What make of PSU do you recommend for future reference? How easy is it to
change the rear fan? What type of fan should I get if not sleeve-bearing
type?
There are many good name-brands, that is the assurance of quality.
Antec, Sparkle/Fortron, Delta, higher-wattage Enermax, PC Power &
Cooling, "some" of the Channel Wells, Seasonic, it can depend on what
wattage you want too, and the price-point.
For example, the least costly >= 400W I'd consider would be a Chieftec
420W, but their fans aren't the greatest either, yet fans are
relatively cheap. The best value at >= 400W is probably a
Sparkle/Fortron 400W, but they lack an air intake on the underside, so
more attention is needed for motherboard cooling. Sparkle/Fortron are
also one of the best values at the 300-350W range, and quieter than
average too.
Antecs are solid but overpriced in the Truepower series, as are
Seasonics, and Enermax are good as well but too optimistically rated,
figure only worth 70-80% of rated wattage compared to the other
aforementioned brands. Deltas are arguably the best bang-for-buck and
good quality, but usually only OEM, hard to find and they sell out
quick when a vendor gets a single lot of them.
Of course there are others but they're harder to find, the main point
would be to buy a brand that's a manufacturer of PSU, or field-tested
to be good, like Antec. Many of these PSU manufacturers also make
generic PSU, but they don't put THEIR name on the label on those
lower-end models.
I don't know how easy the rear fan is to change, it depends on whether
they soldered it to the PCB or not. I thought those had a single,
small connector on the PCB, into which was plugged a splitter with
two plugs on it, into which both fans were plugged. If that's the
situation then you can unplug the fan from the splitter and buy
another with same connector, or perhaps it's as easy to solder-on the
leads to the old fan connector, rather than hunting around for a fan
with the connector already on it, as the connector isn't the common
type found on motherboards, such a fan would be available at
electronics supply houses rather than PC shops or PC vendors. The
best solution is probably to buy the exact fan you want and then go
from there, whatever is needed to adapt to the PSU.
There are only a couple of decent sleeve-bearing fan makes IMHO, Papst
and Panaflo, but for the rear exhaust on a PSU it is best to use a
name-brand dual ball-bearing fan. A few decent makes might include
Nidec, NMB, Sunon, Papst, Delta, Sanyo-Denki, Comair-Rotron, Panaflo's
Ball-bearing versions (which are rare, hard to find). Choose similar
RPM or amperage rating for similar airflow, or if you're confident
that it'll stay cool with lower airflow, noise, you might choose a
somewhat lower RPM fan.
Dave
Dave
