I decided to fix this problem. I purchased a 140mm cougar fan, matching the 120mm fans I already have on my case. I prefer to walk the line between minimalist and flashy on my cases, so I have a Corsair Carbide 300R with Cougar LED fans. I prefer the Cougar fans for their low noise and high RPM as well as the pleasing appearance.
I also needed a 3-pin to 2-pin adapter for the fan, as that appears to be the standard for PSU fans. I was able to find this on Amazon, but local computer retailers did not have it in stock. It isn't a commonplace adapter. That said, it was very inexpensive.
As far as the fan CFM goes, I purchased a fan that was rated for around 75% the airflow of the stock Corsair fan. I believe this will be sufficient to cool my power supply in my environment.
So here's what I did (excuse the mess, my cable management near the PSU is a bit jumbled at the moment, and I didn't bother fully removing the PSU from the case)...
I used a hex key set to remove the casing of the power supply. This involved removing four screws to open it up, and a smaller set of four screws to remove the fan from the chassis.
This is the aforementioned 2-pin fan connector.
And inside, with the fan connector socket in view on the bottom.
Moving along, I took this picture to refer to for re-assembly. Pictures always help retrace your steps, even on something this simple.
And here is the new fan!
With the Corsair grill on it, as well as a zip tie to hold the excess wire together...
Here's my adapter I mentioned.
I reassembled the rig with the new fan. I held the excess wire on to the side of the fan with a zip tie mount. It is also important to note that the fan should pull air in from the bottom and push it out of the back of the case. Make sure your fan is facing the right direction.
The entire power supply put back together, with a slightly upside-down fan grill :S...
And that was it. I made sure to keep it in plain view while I played Crysis for a minute or so to kick the power draw up and make sure it is working. I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure it is functioning as intended. If you don't put the fan back in correctly, I'm sure it could damage the system.
I now have a very quiet HX1050 and no warranty. Worth it.
This will void your PSU warranty. You may also put your power supply at risk if you replace your fan with one that doesn't move enough air. Proceed at your own risk.
Difficulty: Easy, but only attempt it if you know the risks and have the basic skills required.
So I bought an HX1050. It's a wonderful power supply. It just happens to be quiet 90% of the time and unbearable the other 10%. As soon as it has any load on it, it kicks into high RPM and sounds awfully loud in comparison to most of my components. I usually run Cougar fans with a fan speed controller. They're already relatively quiet, but I have them nearly silent, with my temperatures remaining exceptionally low (in part thanks to my delidding of my CPU).
So as somebody who doesn't mind destroying my warranties, I decided to fix this problem. I purchased a 140mm cougar fan, matching the 120mm fans I already have on my case. I prefer to walk the line between minimalist and flashy on my cases, so I have a Corsair Carbide 300R with Cougar LED fans. I prefer the Cougar fans for their low noise and high RPM as well as the pleasing appearance.
I also needed a 3-pin to 2-pin adapter for the fan, as that appears to be the standard for PSU fans. I was able to find this on Amazon, but local computer retailers did not have it in stock. It isn't a commonplace adapter. That said, it was very inexpensive.
As far as the fan CFM goes, I purchased a fan that was rated for around 75% the airflow of the stock Corsair fan. I believe this will be sufficient to cool my power supply in my environment.
So here's what I did (excuse the mess, my cable management near the PSU is a bit jumbled at the moment, and I didn't bother fully removing the PSU from the case)...
I used a hex key set to remove the casing of the power supply. This involved removing four screws to open it up, and a smaller set of four screws to remove the fan from the chassis.
This is the aforementioned 2-pin fan connector.
And inside, with the fan connector socket in view on the bottom.
Moving along, I took this picture to refer to for re-assembly. Pictures always help retrace your steps, even on something this simple.
And here is the new fan!
With the Corsair grill on it, as well as a zip tie to hold the excess wire together...
Here's my adapter I mentioned.
I reassembled the rig with the new fan. I held the excess wire on to the side of the fan with a zip tie mount. It is also important to note that the fan should pull air in from the bottom and push it out of the back of the case. Make sure your fan is facing the right direction.
The entire power supply put back together, with a slightly upside-down fan grill :S...
And that was it. I made sure to keep it in plain view while I played Crysis for a minute or so to kick the power draw up and make sure it is working. I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure it is functioning as intended. If you don't put the fan back in correctly, I'm sure it could damage the system.
I now have a very quiet HX1050 and no warranty. Worth it.
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