Making the A4000 silent / A4000 PSU ventilation

[patrik]

@Jose:

Here are some ideas on how you can modify the A4000D powersupply to improve airflow drasticly:
The back of the powersupply
The front of the powersupply

Regarding the issue with almost no clearance between the back of the CD-ROM drive and the powersupply, read this thread about short CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives.

Some general tips to lower heat and improve airflow in the A4000D:
- Make sure to remove all unused backplates to improve airflow in general as thats the area where air is supposed to be sucked in.

- Route all cables in a way that interferes as little as possible with the airflow and preferably use rounded IDE, SCSI and if possible floppy cables.

- Only mount one harddrive internally in the A4000D and make sure its not a heat-monster. Honestly - there is no need for more than one harddrive - drives are big and cheap enough nowadays for you to be able to use just use one.

- Remove all expansion-cards which are just sitting there but not being used.


Good luck!


/Patrik

[patrik]

@Jose:

The CD-ROM drive I mentioned in the thread about short CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives will set you back somewhere around 10-15EUR which is a quite reasonable amount of money.

For a silent fan I would recommend a Papst fan. The 12dB(A), 33m3/h model is very silent and should cover your cooling-needs, but I would recommend the 19dB(A) 45m3/h model in combination with for example a Zalman Fan Mate 1 or Fan Mate 2 to give you a great possibility to freely choose from a scale between silent operation with low airflow to not as silent operation with high airflow depending on your current cooling needs. There are adapters to connect the 3-pin fan-connectors to 4-pin molex harddrive connectors widely available if you dont feel like soldering. The stores selling the fans and fancontrollers mentioned above _should_ have those adapters in stock.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@Jose:

The meaning with the higher capacity 19dB(A) fan in combination with the fan mate was that you would get the possibility to set the fans rpm to whatever you like - for example 1500rpm - then the 19dB(A) fan would be equal to the 12dB(A) fan in rpm and emit an equal noise which is 12dB(A). Then if you one day felt like throwing lots of expansions into your A4000D you would have the possibility to increase the rpm of the fan to increase the aircirculation in the case to keep a low temperature.

A fancontroller like the fan mate is rather hard to compare to a controller which sets the fans rpm according to the temperature. The temperature based fancontroller just sets the rpm to whatever it is built to do a certain temperature disregarding of what you want it to do, but with a fancontroller like the fan mate you can choose the rpm you want.

If you have the computer in a room which has a rather stable temperature, the need for a temperature based fancontroller is very small as the fan will end up at quite the same rpm after a few minutes when the temperature in the case has stabilized.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@Jose:

Those fans looks very promising. The progressive ones have a very sensible temperature-fanspeed-curve. The 80x80x25mm KPE model should be very good for mounting in the A4000D powersupply as you could place the external temperature-sensor near the air-outlets in the back of the powersupply. That way the fan would be regulated based on the temperature the components which have the hottest air flowing over them are experiencing.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@Jose:

It is hard to know if it will move enough air, but if you opt for an heavily expanded system I urge you to widen the air-outlets at the back of the psu. This as disregarding how powerful fan you will get it will be severely limited by the tiny outlets.

I also again recommend you to follow the general advices I gave to you in an earlier post regarding how to increase the air circulation and lower the temp in the A4000D case by simple means like removing the backplates which aint used, using rounded cables, routing the cables wise etc.

(edit:)

The fan with the external temp-sensor should cover the A4000D if you mount the sensor in the back of the psu near the air-outlets. This is as it will not directly measure the air temp inside the case - 40C is not a good idea inside the A4000 case. It will instead measure the air from inside the case after it is warmed up by the components inside the PSU which should give a good result. Though there are never any guarantees - if you experience high temperatures you better get a more powerful fan or your A4000 will have a short life and maybe suffer from instability.


/Patrik