Corsair TX750 v2 PSU fan rattle

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:09 pm

Wasted my time getting this PSU RMA'd since the replacement does exactly the same thing.

I give up. I play on headphones so I don't hear the rattle unless it gets real bad and the sound in the game dies down. It's annoying and sooner or later I'll probably just hardwire the fan directly to the 12 volt rail. It would actually be QUIETER running at full speed all the time than this annoying buzzing/rattle.

I'm posting this Youtube video to paste into my repair ticket to show them how unhappy I am.

I normally love Corsair products, but I'm pretty unhappy with them over this one. The idea behind this PSU is that the power supply fan doesn't spin until the PSU is under sufficient load and/or warm enough to warrant it. This means a quiet PSU right? WRONG!

The problem is that there is a point where the PSU is under enough load to start supplying voltage to the fan, but not quite enough to start it spinning. Instead is rattles back and forth and makes a most annoying buzzing noise. The fan spinning at full speed is less annoying than this buzzing noise.

I requested an RMA explaining the problem in detail. This is a known issue with this PSU - other people are complaining about it on their forums. As such you would think that they would have corrected the problem. Instead they sent me another one that does exactly the same thing. So I still have a noisy PSU fan, and I'm out some money to ship the original PSU back because Corsair doesn't pay return shipping.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:36 pm

Wow that would bug me as well. I bought a Thermatake TP 750W back in 2007 and it works great. Still quite to this day.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:43 pm

noises like that make me go insane. it's a shame the replacement was the same, but obviously a design flaw they haven't decided to fix. i have a smaller Corsair in a 24/7 rig that has been chugging along for several years, but fortunately it's quiet.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:50 pm

Funny thing is that a quick search on YouTube will come up with lots of similar videos. Corsair apparently doesn't care because most of the posters, like me, got an RMA that did exactly the same thing. Wish I had seen these before wasting my time: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... noise&sm=3

Pity, I like most of their products. LOVE their Vengeance K70 keyboard.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:38 am

Normally you should be able to raise enough hell to support with events like this. You sent back a defective product at your cost and they sent you a defective one to replace it.

In many cases, I have secured a free shipping replacement or a different model when they shipped a defective product as a replacement. Though obviously success on this will vary from company to company. But it does give you a good idea how well a company will stand behind its products for future purchase reference.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:19 pm

I currently have a PC Power & Cooling PSU that has served me extremely well for the last 5 years in my current PC. However, it seems like I've had to mod just about all the other PSUs I've bought otherwise with a different fan or speed controller (voiding the warranty in the process). I'm outrageously particular about noises and that one would get to me very quickly.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:58 pm

Well they replied to my pissed off comment by apologizing, and saying they will send another PSU and a pre-paid return label.

Trouble is that this is really a design flaw, I think. The problem is that due to the design of modern fans, It's not a smooth transition to the voltage threshold that will start the fan spinning, and there is a point where the fan will be receiving just enough voltage to start it vibrating, but not enough to make it start spinning. I am assuming that some people never have this problem because their system runs under load curves that never have the fan hit this "rattle" point (in other words the fan is either off, or under so much load that it immediately starts spinning).

Some of us, however, have rigs where the fan voltage under load lands right smack dab in the zone where the fan is getting just enough voltage to rattle, but not start spinning.

We'll see. I won't even bother installing the replacement if it does the same thing - I'll hook it up outside the case to test it.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 3:04 pm

i just remembered i also have an HX750 in a desktop here as well. it's quiet too though. i forget what the differences are between the HX and TX lines.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 6:42 pm

I have same PS - 750TX ver. 2.3 that I bought in 2010 and it's never done that, or anything else it shouldn't.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 2:42 pm

FOLLOWUP: They never sent me another replacement. I doubt the same model would have worked since they all have the same design problem: at the power envelope my PC runs at, the fan never gets enough voltage to fully spin up - instead it sits there rattling on the verge of spinning up (it very rarely will spin during very heavy 3D gaming, but most of the time not). When it's sitting there on the verge of spinning, it makes that annoying rattle and you can see the fan blades jittering.

I asked them to send me a replacement that did not have this silent fan tech (didn't care if it was a slightly lower wattage) but they never responded to two posts on the repair ticket, so I gave up.

The rattling has driven me insane so I popped open the PSU today and happily voided the warranty by hot wiring the fan to a spare IDE power connector using the 5 volt line. 5 volts is more than enough to get good airflow and it's still pretty quiet. Anything is better than that rattle.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:36 pm

Was the fan powered by 12v dc?

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:48 pm

I usually go for 7v by tapping the 5v for negative & 12v for positive. That speed tends to keep the fan going noticeably faster and yet not fast enough to make much noise.

So much for Corsair's legendary quality.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jul 02, 2014 8:26 am

Exec: yeah, it's a 12v fan. I tried 7volts first but wanted it quieter, and since the fan normally doesn't spin at all, that's more than adequate.