I just swapped my PSU Fan (Inwin Chopin)

[Dallon426]

Just a heads up.  The PSU on the Inwin chopin is crap.  Well.... The fan is anyway.  I just swapped the out the fan.  Took about 25 minutes.  And now this baby is dead silent.  I cannot hear any noise at all unless I turn up the Processor fan via Speed Fan Controller.

 

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a4x10-flx

 

I swapped out the inwin supplied PSU fan for the Noctua.  The only tricky part is that the Noctua has a LONG cable.  So you have to tuck it inside the PSU.  Also I did not use the low noise adapter.  There was not enough room.  But... Thankfully I do not need it. 

 

I was a little upset because I built this to record music in and over the last year the PSU was getting noiser and noiser.  I took it apart and realized I could swap the fan.  So I highly recommend it!

 

 

 

 

 

[seon123]

The fan spins in order to move enough air. You can't just get a lower RPM fan and expect it to be safe. 

[Dallon426]

You realize Noctua fans are some of the best in the industry?  

[seon123]

20 minutes ago, Dallon426 said:

You realize Noctua fans are some of the best in the industry?  

You do realise they still need to spin at a decent speed in order to move enough air? 

[Dallon426]

On 11/11/2018 at 3:46 PM, seon123 said:

You do realise they still need to spin at a decent speed in order to move enough air? 

Do you know the rpm of the stock psu fan?  Because this noctua is doing the job much better.  No noise.  Fan spins.  

It's an Upgrade for a reason. It's superior to the other fan.  I didn't install the low noise wire. So it's spinning at 3700 rpm.  You're acting as if I just took the fan out and left it alone. Lol

 

Also the fan in the inwin Chopin used to be quiet.  It just sucks and started getting really loud.  

 

 

[Stefan Payne]

On 11/11/2018 at 3:25 PM, Dallon426 said:

You realize Noctua fans are some of the best in the industry?  

You realize that everyone is limited to the natural lawas and physics and can't violate it?

 

Didn't you learn anything in school?!

[Dallon426]

I suppose this was an option.  Live and learn. Still... Noctua

 

 

[Choc_Labradors]

Hey Dallon,

 

I am actually going to start a new build using the inwin chopin for my sister. I am also concerned about all the complaints about the PSU noise. How hard was it to swap out the stock PSU fan? Is it simply just bolt on? is the PSU mounted in the case in any particular way or is it easily removable? Also, just curious what CPU you used. Were you worried about not enough power from the 150 watts?

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

On 11/9/2018 at 6:29 AM, Dallon426 said:

Just a heads up.  The PSU on the Inwin chopin is crap.  Well.... The fan is anyway.  I just swapped the out the fan.  Took about 25 minutes.  And now this baby is dead silent.  I cannot hear any noise at all unless I turn up the Processor fan via Speed Fan Controller.

 

https://noctua.at/en/nf-a4x10-flx

 

I swapped out the inwin supplied PSU fan for the Noctua.  The only tricky part is that the Noctua has a LONG cable.  So you have to tuck it inside the PSU.  Also I did not use the low noise adapter.  There was not enough room.  But... Thankfully I do not need it. 

 

I was a little upset because I built this to record music in and over the last year the PSU was getting noiser and noiser.  I took it apart and realized I could swap the fan.  So I highly recommend it!

 

 

 

 

 

And now the PSU will overheat and blow up.

 

Mission accomplished.

 

[William104]

Okay, I know I'm a bit late (as in very late), but what's up with all the Noctua hate?

 

A Noctua can move just as much air as the stock one while remaining quiet. Fans don't have to sound like a jet engine just to move a lot of air.

 

Mind blown.

[Letgomyleghoe]

6 minutes ago, William104 said:

Okay, I know I'm a bit late (as in very late), but what's up with all the Noctua hate?

 

A Noctua can move just as much air as the stock one while remaining quiet. Fans don't have to sound like a jet engine just to move a lot of air.

 

Mind blown.

Because you can't regular speed, and you don't know how much air the original fan was moving.

 

We're not "hating" on noctua, where "hating" on the bad planning of this project, and thought process behind it. 

 

[Norwegiantweaker]

by next month hes gonna be "my psu died and took all the hardware with it" 

[virtualmang]

I highly doubt the cheap garbage stock fan moves more air than the literally award-winning Noctua fan

 

EDIT: I was ignorant on this subject. See more below.

[Ralf]

2 hours ago, virtualmang said:

I highly doubt the cheap garbage stock fan moves more air than the literally award-winning Noctua fan

Delta fans can move twice as much air than your award-winning fan. Praise Noctua.

[Guest]

On 11/9/2018 at 6:29 AM, Dallon426 said:

Just a heads up.  The PSU on the Inwin chopin is crap.  Well.... The fan is anyway.  I just swapped the out the fan.

Cool!  Let us know when the PSU blows up.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, virtualmang said:

I highly doubt the cheap garbage stock fan moves more air than the literally award-winning Noctua fan

The "award winning Noctua fan" is shit if you have the proper equipment to test it.  

 

The PSU fan is made to produce static pressure in tight quarters; which the Noctua is not.

 

It's not just about "moving air".  There's more to a fan profile than CFM.  There's also static pressure.

[virtualmang]

Thanks...I didn't know that lol. Are there better 40mm options than the stock fan that have a good static pressure rating? Are am I stuck with having to choose between a loud PSU or replacing the PSU entirely?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, virtualmang said:

Thanks...I didn't know that lol. Are there better 40mm options than the stock fan that have a good static pressure rating? Are am I stuck with having to choose between a loud PSU or replacing the PSU entirely?

