Slow Down Your Loud Power Supply Unit (PSU) Fan

The fan in my 400 watt psu ran full speed which was unnecessary for a computer that only consumes 100 watts max. To slow it down, I took the psu apart and put a 50 ohm resistor in-line on the red wire supplying power to the fan. This slowed down the fan, but didn't stop it. It's much quieter now and the air still blows cool for my low power computer. Only do this while the power supply is unplugged from the wall! Once open do not touch anything inside! I got the resistor from Radio Shack. The unmodified 120mm fan is 12v and 0.38 amp rated.

[VIVsVeiws]

I'm willing to bet this dude has been wildly successful in bis life

[srfofex]

Excellent. Exactly what I needed, short, concise, solid info. Thank you for sharing. Subbed.

[phoenixset]

I know the video is kind of old meaning i'm late but i wana say that is not the way to do it cz that resistor can heat and get damaged, then you fan is not spining and you may not know its not.
I recommand to use a voltage regulator like 7809 or 7805 depending on how slow you want it to spin, they are designed for this and according to low power consuption of the fan you dont even need to add a heatsink to them.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this and thumps up.

[BIKEMAN]

You could also find a cheap universal ac/dc power adaptor, connect that to the fan, you can then select the output dc 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 9 or 12volts.

[joshriver]

Thanks. powering some LED strips and don't need the fan speed.

[ManWhatever]

I just did this today to my power supply and within a couple of hours my computer froze up and it refused to boot up after restarting! I removed the resistor and waited some time for everything to cool down and it's running again.

[studntselac]

what if you have want to change a fan but it has black, yellow and red cables? but stock fan only has black and red wires

[joelok]

The 50 Ohm resistor can't be standard for all fans because there are fans that draw 0.44 Amps, other that draw 0.26 amps, other 0.18 amps...and so on. You should experiment. An other solution would be to add a 50C temperature sensor that acts as switch, the same way as you did with the resistor. And fit the sensor to the heat sink. In this way it will work when the temperature reaches 50C and not all the time.

[kylelafountaine]

I quieted mine down by removing that platic strip thats screwed to the fan. It does absolutely nothing from what Ive noticed other than causing turbulence and making half the fan useless.

[dc]

would this method work on a 17 watt server fan running on 230 volts AC ?

[rxbkrs]

For a PSU who's fan don't spin until 40% load, is there an ability to the fan spinning all the time? If yes, will that void the warranty?

[zacsiauchan]

Hi! I have a 4-wire psu-fan. Is it possible to 'fix' it at the same way, or should I download a software to control it? I have a HP SFF pc

[dirtty]

my fan is 12v and 1.60 amp...what resistor should i need..how many watts do i need to cut the speed about 50% to 70%

[Exodus]

Thanks for the video.
I wonder if you could install a new fan with wires that can control the speed and then route those to a fan controller somewhere. Maybe one of those controllers you can put in a 5.25" drive bays.