Corsair SF 80+ Platinum Fan Mod/Swap

acet

What's an ITX?
New User
Feb 8, 2021
1
2
The Corsairfan in my SF600 was pinned in another configuration.
Don't take the repinning sketch for granted. Every fan could be pinned differently.
I would recommend removing the binning pictures in this guide and replacing it with a simple logic: "check the fan cable colours and rebin it in that same order."
 

der_brennesel

Chassis Packer
Apr 20, 2018
20
17
I did this Mod some days ago.

The safe way is to peel off part of the fan lable, pinout is marked underneath it on the stock fan. PWM is P, + is +, black is minus, rpm is yellow (the unmarked one).

Additionally i recommend rewiring the adapter, not the Fan. And get the Chromax version, you can plug the fan directly into the adapter which gives you the same cable length as the stock fan.


 

trees_z

Trash Compacter
Jan 27, 2021
34
23
The Corsairfan in my SF600 was pinned in another configuration.
Don't take the repinning sketch for granted. Every fan could be pinned differently.
I would recommend removing the binning pictures in this guide and replacing it with a simple logic: "check the fan cable colours and rebin it in that same order."

This is what worked for me as well with my Corsair SF750 platinum. I initially re pinned per the edit to the original post but the fan wouldn't spin on boot. Ended up seeing another post where they suggested the same thing here. Fan works now. It spins on boot and under high loads.
 

dream3

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
78
8
Arent you guys afraid the noctua wont be enough to properly cool the PSU under heavy load? Did anyone research the stock fan's spec to see if the noctua match/exceeds it?
 

trees_z

Trash Compacter
Jan 27, 2021
34
23
Arent you guys afraid the noctua wont be enough to properly cool the PSU under heavy load? Did anyone research the stock fan's spec to see if the noctua match/exceeds it?
It's definitely a concern - the standard 92 mm slim Noctua fan starts to spin up a little later and pushes less air. The HS version is closer to stock corsair fan but still does not push as much air. You just need to take a look at some of the results and decide if it's a concern to you. Link from earlier in the thread below:
https://hardforum.com/threads/corsair-sf600-600w-sfx-powersupply.1864645/post-1043019698
 

der_brennesel

Chassis Packer
Apr 20, 2018
20
17
Arent you guys afraid the noctua wont be enough to properly cool the PSU under heavy load? Did anyone research the stock fan's spec to see if the noctua match/exceeds it?
Considering it pulls ccompletely fresh Air in the Ghost S1 and the tophat pulls out air I'm not very concerned, but i also went for the A9x14 Chromax because it is the HS version with 2500 rpm.

If i still had my Tu150 i wouldn't go for the mod though.
 

dream3

Average Stuffer
Apr 5, 2019
78
8
It's definitely a concern - the standard 92 mm slim Noctua fan starts to spin up a little later and pushes less air. The HS version is closer to stock corsair fan but still does not push as much air. You just need to take a look at some of the results and decide if it's a concern to you. Link from earlier in the thread below:
https://hardforum.com/threads/corsair-sf600-600w-sfx-powersupply.1864645/post-1043019698

Interesting, that is pretty good.
In my case I have the SF750 Platinum here which is reported to have a more silent and more efficient fan, right? Do you happen to know the specs of that fan?
I got a feeling that this mod would be too risky for very little improvement with the SF750.
 

trees_z

Trash Compacter
Jan 27, 2021
34
23
Interesting, that is pretty good.
In my case I have the SF750 Platinum here which is reported to have a more silent and more efficient fan, right? Do you happen to know the specs of that fan?
I got a feeling that this mod would be too risky for very little improvement with the SF750.

No idea what the differences are between the fans - but I have seen less complaints about the fans on the Plat units. Risk is up to you. I personally have the SF750 Plat and replaced the fan. Not for any particular reason but just because I had an extra fan and I could
 

Moustache

Caliper Novice
Mar 23, 2021
24
22
Hey, do you folks have any suggestions on how to run the stock fan at higher speeds? My custom case has limited exhaust vents, and I want to move more air through the PSU.