You replace the PSU with one that is engineered to be quiet.

 

By having a proper PCB layout to optimize airflow.  Adequate heatsinks and/or sinking heat to the PSU housing, etc.

 

I say it every day:  A PSU is so much more than a metal box filled with caps.

[virtualmang]

Thank you for the info jonny.

 

Having learned about the importance of static pressure, I decided to look into this deeper. I removed the stock fan from my InWin Chopin PSU. I found that it's an Adda AD0412MB-G70 (T1). The fan's specs were available on their website. It has a max static pressure of 1.98 mmH20 and CFM of 4.7. I bought a Noctua A4x10 PWM (most are buying the FLX so this is important to note). The Noctua PWM has a static pressure of 1.95 mmH20 and CFM of 8.9. So, Stock = 1.98 / 4.7. Noctua = 1.95 / 8.9. It would seem the Noctua PWM is a safe replacement for the stock fan.

 

I connected mine to the mobo and I'm running an aggressive fan curve based on CPU temp (which is the only thing in my build that draws significant power). So as soon as things start to get toasty, the Noctua quickly hits the same static pressure that the stock fan would.

 

Speaking of the FLX version of the fan, it has a slightly lower static pressure of 1.78. Since that is lower spec than stock I can see how an argument can be made that the FLX is not as safe of a replacement. If possible, the PWM is the one to buy. Hopefully this is helpful information to some people looking into this.

 

If the entire PSU was easily replaceble, I would have considered that. But then you're adding significant cost and/or having to add a large external power brick etc (The picoPSUs seems a little sketch anyway).

[damaster]

On 3/14/2020 at 8:24 PM, virtualmang said:

Thank you for the info jonny.

 

Having learned about the importance of static pressure, I decided to look into this deeper. I removed the stock fan from my InWin Chopin PSU. I found that it's an Adda AD0412MB-G70 (T1). The fan's specs were available on their website. It has a max static pressure of 1.98 mmH20 and CFM of 4.7. I bought a Noctua A4x10 PWM (most are buying the FLX so this is important to note). The Noctua PWM has a static pressure of 1.95 mmH20 and CFM of 8.9. So, Stock = 1.98 / 4.7. Noctua = 1.95 / 8.9. It would seem the Noctua PWM is a safe replacement for the stock fan.

 

I connected mine to the mobo and I'm running an aggressive fan curve based on CPU temp (which is the only thing in my build that draws significant power). So as soon as things start to get toasty, the Noctua quickly hits the same static pressure that the stock fan would.

 

Speaking of the FLX version of the fan, it has a slightly lower static pressure of 1.78. Since that is lower spec than stock I can see how an argument can be made that the FLX is not as safe of a replacement. If possible, the PWM is the one to buy. Hopefully this is helpful information to some people looking into this.

 

If the entire PSU was easily replaceble, I would have considered that. But then you're adding significant cost and/or having to add a large external power brick etc (The picoPSUs seems a little sketch anyway).

This is great information and I'm looking to do the same thing. Which header on the mobo did you connect the Noctua A4x10 PWM to? And did you get the 5v or 12v version of the fan?

[artuc]

https://au.element14.com/adda/ad0412mb-g70/axial-fan-40mm-12vdc-60ma/dp/1702866

 

It's supposed to be 22dBa fan.

 

How old was it ? Bearing noise?

 

I wouldn't recommend driving it off the motherboard. CPU heat has no real bearing on how hot the PSU is.

 

Should've just got a similar spec industrial fan to replace it directly if it was getting noisy. Sunon, NMB, ebm-papst, Delta, SanAce etc.

[virtualmang]

On 5/21/2020 at 10:04 AM, damaster said:

This is great information and I'm looking to do the same thing. Which header on the mobo did you connect the Noctua A4x10 PWM to? And did you get the 5v or 12v version of the fan?

Sorry for the delay. I connected it one of the chassis headers, there are 2 on my mobo. I bought the 12v version.

 

Also, in response to artuc's comment, I would like to note, first of all, that my fan curve has the PSU fan always running as fast it can without being lt being too loud. So it's always moving a good amout of air regardless of load. And then it ramps up quickly when when the CPU gets hot, because I found that when feeling it with my hand, that's when the PSU started getting hotter and original fan started to get really loud. So are you sure CPU heat/load has no bearing on PSU heat? Because in my case, it seems that it does.

[artuc]

3 hours ago, virtualmang said:

So are you sure CPU heat/load has no bearing on PSU heat? Because in my case, it seems that it does

 

It does as the CPU load correlates to a load on the PSU.

 

However my point is that the CPU temp isn't the PSU. You could have a case with a bottom mount PSU on a shag rug, choked with dust cooking itself. Meanwhile the CPU is nice and cool at idle.

[Algebruh]

Deleted

 

Edit: Nevermind, I decide not to feed the troll.

 

 

[virtualmang]

On 6/7/2020 at 6:19 PM, artuc said:

You could have a case with a bottom mount PSU on a shag rug, choked with dust cooking itself. Meanwhile the CPU is nice and cool at idle.

That's a good point. In my case I made sure my PSU is always getting an adequate flow of fresh air even when the CPU is cool, but I can see my method for this mod being a bad idea for people who do not set this up properly or are unaware of the risks. Going with a similar spec industrial fan plugged into the PSU is probably the safer option.