radiator cooler on PSU?

[Tmt97]

Any reason I can't mount an 120mm radiator on the side of my PSU in the front of the 120mm fan? The idea just occurred to me. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't mount properly, but I wanted to know if I'm missing any reason it'd be a bad idea.

[VTF5252]

Just now, Tmt97 said:

Any reason I can't mount an 120mm radiator on the side of my PSU in the front of the 120mm fan? The idea just occurred to me. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't mount properly, but I wanted to know if I'm missing any reason it'd be a bad idea.

So using the fan in the PSU to push air thru a rad? If thats what you're saying then probably shouldn't. the fans aren't meant to they are in my experience just cheap little fans that are meant to be slightly more than passive cooling.

[Elehat]

many PSU fans don't run all of the time, and aren't very heavy duty when they are spinning, wouldn't recommend in general.

[Syntaxvgm]

You can, with some caveats-

Doing this on a  bottom mounted PSU is a risk- a leak could potentially cause a fire. A top moused or side mounted one for itx/matx cases is  a better use case. 

You need to open up your PSU, voiding the warranty. This means you need to be prepared safety wise, and the old fan is likely soldered in.  The fan will need to be swapped and controlled from the outside of the psu. Thankfully if for some reason the fan doesn't turn on and the psu gets too hot it will just shut off. The fan should be always on obv. 

There will be no way to monitor the temperature of the PSU if it's not one of those smart ones with software. In addition, a single 120mm rad cooling something can exhaust quite some heat. I suggest making it an intake, and making the case pull air back to front. In addition, before doing this, figure out how fast the psu fan moves under close to max load in a hot room. Likely not fast, but double check. 

Finally, this can cause dust, even in a positive pressure situation. You may want to figure out a filter solution, or be prepared to clean the PSU every now and then. 

If it's an ITX case with no room, I say it's a pretty cool thing to do!

edit

I have no idea why people on this thread are assuming you would be using the PSU fan. Kinda ridiculous. 

[Tmt97]

15 minutes ago, Elehat said:

many PSU fans don't run all of the time, and aren't very heavy duty when they are spinning, wouldn't recommend in general.

 

19 minutes ago, NTF5252 said:

So using the fan in the PSU to push air thru a rad? If thats what you're saying then probably shouldn't. the fans aren't meant to they are in my experience just cheap little fans that are meant to be slightly more than passive cooling.

No, no! You misunderstand XD. I would just be using it to mount the radiator to since it has 120mm fan holes. I've already modded the PSU to have a noctua nf-p12 on the inside, and I'd be putting another one on top of the radiator outside the PSU.

[Naeaes]

Don't do it. The fan on the PSU is there to cool down the PSU alone.

Also it would be tricky to find a way to mount it to begin with. You'd have to find a way to tighten the screws from within the PSU. Or jerryrig it on there without screws.

[Tmt97]

14 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

You can, with some caveats-

Doing this on a  bottom mounted PSU is a risk- a leak could potentially cause a fire. A top moused or side mounted one for itx/matx cases is  a better use case. 

You need to open up your PSU, voiding the warranty. This means you need to be prepared safety wise, and the old fan is likely soldered in.  The fan will need to be swapped. Thankfully if for some reason the fan doesn't turn on and the psu gets too hot it will just shut off. The fan should be always on obv. 

There will be no way to monitor the temperature of the PSU if it's not one of those smart ones with software. In addition, a single 120mm rad cooling something can exhaust quite some heat. I suggest making it an intake, and making the case pull air back to front. In addition, before doing this, figure out how fast the psu fan moves under close to max load in a hot room. Likely not fast, but double check. 

Finally, this can cause dust, even in a positive pressure situation. You may want to figure out a filter solution, or be prepared to clean the PSU every now and then. 

If it's an ITX case with no room, I say it's a pretty cool thing to do!

The psu is mounted on its side in the case I'm gonna be using. You can see here how its oriented: https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.en.F_AwFpdvDl8.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=PiPeSMD83_uDuM4QQLv0gQrz3n--W1L87LnH_-9NAJH6FcD_zf4fwP_Be9EWCg/rt=h/d=1/t=zcms/rs=AHGWq9BftDQ9vEcLwVZYmmOyHKvnh-P_pQ

 

The PSU never had a warranty, and even if it did, It was lost when I swapped out the internal fan with a noctua nf-p12.

[Syntaxvgm]

Just now, Tmt97 said:

The psu is mounted on its side in the case I'm gonna be using. You can see here how its oriented: https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.en.F_AwFpdvDl8.O/m=m_i,t,it/am=PiPeSMD83_uDuM4QQLv0gQrz3n--W1L87LnH_-9NAJH6FcD_zf4fwP_Be9EWCg/rt=h/d=1/t=zcms/rs=AHGWq9BftDQ9vEcLwVZYmmOyHKvnh-P_pQ

 

The PSU never had a warranty, and even if it did, It was lost when I swapped out the internal fan with a noctua nf-p12.

I don't think you can link an image from gmail 

[Tmt97]

12 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I don't think you can link an image from gmail 

woops I didn't mean to. i meant to link this link at newegg:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811128064&cm_re=ark_4u-_-11-128-064-_-Product

[KemoKa]

You could technically do this, but you'd be dumping a load of hot air into your power supply if you're running at load. PSU fans suck air in, not out. Unless you flip the fan, in which case, you're blowing hot air into your cooler under load. Which isn't as bad, but it's not great for cooling. And if your rad leaks, you're screwed.

[Tmt97]

12 minutes ago, KemoKa said:

You could technically do this, but you'd be dumping a load of hot air into your power supply if you're running at load. PSU fans suck air in, not out. Unless you flip the fan, in which case, you're blowing hot air into your cooler under load. Which isn't as bad, but it's not great for cooling. And if your rad leaks, you're screwed.

Well I could flip the fan easily, as I've already opened it up and replaced the current fan with a noctua nf-p12 anyway.

[Tmt97]

edit: accidental double-post

[Tmt97]

Accidental triple post? Not sure how this happened? @mods help? lol

[KemoKa]

1 minute ago, Tmt97 said:

edit: accidental double-post

Triple post. Oops

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

My 600W version of that PSU runs pretty insanely hot. All I hear when gaming is that thing cranking its fan up to full speed and it spewing heat out the back. You really dont want to be adding any more heat into it unless you flip the internal fan around and make the exhaust air from the PSU go INTO the radiator

[Tmt97]

14 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

My 600W version of that PSU runs pretty insanely hot. All I hear when gaming is that thing cranking its fan up to full speed and it spewing heat out the back. You really dont want to be adding any more heat into it unless you flip the internal fan around and make the exhaust air from the PSU go INTO the radiator

Flipping the fan around wouldn't be an issue... Personally I havn't found the 500watt version to put out much heat, so maybe it wouldn't really hinder the radiators cooling performance much? Maybe were getting different results due to different draws on the power? Is your PC drawing most of the 600watts your PSU can supply?

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Tmt97 said:

Flipping the fan around wouldn't be an issue... Personally I havn't found the 500watt version to put out much heat, so maybe it wouldn't really hinder the radiators cooling performance much? Maybe were getting different results due to different draws on the power? Is your PC drawing most of the 600watts your PSU can supply?

Certainly not the full 600, but a 130W CPU and 275W GPU is certainly pretty warm