Fan replacement on PSU

[electropical]

Hi,

Let's say one finds himself in a situation where the fan on his PSU died prematurely, and can't RMA it (still under warranty but shipping is too expensive to be worth it).
Therefore the only available option is to replace the defective fan with one's own means.

What qualities does the replacement fan need to have (other than size and static pressure) for a dc-controlled fan?

For example, would this Arctic P14 DC version be a good replacement for the NR140P that comes with the AX1500i?
If not, why?

 

Thanks in advance

[flibberdipper]

Coming from someone who has swapped out fans on 3 (likely going to be 4 at some point) PSUs, as long as they move roughly the same amount of air, you're set.

 

Something I usually do just as insurance policy is run the fan straight off the mobo so I don't have to deal with both the extra cable length inside the PSU as well as de-pinning the replacement fan to make it work in the (basically always) 2-pin header. And then as an added bonus, with newer boards I can always just control the fan speed on a whim.

 

And of course, mandatory PSUs dangerous, don't touch things, yadda yadda.

[WhitetailAni]

23 minutes ago, flibberdipper said:

Coming from someone who has swapped out fans on 3 (likely going to be 4 at some point) PSUs, as long as they move roughly the same amount of air, you're set.

 

Something I usually do just as insurance policy is run the fan straight off the mobo so I don't have to deal with both the extra cable length inside the PSU as well as de-pinning the replacement fan to make it work in the (basically always) 2-pin header. And then as an added bonus, with newer boards I can always just control the fan speed on a whim.

 

And of course, mandatory PSUs dangerous, don't touch things, yadda yadda.

I might do that.

The fan on my MC server's PSU is getting annoying.

And since I happen to have a 2-pin fan...

[RTXOutOfStockEdition]

I just replaced a fan from an old Antec PSU yesterday. 3 pin fan run off an external fan controller. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, electropical said:

What qualities does the replacement fan need to have (other than size and static pressure) for a dc-controlled fan?

Except that the AX1500i's fan is not a DC fan.  It's PWM.

 

Where are you located where it would cost more than the PSU is worth to have it replaced under warranty?

[electropical]

18 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Except that the AX1500i's fan is not a DC fan.  It's PWM.

Yeah, my bad, just figured out all the RMi/HXi/AXi use pwm fans...
I do not own an AX1500i, I just named a PSU that uses a 140mm fan to give a proper use case for a P14.

To give more context to my question, here's the story :
Not that long ago, someone asked me for advice on how to use his RMi : fan down or up? Zero-RPM mode or fixed low rpm?

My main problem with the 2nd question is that I still don't know what's more durable overall :
- zero-rpm mode => increases lifespan of the fan (???).
- no zero-rpm mode => increased lifespan of PCB and components, with the risk of wearing the fan out (could be wrong about that too).

Which leads to the question : what's the safest option here : let that fan spin all the time at low rpm, or use zero-rpm mode to try and prevent both fan failure and ensuing RMA shipping cost?

 

18 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Where are you located where it would cost more than the PSU is worth to have it replaced under warranty?

From where I live, shipping a 1000w unit to California would cost at least $250 (according to online calculators, and assuming that the PSU box weighs 3 kg). And even if one has the option to send the unit to some french/german branch of Corsair, it would still cost around $100.

And you would still have to wait for weeks if not months to get a working PSU back, customs making sure stuff like this is well-suited for our local nominal supply voltage.

 

If one ends up letting that fan spin and sees it fail with 1-2 years of warranty left, should he just bite the bullet and void his warranty by having an electrician swap out the fan for him?

If so, what kind of fan should be used? Is the PWM version of the P14 good enough for an RM1000i? Would it even fit inside?

Here's another example :
A guy was asking me questions about how to use the Asus ROG Strix 1000w : hybrid mode or normal mode.

As you most likely already know, Asus chose to get rid of the FDB Hong Hua fan of the Focus, and went with a DBB fan (Everflow FB14025BH).

If someone was to ask you whether he should use the hybrid mode or not, what would you advise him to do (considering how "durable" DBBs are) ?

I don't even know how noisy that thing is on low RPMs, hard to make any recommendation...

[Guest]

If you're in the EU, you would not send the PSU to California.  You would send it to the Netherlands. 

 

And Zero RPM vs always on is not a choice between fan life and PSU life.  It's strictly a noise preference. 

 

And the reason some went from the Hong Hua FDB to the Everflow DBB has nothing to do with durability.  It had to do with cost (the Everflow costs half as much). 

[Guest]

Now that I'm not mobile, I can elaborate on the fan thing....

 

If the fan spins always, but at a minimum of 800 RPM, it will stay 800 RPM for a much longer period of time.  If the volume and pitch of the fan spinning at that speed doesn't bother you, then it's ideal.

 

If that bothers you, you use the Zero RPM fan mode.  But once that fan DOES need to turn on, it's going to spin up past 800 RPM and it's going to do it much sooner and run for much longer before it can go back down to zero.

 

Now, the trade off for the latter might make a difference to most.  The fan in the PSU doesn't need to spin if you're just surfing the web or listening to music.  And when the PSU does put out more power, runs hotter and needs that fan to start spinning, you're likely doing something like gaming, etc. and the graphics card fan's are probably going to drown out the PSU fan.. oh.. and you're probably also wearing headphones. 

 

[electropical]

@jonnyGURU Thanks a lot for all the info provided!

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, electropical said:

@jonnyGURU Thanks a lot for all the info provided!

 

Oh.. also.... to avoid down time, you can ask the support person to do an advanced replacement.  Essentially, they put a hold on your card for the value of the replacement PSU, ship it to you, then release the credit hold when they get the defective unit back from you.