Discussion
Bit of an odd one here... I've recently bought an Icy Box IB-3810U3 ( https://www.raidsonic.de/products/external_cases/e... ) to shuck all my external USB hard drives into, reducing space and cable clutter.
It's come with cheap no-name PSU and 140mm fan in the back, both of which are excessively noisy. The fan's a 3-pin so basic voltage control and I've ordered a Noctua NF-P14s Redux 1200rpm fan (19.6 dBA) and fan controller to replace the installed one - that should solve the bulk of the noise.
The PSU is apparently a TS-350-AT and there's scant information about it anywhere online. I plan to replace it with something like a Corsair RM 550X which has a fan power-down mode under light load as well as only hitting 21dBA even at max load. It also has the benefit of being modular so I can put in just the cables the Icy Box needs (ie. I don't have to find space in the small chassis for unneeded mainboard/CPU connectors etc.
The only concern I have is that the TS PSU has what I can only assume is some sort of grounding wire connected to the mainboard:
The wire disappears into the PSU with the other cabling. It must be there for a reason but I'm not finding any PSUs which have something similar included. Is it a ground wire, perhaps for preventing static build-up? Can/should I not worry about it with the replacement PSU? Could I ground it back to the PSU's external casing?
I'd really like to get the noise of it down significantly but don't want to do anything which might create a risk where disks & data are concerned.
It's come with cheap no-name PSU and 140mm fan in the back, both of which are excessively noisy. The fan's a 3-pin so basic voltage control and I've ordered a Noctua NF-P14s Redux 1200rpm fan (19.6 dBA) and fan controller to replace the installed one - that should solve the bulk of the noise.
The PSU is apparently a TS-350-AT and there's scant information about it anywhere online. I plan to replace it with something like a Corsair RM 550X which has a fan power-down mode under light load as well as only hitting 21dBA even at max load. It also has the benefit of being modular so I can put in just the cables the Icy Box needs (ie. I don't have to find space in the small chassis for unneeded mainboard/CPU connectors etc.
The only concern I have is that the TS PSU has what I can only assume is some sort of grounding wire connected to the mainboard:
The wire disappears into the PSU with the other cabling. It must be there for a reason but I'm not finding any PSUs which have something similar included. Is it a ground wire, perhaps for preventing static build-up? Can/should I not worry about it with the replacement PSU? Could I ground it back to the PSU's external casing?
I'd really like to get the noise of it down significantly but don't want to do anything which might create a risk where disks & data are concerned.
Edited by Funk on Thursday 27th June 02:50
It looks like an earth safety bond - it should be that given the core colours. Is the metalwork it's connected to on a removeable cage or similar, ie one that could get disconnected form the rest of the chassis?
Do you have a voltmeter or something you can check continuity with? The you could test between the PSU input earth pin & the end of this wire. I have to say that it's 99.9% likley that it's just an earth bonding wire.
Do you have a voltmeter or something you can check continuity with? The you could test between the PSU input earth pin & the end of this wire. I have to say that it's 99.9% likley that it's just an earth bonding wire.
It's the fact it runs into the PSU that made me query it. Their support came back to me and whilst they've confirmed it's a grounding cable they didn't actually answer my query about whether it could be grounded to another location, eg. the case chassis itself or similar. I've emailed them again to try and get information which is actually useful.
Presumably the case itself is safely grounded; would it be feasible to connect it to a bit of bare metal somewhere and achieve the same outcome?
Presumably the case itself is safely grounded; would it be feasible to connect it to a bit of bare metal somewhere and achieve the same outcome?
Funk said:
Presumably the case itself is safely grounded; would it be feasible to connect it to a bit of bare metal somewhere and achieve the same outcome?
