Need a PSU with an 80mm fan in the end, not a 120/140mm on the large side

[Mohonri]

The title just about says it. I need a PSU that has an 80mm fan in the front or the back, like in ye olden days, rather than on the large side. It's going in a 2U chassis, and I don't know yet whether it'll have space on top for an intake, so I'm trying to moot that question entirely. The power requirements are quite modest--this is a Ryzen 5 5600G in a B450 mobo with 16GB RAM and an NVMe SSD, so no big power draw.

I looked through what newegg has to offer, and came up empty handed except for a couple of Seasonic models (600W and 1000W) which are way overkill.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a suitable PSU?

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Your only choice these days are IED units, which Newegg has several under the "Athena Power" brand, under server supplies. Or the used market and there be dragons.

I don't know why I seem to remember models of old PSUs, but here's what you're looking for. These are obviously used, common things to look out for are bad capacitors, but those can be changed.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334601349976
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325397033318
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115518691803

Another option would be to roll your own PSU out of two PSUs.

Buy a shitty power supply like this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334603100796

Then find a suitable donor and transplant the guts of the donor into it. I've had to make my own power supplies like this, but usually for weird proprietary PSU sizes. A normal ATX to ATX transplant is quite a bit easier, you just have to relocate the standoffs, which isn't terribly difficult.

 

[rhkcommander959]

You can get 1U and 2U server psus instead of normal ATX designs for dirt cheap with 80 plus ratings, but they will scream under loads, is that not an option?

One other potential option might be passive fanless PSUs? I've never tried them and they generally have reduced capacity, but so would any older 80mm model. Seasonic and silver stone had 400-500w fanless designs, I'm sure others do too

 

[Mohonri]

I suppose I could stick a server PSU in there, but the chassis is designed for an ATX PSU.

 

[pitingres]

For your load, a fanless Seasonic 600w would probably work even with limited overhead space. If you can arrange for some sort of generic through airflow, that's probably enough. I run one of those things, and at typical loads of 150-ish watts (at the wall) it barely gets warm.

Not cheap, though, and if the PSU is completely choked off from air, it's probably a bad idea.

 

[lilfiend]

You could use an sfx power supply and use an atx to sfx adapter plate to mount the psu.

 

[Vengance_01]

The title just about says it. I need a PSU that has an 80mm fan in the front or the back, like in ye olden days, rather than on the large side. It's going in a 2U chassis, and I don't know yet whether it'll have space on top for an intake, so I'm trying to moot that question entirely. The power requirements are quite modest--this is a Ryzen 5 5600G in a B450 mobo with 16GB RAM and an NVMe SSD, so no big power draw.

I looked through what newegg has to offer, and came up empty handed except for a couple of Seasonic models (600W and 1000W) which are way overkill.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a suitable PSU?

SFX's all use 80mm but not at the back...

 

[DanNeely]

SFX's all use 80mm but not at the back...

Because they're thinner though they'll have space above/below to draw air even in a case that would only work with a front-back flow ATX unit.

 

[Mohonri]

For your load, a fanless Seasonic 600w would probably work even with limited overhead space. If you can arrange for some sort of generic through airflow, that's probably enough. I run one of those things, and at typical loads of 150-ish watts (at the wall) it barely gets warm.

Not cheap, though, and if the PSU is completely choked off from air, it's probably a bad idea.

The case is amenable to that idea--it has a pair of 80mm intake fans, and I can blank off other areas to steer airflow where I need it.

I took a closer look at the 120mm intake fan on the current PSU, and was a bit annoyed to find that over 50% of it is blocked by a plastic sheet, so that the airflow goes over the entire PCB before it exhausts out the back. The whole 120mm fan being there is nothing more than a marketing ploy. That's irritating.

 

[Starfalcon]

They put that plastic there to direct flow so it goes over the hottest areas. If it wasnt there, the air would just blow directly out the back and not cool very much of the PSU. Then the fan would keep running faster and louder and still really not cool much.

 

[Mohonri]

They put that plastic there to direct flow so it goes over the hottest areas. If it wasnt there, the air would just blow directly out the back and not cool very much of the PSU. Then the fan would keep running faster and louder and still really not cool much.

I totally get the reason for the plastic. I just think it's silly that the industry has standardized on something that is mostly useless.

 

[Starfalcon]

Well people wanted quieter PSUs, so they went with a single big fan in the bottom. I have several older PSUs with dual fans in them and they tend to be loud.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Well people wanted quieter PSUs, so they went with a single big fan in the bottom. I have several older PSUs with dual fans in them and they tend to be loud.

The dual 80mm fan PSUs that were loud tended to be the garbage tier units. They used low end crap sleeve bearing fans that ran at like 4000 RPM. They ran that fast because they cut so many corners that no less than hurricane force air speeds through the unit would keep it cool enough to not die with the wafer thin mosfet heatsinks.

There were decent two 80mm fan PSUs, but you usually traded silent fans for capacitor plague.

 

[Starfalcon]

I have a couple of old PC power and cooling units and they tend to be loudish, but I also have a lot of really crap ones that are really quiet. The crap ones are mostly low wattage group regulated units that are mostly empty. Plus I have a bunch of old enermax and antec ones that were good back then and they also range from quiet to semi loud. although most of those have come down with bad cap plague as you said.