Changing PSU fan

Lascar

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Nov 4, 2011
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hello PSU enthusiasts.

I have to ask for help on this one. Ok so i own an Antec EA650 Green, earthwatts green 80+Bronze. Its been bugging me a long time but i never really bothered since i know that my rig actually eats quite a lot 'you can see the specs on my profile'.

So the problem is and has always been that the PSU fan gets quite loud when CPU and RAM start working out, lets say i run Prime95 6 workers torture after a moment you can hear it, well its not very loud but still louder that my Zalman cooler which is annoying.

To the point, can i replace this Fan? I dont want to open up my PSU unless im totally sure.
I can't find a proper service manual for it :S.

I don't even know what kind of fan is in there, but i plan on probably changing it for a Cooler Master R4.

http://products.ncix.com/detail/cooler-master-r4-l2r-20ac-120mm-blue-led-case-fan-2000rpm-69cfm-19dba-3-4-pin-a4-42176.htm

Thanks for your time
 
Solution
I'm not going to try to talk you into it.
You have to be comfortable with it.

It would pretty hard to mess up.

Maybe if you hit it with a hammer when it is apart.

Usually 4 screws to remove the cover.
4 screws to remove the old fan.
Snip the 2 wires off, tape them, or hot glue them, or snip them off close to the place they are soldered.

4 screws to put the fan back in.
Run the plug out of the enclosure, with the other wires.
Put the cove back on.
You are done.

Re install in the case, and plug it in.

You can hook it to a fan controller.
If you do that, get one a little faster than the original, and you can turn it down, if need.

If you don't know the speed, check the amps.
If you match the amps, the speed will be about the...
I am almost sure that power supply has a standard 120mm fan. Replacing it can be done for sure, you just have to make sure the replacement pushes enough air to keep it cool. Chances are you will have to splice the fan connector because most power supply fans are not 3 pin(many are 2[my guess is that this is in the ea650] and some are even 4 pin pwm. I would open and check the power supply before ordering the replacement fan.)

I too find that power supply is somewhat loud. I mean the system I have on it would be lucky to pull 350 watts from it. It is mostly that it seems to alternate from a not noticeable speed to a very noticeable one(it may well just be the way the fan works because I have seen this with some fans too[they get noisy and then a bit faster actually quiets them down].).
 
You certainly can change it, although the Nancy boys will object, cause it is too dangerous.
Bull.

I have changed several over the years.

You will most likely have to splice it in, as few have plugs.

A better Idea I used the last 2 times, is get a 3 or 4 pin case fan, and install it, but run the plug out of the enclosure, with the other wires, and plug it into the motherboard, or a molex.
I have had power supplies that came like that new.
 


Ok let's leave nancy boys out of this lol, doesn't sound right. Anyways as i said i do not wish to endanger my PSU because of some noise. I would need some solid stuff to get going, or its a no go for me. But 19dba at 2000rpm ................ i want that in my psu :S. But still not at the cost of $80+.
 
I have swapped many power supply fans in the past. I have never had issues with it.

Just so you know 2000 rpm @ 19 dba must be at like 3 meters away or something. Hell 1000 rpm fans have a hard time keeping to 19 db at any close distance.

When you splice in a fan, you can actually keep the yellow wire attached to the fan and plug(so it will just be a 3 pin plug with a single yellow wire attached while the black and red wires are getting power from within the power supply) and use your board to monitor the fan speeds. If you see the fan is running near max speed all the time, you know the fan is not powerful enough(if the power supply was too hot, it would push the fan close to max to avoid damage to it self.).
 
I'm not going to try to talk you into it.
You have to be comfortable with it.

It would pretty hard to mess up.

Maybe if you hit it with a hammer when it is apart.

Usually 4 screws to remove the cover.
4 screws to remove the old fan.
Snip the 2 wires off, tape them, or hot glue them, or snip them off close to the place they are soldered.

4 screws to put the fan back in.
Run the plug out of the enclosure, with the other wires.
Put the cove back on.
You are done.

Re install in the case, and plug it in.

You can hook it to a fan controller.
If you do that, get one a little faster than the original, and you can turn it down, if need.

If you don't know the speed, check the amps.
If you match the amps, the speed will be about the same.

Another choice is a thermostatically controlled fan.
That probably be what is in there.
 
Solution

Amps do not = speed on computer fans. Gentle Typhoons(ap15) take less power than many 1200 rpm fans and spin at 1750-1850rpm. Amps can mean pure power(torque), but once a computer fan is spinning, it does not need much to keep moving.

I do not see many power supplies with a thermally controlled(built into the fan) fan because they push air into the Power supply and the internal competent temperature is what controls the fan, most times by variable voltage. A thermal fan should only be used if the power supply pulls air into the case and run on 12 volts all the time
 
With 25 years of checking fan speed, vs amps, I beg to differ.