Either a noctua or the stock fan, run off of a motherboard header, do I need to jumper the psu header to enable the PSU to start?
 

yj668

Chassis Packer
Aug 13, 2019
14
19
I can confirm this pinout is correct for SF750 Plat. The fan spins for a moment on PSU power up as expected, even with the A9x14.
I have 2 early 2019 (unaffected by recall) and a late 2020 SF750, they all work perfectly fine with your pinout.

Thanks for sharing.



I did this Mod some days ago.

The safe way is to peel off part of the fan lable, pinout is marked underneath it on the stock fan. PWM is P, + is +, black is minus, rpm is yellow (the unmarked one).

Additionally i recommend rewiring the adapter, not the Fan. And get the Chromax version, you can plug the fan directly into the adapter which gives you the same cable length as the stock fan.


 

gffermari

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 7, 2017
91
91
A Noctua 9x14 Chromax was ordered yesterday to replace the noisy Corsair fan in my SF600 Gold (purchased in 2016?)
I will try to connect it directly to the motherboard, so i can control it but will there be any problem due to the fact that i will leave the internal fan connector unplugged?
 

Kommando

Average Stuffer
Dec 19, 2020
78
54
A Noctua 9x14 Chromax was ordered yesterday to replace the noisy Corsair fan in my SF600 Gold (purchased in 2016?)
I will try to connect it directly to the motherboard, so i can control it but will there be any problem due to the fact that i will leave the internal fan connector unplugged?
Yes, there might be a problem when the fan doesn't spin as fast as it needs to.
 
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Sazexa

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Jan 22, 2020
136
168
A Noctua 9x14 Chromax was ordered yesterday to replace the noisy Corsair fan in my SF600 Gold (purchased in 2016?)
I will try to connect it directly to the motherboard, so i can control it but will there be any problem due to the fact that i will leave the internal fan connector unplugged?
You'll likely want to match the fan you're using on your PSU to ramp up proportionately with GPU load. CPU load, unless it's a seriously top end CPU with a large OC, won't draw as much power as most mid to high range GPU's.

Everyone else, sorry I've been very busy. I still haven't fully verified my fan system is 100% operational, but since the Mjolnir case is getting closer to release I'll finish ordering my parts and test. Or get a multimeter and test that way.
 
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gffermari

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 7, 2017
91
91
I
You'll likely want to match the fan you're using on your PSU to ramp up proportionately with GPU load. CPU load, unless it's a seriously top end CPU with a large OC, won't draw as much power as most mid to high range GPU's.

Yes, i thought i would have to do something like that.
But not matching the gpu load because of the huge spikes and deeps during gaming. As well as the temps in my gpu, they are quite low all the time (custom W/C on cpu and gpu).
Possibly a temp sensor inside the psu would do.

edit: you may now see my pc specs.
 

Kommando

Average Stuffer
Dec 19, 2020
78
54
Hm, why don't you use the internal fan connector? It is connected to a temperature sensor and additional to a circuit that makes it react to actual power used?
If it's still too loud, you could try using a 25mm thick fan on the outside instead of the inside one, or a 7V low noise adapter as last resort.

This could still make it too hot inside the psu, but this way it can manage the fan speeds on its own, trying to protect itself.
 

gffermari

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 7, 2017
91
91
In order to avoid modding the fan cable, I think it would be easier just to connect it directly to the mb.
Also my psu is quite old and it possibly has a 2 pin cable for the fan.
Like the below:

 

PKAWA

Master of Cramming
May 27, 2020
490
488
I've seen plenty of fan swaps on Corsair 80+ Gold units. There's easy to find adapters for that. I have a SF600 80+ Platinum, and just wanted to give a head's up that the internal connector is different. I hadn't seen anyone do this mod on a 80+ Platinum unit so, I figured I'd throw it out there and maybe help someone save a quick $10 so they don't have to accidentally order two adapters like I did. I'm pretty sure the regular 80+ Gold units use just a 3-pin Mini-GPU (with only two wires) to 3-pin normal size fan connector.

