stiligFox's PowerMac G7

[voidfahrenheit]

Thank you so much bro...

 

[poljaap]

Hey stiligFox,

I'm at exactly the same position as this post. I've set my PSU in the original PSU frame. Mounted new fans at the front, now wondering if i should cut a hole in the top to mount the 140mm fan. It's hidious, but if needed, i'll add one.

Opinions differ as to whether it's necessary: some think the PSU needs top-down airflow by design, others think the to little fans from the side are more then adecuate. From your experience, what do you advise? Yours should be running for half a year now. Isn't it overheating?

Regards,
Jaap

 

[stiligFox]

Opinions differ as to whether it's necessary: some think the PSU needs top-down airflow by design, others think the to little fans from the side are more then adecuate. From your experience, what do you advise? Yours should be running for half a year now. Isn't it overheating?

From my experience so far, the two out front are doing fine. The air exiting the PSU is barely warm, especially compared to the air leaving the CPU area. Heat damage is not a concern for me at all. I'm running them at 5v, so they are still very quiet; but they still move air fairly well. I don't know how hot it gets, but I just ordered an infrared thermometer that'll be here in a couple days; I'll run a stress test and report back!

I'll note as well that I got a 750W PSU when my build couldn't even hit 500 - I did this partially so that it can never really get taxed and heated.

A very important note that I should make! A lot is going to depend on your particular PSU. If yours has a movable front daughterboard like mine did, then you can move it out of the way like I did to allow for plenty of air flow. Some PSU's have it fixed in place; this would block 80-90% of the airflow, in which case I would recommend adding a top down style. Also with the front facing fans, you do have to be mindful of the floor dust they'll be trying to pull in. Can you share a picture of the inside of your PSU setup?

Again, I'll post temps in a couple days, but TL;DR version is that the 2 little fans do great ^^

 

[poljaap]

A very important note that I should make! A lot is going to depend on your particular PSU. If yours has a movable front daughterboard like mine did, then you can move it out of the way like I did to allow for plenty of air flow.

Again, I'll post temps in a couple days, but TL;DR version is that the 2 little fans do great ^^

Thanks for your respons. As you can see, i recycled the underside + daughterboard part of the original PSU, as this was the easiest option. I blocks airstream, also will the extra cables which i need to add, i want to hide the extra cables, since the mobo will be upside down the 24p-plug will be very low. I don't think i'm going to shorten the cable, so i'll need to hide it in the PSU.

That being said - its clear i need to add a top-fan. Instead of the ugly black, thick fan i'll go for a slim 92x14 noctua, all the fans will be noctua brown/khaki.

As for dust, i think i'll mount the little fans the other way around, blowing air out instead of sucking in, cause the top fan will probably be blowing in air (or should i switch it?)



Groeten, Jaap

 

[stiligFox]

As for dust, i think i'll mount the little fans the other way around, blowing air out instead of sucking in, cause the top fan will probably be blowing in air (or should i switch it?)

Pushing air (Albiet hot) down into the case seems a better idea to me - maybe someone else can weigh in on it. This will help evacuate the hot air through the PSU as opposed to adding more to inside the case... Pushing the air out the front is a great idea to keep the dust out! I will admit though that with the way your PSU looks (before added cables at least) I think you'd do fine with just the two. Also! Keep in mind there is about 1/2" of space between the back of the case and the PSU - that's where I hid a huge chunk of my cables, without them being inside the PSU itself.

As a last note - when building my PSU, I jumped the PSU connector to let it run (I forget which pins to jump on the 24 connector) and just let it run constantly for a few days on the kitchen counter with a few hard drives attached. This way I was able to keep an eye on it and monitor how warm it got before I sealed it up in the the case. You could do something similar before adding the top fan - will give you a better idea what you're working with heat and air flow wise ^^

 

[voidfahrenheit]

i think the 2 small fans in front of the original psu case is well enough in cooling a psu. i just think so. XD because i was using my old psu on it before i completely modded my G5.

 

[gatofelix86]

Hi StiligFox,

I would like to get the Laserhive custom panel, do they have all the info to recreate one? is there a reference to your particular panel?, thanks in advance.

 

[stiligFox]

Hi StiligFox,

I would like to get the Laserhive custom panel, do they have all the info to recreate one? is there a reference to your particular panel?, thanks in advance.

Sure thing! I'm very flattered that you want to use the panel The Laserhive has all that you need for getting one of the panels ^^ Just shoot them an email!

 

[stiligFox]

Isn't [the PSU] overheating?

Hey there again! I got my IR thermometer in and tested my PSU heat. Sadly I can't open it up to test the components directly; the best I could do was to point the gun against the exiting part of the PSU and take the highest temp I got. I did a stress test on my rig and took the temp after about 30 minutes of running at that pace. I got 33-34 degrees Celcius; the gun has a +- 2°C accuracy. So how much of that was the actual internal heat vs the heat of the aluminum case, I'm not sure, but it gives a decent idea of how hot it was getting. The case immediately above the PSU area was sitting at about 80°F. I can also tell by just feel that it's not quite as warm of air as what's coming from the main CPU fans.

hope it helps a bit ~ I know it's not very precise due simply to the fact I'm trying to access heat through a series of 3mm holes. Good luck with your PSU!

 

[stiligFox]

Hi StiligFox,

I would like to get the Laserhive custom panel, do they have all the info to recreate one? is there a reference to your particular panel?, thanks in advance.

Were you able to get the info you needed?