Cooling the power supply without a fan?

[Szech]

I recently have been obsessed with making a dead silent computer. In order to do this, I must reduce the number of fans in the computer (mine has eight), among other things. I figure with water cooling or heat pumps, I could get it down to one fan, the power supply. But that's not good enough darnit! I was salvaging parts from an old computer, and when I removed the power supply fan, I noticed that there is a heatsink that is connected to three chips. Granted modern power supplies aren't built too differently, could I attach a water block to that heatsink (it is flat, btw), and have no fan in the power supply?

[Rat]

The transformer in that PS prduces heat as well and needs dissipation.

Rat...

[nunyadam]

myself i would not do it . i'm sure you could attach a water cooling setup in an power supply ,but it would be very dangerous. in your case your dealing with 12v,and low amperage.in the supply 120v and alot of amp's (whatever your input from the wall can throw at you) you could lose more than your computer if you had a leak.

[tonym]

Szech,

In a word...NO!

Resist. Don't do it. Water and 120VAC=bad!

What you might consider doing instead is to use a speed controlled fan and set is to low speed.

Another trick you might want to try is a tuned/ducted air port on the rear of the PSU. You can experiment to get the right length with a large cardboard tube or some rolled paper. Once youve got the proper length (minimum sound level), you can then fabricate up a folded port to replicate the length that you need. This is exactly how BOSE does their speaker thing!

You could also try to find a quieter PSU fan and replace it.

IF you must liquid cool the PSU, then you'd have to make some serious modificqations to the heatsinks within the PSU. Remember, these heatsinks shouldn't be connected together UNLESS they are all on the primary side (120VAC) or all on the secondary side (+5/3.3/12, etc.). Connecting primary-to-secondary is just plain dangerous and a shock/fire hazard!

Also, remember that ANY modifications that you do to a UL/CSA recognized PSU makes YOU responsible for any damages incurred in a fire or other nasty occurrence that might occur due to your mods. Your insurance company will definitely reject your claim when the fire reconstruction team sifts out your modded PSU from the ashes and determines it's the cause!!!

If you really want to pursue the "no fan" PSU approach, shoot me an e-mail and I can give you some ideas! (I've done quite a few high-efficiency designs for computers in the past...), just don't fool around with the PSU unless you've had serious experience with power electronics in the past!


Tony

[Szech]

Oh... wow! Looks like the fanless idea isn't going to fly then http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif. I do lack experience with electrical stuff, and I don't think it's worth the risk. I'm actually quite interested in some of your suggestions tonym, I'll drop you a line.

[JayMan]

hah, u guys gotta come out here, nothin beats good ol' 240Volts :-) if u thought 120Volts was bad, good ol' aussie 240v has to take the cake. Don't ask me why we have 240v, we just like more power i guess :-)

JayMan

[Beemer]

I have a Compaq presario 4540. It's the quietest machine I have found to date. The fan on the PSU cycles air out of the PSU cavity as well as it has a air scoop that leads to the CPU off the forward position. The CPU has a deck of rather long cooling fins and the scoop draws the hot air from them and back through the PSU chamber and out the back of the case. I run a speaker phone from right in front of my tower and I have no problems with the speaker function cutting in and out from the sound of the fan. I have friends that can't run a speaker phone in the same room as their computer because of the noise that eminates from their machine. A tuned port seems to be the answer.

Cheers!