Sure you can find exceptions, but they are usually pretty close, unless they have completely different fans.

I won't argue about the thermal fan as the only ones I have seen are the ones with an out fan.
 


I most certainly see your point and i appreciate the guidance, i also have electronics degree its no problem for me to meddle with a PSU. But if as expected it is soldered i will not go further not to risk wasting a solid PSU which has been running awesome for 3 years.

If i had a replacement i would hook it to a controller and a temp sensor etc but better not risk it. Better some noise than buying a new PSU for 80 bucks xD.
 
I see your point, also.

I had the benefit, of dozens of used computers, when I started, many years ago.
Some through the company I worked for, and we would buy pallets of used computers, at the State Auction.

So when I learned and practiced, I wasn't working on anything valuable.

Never wrecked a power supply.

A few processors though.
 


Well ofc any pesron with a stable brain cells and limited funds would never fiddle with an 80bucks healthy good quality PSU.

xD But on the same note i found pictures of its inside. Though not very clear the fan looks like a two pin connector fan. But i'd have to open it up to really make sure and i really dont wana do that.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/antec-earthwatts-ea-650w-review-green-2011/3/

Guide me through this blurry problem :3 on first look it may look like a 2 pin connector, but i am pretty sure it is a bit more than a simply easy detachable 2 pin fan.
 


Ye i guess i'm being to restless about it. However now im moving in another direction, identifying the cause of the PSU fan going up in speed. Trying to find out the which hardware, though im pretty sure i found the source, i'm asking around for proper guidance on identifying the latter.

 


It is quite apparent that is ramps up according to the power draw, however considering ambient temp, case temp and system temps at 50-75% load the machine running 40-50C, while drawing the power i guess it is quite normal it would start being a bit loud, not irritating but well having it sound louder than my room fan right next to my ear is kind of annoying lol. But still i think if i swap my grafix ill be fin. I just ordered a watt meter from ebay i'll wait for it and see.
 


Hopefully that'll help me rat out any other power issues at home too if any.
 
I actually went from a 4870 to a 5770(no performance gain, but power savings for sure) to see how much it would help. I find it is just at certain loads it kind of has a harmonic type of sound.

When I get a chance, I will see if I can do some idle/load tests(I think idle on the system that has it was about 150 watts).

I wish I picked up more AP15's(not as fast as the stock fan, but I do not think it ever gets to full speed anyway. May even be able to bring out a wire to see how many volts the fan gets at different loads.) as that may have been an option for me(I can get a new power supply if I kill it :) . I call these excuses to upgrade).
 


well my system with the HD 6790 is more demanding than a 4870 or 5770. My suspicions are primarily targeting to that dude. But when i get the watt meter ill be able to get some right numbers.
 
Do not let the 4870's age fool you it is actually more power hungry than a 6790(and a 6970 is just more than a 5770). Now if that was a typo and it was a 6970, they yeah, about 80-90 watts more at full load.

You know what is funny. The GTX 670 takes less than all of them :). Power efficiency is something that has improved quite a bit over the years.
 


Also yeah now that we are discussing it, prime95 tears at ram and cpu only so its at max power consumption on prime. However under normal circumstances my CPU does not ever exceed 50% except maybe when playing heavy games marking all my 6 cores as in use + tearing at my power hungry GPU. So after this thread and another one i think that it is indeed my GPU that has to be upgraded cuz it only does that when in game or watching movies or other videos online etc. And also my GPU is one of those that use 2 six pins power i don't find it weird to hear the noise. But hey im like any1 else i bugs me XD

But btw u are mistaken, the 4870 and the 6790 both have a max TDP of 150W. The 6970 is out of the question its a beast card tdp of 300W. My only mistake there was at the time, the specs of the 6790 were better than the 6850 and it was cheaper, but i did not consider the power draw and the downfall of it, it just seemed the good way to go since the 6850 was 30 bucks more and 6870 was 70 bucks more. THough no mistake, it is still a very nice card that runs my games nicely and at the time it handled games like crysis 2 on ultra with hd patch without any problem at 1080p for a 3 year old card still doing this great apart from the power issue no cons whatsoever.
 
If you see here, You will notice that the 4870 still did take more power than the 6790.

The TDP is a good worst case number, but as you can see the 4870 passes it when something like furmarks is run and even a extremely stressful game could pull it over 150.

On the plus side, some cards(and even cpus) run under TDP and this makes them good for systems with lower wattage power supplies.
 


True but realistically, if we compare the products according to their era well they are the same with a few tweaks. Only stuff like 3dmark etc or new games like BF4 or Crysis 3 would make the TDP meaningless. But i guess that we can't really compare different eras. Though the 4870 was a great card during its time, the best if i remember, me i was trying to get a measly 3870 at the time xD