The 80+ Platinum uses a 4-wire PWM fan. I was able to find a 4-pin mini-GPU fan head to regular 4-pin PWM fan header adapter, and put it in the power supply. The PSU has the female end, with the pins on it, the fan has the male end that plugs into it. I then put in a Noctua NF-A9x14 HS Chromax fan, and left the grill removed from the unit. It's inside a case anyways, a grill is a little unnecessary and it will help keep noise down if the fan decides to ramp up.The adapter cable itself was about four inches long, and the cable on the fan was pretty long, but I found a good way to loop it around so that it wouldn't really block any airflow or be close to any circuitry components. The decorative sleeving on the wires shouldn't be conductive, but, I wasn't going to chance it on the inside of the PSU lol

Here's some pictures, you can kind of see the route I did for the cables and the cable adapter itself.









INFORMATION ON CORSAIR SF POWER SUPPLY RECALLS:
I'm amending the original post to include some information about Corsair SF PSU's, since there is a recall on some of them. It might make getting your unit replaced under a recall difficult if you mod it first, so, here's a heads-up on the scoop.

There is currently a recall on some Corsair SF-line power supplies. It's mostly in markets outside of North America it seems, but it seems some PSU's may "brick" them selves under certain conditions.

The recall is for power supplies produced between 8/19 and 3/20, which are units that fall between serial numbers 194448xx, and up to 201148xx. My unit is a 1943xxxx, so fortunately my specific unit is not in need of replacement.

You can learn more at the following link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/15829/corsair-sf-series-psu-recall

UPDATE: Fan header re-pinning required!
Thanks to user "NRG," he's brought something to my attention I did not initially discover. I didn't initially have a system to test this but I overlooked something I should have noticed at first; fan header lay-out. The layout between the Corsair NR092L and typical fan headers are a bit different. So, some de-pinning and replacing of the header on your Noctua fan is required. It's relatively easy as well, so let's show you what you need to do.

Consider the adapter as just a jumper, this is what the wiring looks like between the two headers. So basically we need to move the wires around on the regular fan header.

Noctua NF-A9x14HS with header face-up:
Black - Yellow - Green - Blue

Corsair NR092L with header face-up:
Yellow - Blue - Black - Green


Basically, you just need to swap the wires on your Noctua fan's header so they line up color for color with the Corsair header, as long as the headers are in the same orientation as this image. So, if labelling the headers on the Noctua fan as Black - Yellow - Green - Blue, we can change that to 1 2 3 4 for simplicity sake. We need to change the number orientation as follows:

Originally: 1
2 3 4
Re-pinned: 2 4 1 3

It's a bit difficult to visualize it give that the Chromax Black version of the Noctua NF-A9x14HS has all black wiring under the sleeving and from the fan hub. Looking at the back of the noctua fan (as well as three other regular PWM Noctua fans) I've concluded that they're always layed out the same way, off the motor hub to the header as the 1 2 3 4 lay-out, in a ribbon cable that makes it easy to follow and track each wire. I skinned the sleeve off of the wire, to make sure I can trace it properly when re-pinning.


Lastly, how to actually remove the pins from the header. It's quite simple. You take a small fine pointed tool like tweezers or a screw driver, and push on the side of the connector opening slot towards the wires. Then you can gently pull the wire out of the connector with the metal attached. If it's not coming out easy, you aren't pushing down hard enough. It takes a little getting use to the first few times you've done it, and it can be easy to damage, so just be gentle and slowly add force if need be. After removing, make sure you insert into the new slow on the header the correct way (with the curled side facing the slotted side of the header.) otherwise it won't bite correctly. Give the wire a little tug, make sure it's seated. It may take an attempt or two, or you may need to push the wire in from the back side with your device you're using to take the header out to really push it all the way in. Do so carefully as not to cut wiring insulation or break the wire. Once all that is done, and your fan is installed, you fan should spin up once it's under the correct heat or wattage load.


Thanks for the info but I do have one question:
In the picture you have the connectors facing each other and you have rewired the noctua to match the original Corsair fan in the mirrored position seen in the picture.
Isn't it supposed to be rewired based on the connectors lined up next to each other with the connector ends facing the same direction?

So that way the repinned layout would be 3142 according to your color scheme?

Nevermind, I had another look at the extension cable pictures and looks like the notches on both ends face different directions making your manual correct.
 
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