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BladeRunner · 05-23-2003, 03:51 AM

The Enermax 550 watt PSU I modified is now about a year and a half old since being water-cooled, (it's about three years old overall). In that 1½ years its been run almost every day all day without any fans or forced air-cooling. In that time I've had different people voice concerns about the issues extending the mosfet wires will cause, a Bang & Olfsen engineer was very worried and told me it just wouldn't work

Others have said it will make no real difference as long as the wires are kept short and the PSU is not run anywhere near it's full rated output. The beauty of being a modder at heart over an engineer, is we are willing to try things accepting the consequences of negative results. I was fully prepaired for it to not work when I started, but like I said it's running fine and has been for 1½ years water-cooled.

I have done some further mods, one to cool a coil that was getting hotter than I liked, the other to the case to help the general airflow and for aesthetics as well.

Those that have copied my solution, may find it wont always work, because PSU's all differ by make. Some designs may rely on the fans airflow to cool other components that are not so obvious as mosfets etc. Basically ALL current PC PSU's are poor by design layout and build whatever the make, (at least all that I've come across), and a clean sheet design is required imo..... something that is designed from the outset to be cool, powerful and has some quality in the componentry, layout and construction. I did think my 5v rail was a problem as it was dipping to a reported 4.62v in gaming, although system stability was fine. recently I upgraded to a new motherboard (from a Via kt333, Abit KX7 333-R to a Nforce 2 Abit NF7-S rev2), and I now have a 5v rail that reports no lower than 5.00v underload in windows software (MBM5) . This just goes to show you can't rely on windows software reported voltages, best to test it with a quality multimeter.

I have an update to the PSU build detailed on my site, but not the time to update my site atm. Contains some findings and solutions, if you want to read it you can download the update file HERE

The pics are not included in the file but the image file names are mentioned in the text and on my sites server running from:-

http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/picture...su/psu_024.jpg

to:-

http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/picture...su/psu_034.jpg

in numbered order.

Here is what the PSU looks like now, (except to unify the system with my new CPU splitter block, I've changed the PSU water-block to 8mm festo from it's previous 6mm).

05-23-2003, 03:51 AM	#17
BladeRunner Cooling Savant Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Chesterfield Uk Posts: 459	The Enermax 550 watt PSU I modified is now about a year and a half old since being water-cooled, (it's about three years old overall). In that 1½ years its been run almost every day all day without any fans or forced air-cooling. In that time I've had different people voice concerns about the issues extending the mosfet wires will cause, a Bang & Olfsen engineer was very worried and told me it just wouldn't work Others have said it will make no real difference as long as the wires are kept short and the PSU is not run anywhere near it's full rated output. The beauty of being a modder at heart over an engineer, is we are willing to try things accepting the consequences of negative results. I was fully prepaired for it to not work when I started, but like I said it's running fine and has been for 1½ years water-cooled. I have done some further mods, one to cool a coil that was getting hotter than I liked, the other to the case to help the general airflow and for aesthetics as well. Those that have copied my solution, may find it wont always work, because PSU's all differ by make. Some designs may rely on the fans airflow to cool other components that are not so obvious as mosfets etc. Basically ALL current PC PSU's are poor by design layout and build whatever the make, (at least all that I've come across), and a clean sheet design is required imo..... something that is designed from the outset to be cool, powerful and has some quality in the componentry, layout and construction. I did think my 5v rail was a problem as it was dipping to a reported 4.62v in gaming, although system stability was fine. recently I upgraded to a new motherboard (from a Via kt333, Abit KX7 333-R to a Nforce 2 Abit NF7-S rev2), and I now have a 5v rail that reports no lower than 5.00v underload in windows software (MBM5) . This just goes to show you can't rely on windows software reported voltages, best to test it with a quality multimeter. I have an update to the PSU build detailed on my site, but not the time to update my site atm. Contains some findings and solutions, if you want to read it you can download the update file HERE The pics are not included in the file but the image file names are mentioned in the text and on my sites server running from:- http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/picture...su/psu_024.jpg to:- http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/picture...su/psu_034.jpg in numbered order. Here is what the PSU looks like now, (except to unify the system with my new CPU splitter block, I've changed the PSU water-block to 8mm festo from it's previous 6mm). __________________ Zero Fan Zone Last edited by BladeRunner; 05-23-2003 at 06:47 AM.