Power Supply Fan

[CeaSaR]

Anyone have luck converting a 80mm case fan into a PS fan? Reason I ask is that my son's Emachine
started to make rather a good bit of bearing noise from the fan. The PS is a physically small 120 W
unit (still more than enough to run the 433 Celeron) and the fan looks like a custom type, half in half
out of the PS case with only the mounting ears on the outside, the inside is nice and round. I'm thinking
of ordering a replacement and dremelling off the unneeded parts to make it fit.

Would be helpful if anyone else did anything similar.

Thanks in advance,

CeaSaR

[MrAl]

Hi there Ceasar,


I've been playing around with a few custom fan mounts myself lately.

Is there enough room to mount the fan totally on the outside of the PS case?
The fan would bolt onto the metal of the case of the PS itself, with the entire
fan outside the case, yet the air would still blow into the PS through even a round
hole. That would mean no modification of the fan itself.
If it doesnt fit because it protrudes too much out of the PS case, then perhaps one
of those hard drive fans would work because they are thinner than the normal case
fans and yet blow pretty well.
For extra air throughput, perhaps another fan on the exhaust port of the PS to
suck the air out into the ambient. That might mean a fan external to the PC case
but it wouldnt stick out much.

I mention this because i once considered mounting some case fans outside of the
PC case (not the PS case) and i would do it the same way and it would work
just fine.

[CeaSaR]

The clearance on the outside is approximately 17-18mm until the mounting rail for the MOBO/cards
gets in the way. The current fan has about 14mm outside and around 10mm inside. Taking the PS
case into account, it would be a 80x80x25mm fan. I have found some fans at Tiger Direct that will
fit on the outside, but they are about 2/3 the flow of a standard fan. Not good for a PS. Newegg
didn't have that fan, but I did find a fan for the PS there and, while I'm at it, a fan for the CPU also.
Might as well replace that one too. At less that $8.00 including shipping, it would be worthwile. I
can cut 4 tabs off the "PS" fan and add some spacers to fit it in the PS correctly, but I wanted to
find out if anyone else had a similar problem.

The Emachines 433i is a short tower, which is the reason it is a tight fit for all the components.

As for outside, there is a ton of room, but the idea for this machine is to be as quiet as possible-
it is being used for music recording. And the PS is only about 60mm tall. Weird unit. I'll take a look
into a HDD fan, see if it'll do.

Thanks,

CeaSaR

[reloadron]

When I get home today I'll look in my PSU boneyard as I may have something. I know I have an Emachine in the junk pile too. I'll look at that.

Ron

[MrAl]

Hi again,


Ceasar:
What kind of air flow spec are you looking for?
I have a fan sitting right in front of me i may use for a graphics card one day, and
it is 16mm thick, and the reason i mention this is because i got it at NewEgg and
they are 3 dollars each. I can check the air flow for you if you tell me what
you are after.

[reloadron]

I found an old Power Spec machine in the junk pile. Uses an Allied 450 Watt generic PSU with what looks to be a pair of 80 fans both inside. Then I found an old PSU labeled Codegen which is a 400 Watt generic PSU that uses 2 80mm fans one mounted outside and one inside but the outside just hangs out. I also have an assorted pile of 80mm and 120mm fans around here if you want any.

Ron

[CeaSaR]

Gentlemen,

I thank you for all the kind offers. Following MrAl's advice, just after my last post, I found a perfect slimline
fit for my PS that is within 0.67 CFM of the closest case fan I could find. That one was 32.67 CFM while the
slim I found is 32 CFM. Shouldn't be any problem there. Plus I ordered a 50mm CPU fan. With shipping it cost
less than $8.00 for brand new merchandise.

I had to leave right away and couldn't post my finds until now.

Again, thank you for the kind help and offers.

CeaSaR

[CeaSaR]

Got them in tuesday eve. and put them in tonight. All I had to do was solder on the old board connectors
in place of the standard 4pin power supply connectors. I think the new fans move more air at lower noise
levels than the originals. Son #1 is happy!

Thanks to all who offered,

CeaSaR