Support have confirmed that this would be OK. I'll cut the earth and crimp a connector to the other end then attach it to a convenient screw hole once I've removed the paint to reveal bare metal to the chassis.Normally on PC's the case of the PSU is earthed via the 3 pin mains plug and the PSU is screwed to the metal chassis, to earth the chassis. Since everything outside the PSU is low voltage the chassis earthing is mostly for supression / resistance to radio interference. If they have some random earth wire coming out then maybe the case design doesn't have a path to the PSU earth at that location, so that's all you'd need to replicate.
buggalugs said:
Normally on PC's the case of the PSU is earthed via the 3 pin mains plug and the PSU is screwed to the metal chassis, to earth the chassis. Since everything outside the PSU is low voltage the chassis earthing is mostly for supression / resistance to radio interference. If they have some random earth wire coming out then maybe the case design doesn't have a path to the PSU earth at that location, so that's all you'd need to replicate.
This is what it's about no doubtbuggalugs said:
Normally on PC's the case of the PSU is earthed via the 3 pin mains plug and the PSU is screwed to the metal chassis, to earth the chassis. Since everything outside the PSU is low voltage the chassis earthing is mostly for supression / resistance to radio interference. If they have some random earth wire coming out then maybe the case design doesn't have a path to the PSU earth at that location, so that's all you'd need to replicate.
So when I cut the wire coming out of the old PSU, where would it be best to connect it to?Funk said:
So when I cut the wire coming out of the old PSU, where would it be best to connect it to?
In case buggalugs doesn't returnConnect the cut cable to the case of the new PSU or the earth point inside the new PSU case but doing this would void the warranty as you will have had to break a warranty security label to get inside it
Mr Pointy said:
I'd say don't overthink this. If you can attach it to any fixing screw on the new PSU it should be fine.
The PSU chassis will already be fixed to the chassis of the case though so what's the purpose of adding a wire from the chassis to the PSU chassis? Surely the grounding wire sends any charge through the PSU and out of the Earth in the plug?
Oakey said:
Erm, am I missing something, why would you cut the wire coming out of the PSU?
Old (noisy) PSU has a grounding wire hard-wired running from inside it to the connection point on the main circuit board as per the pic in OP. I'm replacing the cheapo PSU with a Corsair RM550x which doesn't have the same ground connection hard-wired. I want to retain the ground connection hence asking whether grounding it to another point on the chassis would suffice (which it seems it will according to advice here and from the manufacturer).In order to do that I'm snipping the cable off the old PSU, crimping a new ring terminal to the snipped end and then connecting it to the chassis of the unit in order to ensure the main board remains grounded.
Mr Pointy said:
Funk said:
So when I cut the wire coming out of the old PSU, where would it be best to connect it to?
I'd say don't overthink this. If you can attach it to any fixing screw on the new PSU it should be fine.Funk said:
Cheers, that's the plan. The new gubbins are here, I'll be doing this at some point later today probably.
But the metal (presumably) PSU chassis will already be fixed to the metal (presumably) case chassis with (presumably) metal screws so what does adding a wire from the case chassis to the PSU chassis achieve?The ground wire on your old PSU will discharge via the earth to the mains won't it?
I'd be surprised if the new PSU didn't have a grounding wire too
It's all about not relying on screws and metal to metal, it's very good, it's not to be knocked
This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
Oakey said:
Funk said:
Cheers, that's the plan. The new gubbins are here, I'll be doing this at some point later today probably.
But the metal (presumably) PSU chassis will already be fixed to the metal (presumably) case chassis with (presumably) metal screws so what does adding a wire from the case chassis to the PSU chassis achieve?The ground wire on your old PSU will discharge via the earth to the mains won't it?
I'd be surprised if the new PSU didn't have a grounding wire too
Penelope Stopit said:
It's all about not relying on screws and metal to metal, it's very good, it's not to be knocked
This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
In which case why have Corsairs engineers decided their PSU doesn't require a grounding wire?This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
Oakey said:
Penelope Stopit said:
It's all about not relying on screws and metal to metal, it's very good, it's not to be knocked
This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
In which case why have Corsairs engineers decided their PSU doesn't require a grounding wire?This is a car forum isn't it.......Why would a motor manufacturer connect an earth lead to a cylinder head when the engine block is earthed from a heavy lead and the cylinder head bolts down to the engine block?
Methods like these are used by good engineers that take pride in their work
The earth lead in the above image grounds the board from the PSU ground
I'm almost certain that you won't find a for public use Corsair PSU that doesn't have a 3 core cable mains power supply input without an internal earth to its case
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