hello-
the power supply that came in my antec sonata case, smartpower 450watt, had one of the 2 fans start making noise, and i had quirky performance. it is 3 years old.

so i isolated the problem as the 2nd fan (the 1 that is more internal / not seen from outside) in this power supply. i opened the power supply and found out this is just a 80mm fan, but is slimmer than a typical 80mm - it is 15mm, not 25mm. so, for $10, i could replace this fan.

I went to Fry's, and they did not have this narrow fan even though they have all kinds of fans there. But they did have an antec power supply 500watt $40 after rebate.

so, I got my computer up-and-running with the new psu.

So now my question is: if I do a decent job of replacing this fan, is it worth it? Or is the whole power supply about to die? Should I just throw it away?
-Row1

Open up the psu and check the capacitors for bulging/leaking. If the insides look OK, sure, add a new fan and you have a decent spare psu.

I'd say I'd retire that PSU from normal computer work.

However, I'd still keep it around for testing purposes. Heck, I usually have enough parts lying around to make a whole new computer (albeit a really crap one) for testing purposes. SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, motherboards of all kinds, a few CPUs (outdated).... You name it, I probably got it. Oh yeah, I've got a PSU for this purpose too.

Anyone wanna donate a PCI videocard? Cos thats the only thing I'm missing from my arsenal...

CMH is right.