markm75 wrote:
> I have a Ultra ULT31849 X-Finity 600W Power Supply which had the fans
> die, after 1.5 years of use...
>
> Both the outside one and inside one arent spinning...
>
> Is it safe to run without the fans going, as long as the motherboard
> and cpu temps arent beyond the limits and the actual psu isnt "hot"?
No, because the PSU itself will almost surely overheat in a matter of
several seconds, maybe a minute, unless it contains circuitry to
detect overheating and shut down the PSU. I don't know if the 600W X-
Finity does, but Ultra said that their V-Series budget PSUs did not
but would inherently quit working at around 55 Celcius.
Your PSU should still be under warranty because Ultra provides a
minimum 3-year warranty, which is extended to life if the unit is
registered in the first 60 days of ownership.
> Any thoughts on whether i should just replace the fans or the whole unit?
Replace the whole PSU if either:
1. you find any funny smells, burn marks, discolorations (not from
leftover solder flux), broken parts (swelled capacitors --
www.badcaps.net,
cracked resistors, diodes, or transistors), or melted plastic
(including wire insulation).
2. the PSU makes funny noises that aren't from the fans, such as a
whine or whistle.
3. any of the positive voltages is off by more than 5% when the PSU is
powering a realistic load (motherboard). Measure them through the
BIOS setup or, much better, with a digital multimeter. The negative
voltages can be ignored.
BTW, never operate the PSU without its cover in place and secured by
screws, to protect you from electric shocks and flying debris in case
a capacitor explodes.
Did both fans stop working at once? That's very unusual and indicates
a problem with the fan speed controller instead of the fans
themselves. See if you can get the fans to spin by moving them
manually with a wooden or plastic stick (chopstick, drinking straw,
toothbrush handle -- never anything metallic; a straw is best because
it can't shatter fan blades), the fan controller may be bad, and some
controllers in Ultra PSUs are designed wrong and won't apply enough
voltage to the fans if the air temperature is too cool. The Ultra
PSUs I've checked have Muhah sleeve bearing fans, and I know of at
least 4-5 other people who've had problems with them.
> I'm leaning towards swapping it out for a 850 watt unit, so that I can
> run a geforce 8800GTX (768MB card) and another geforce 8600 secondary,
> non SLI card, coupled with 7 internal drives, 1 BluRay reader and
> eventually a quad core...
Choose according to quality, not just watts, and don't trust the 99%
of the web reviews that do only light testing (200-300W), not full
load testing (i.e., load a 600W PSU to 600W). Some of the few
exceptions are TomsHardware.com, SilentPCreview.com, JonnyGuru.com,
ExtremeHardware.com, XbitLabs.com, and HardOCP.com. Stick with the
best manufacturers, like Seasonic (they also make other brands, like
some Antecs -- EarthWatts, Trio, NeoHE, Quattro), Fortron-Source/
Sparkle (many brands, incl. at least some OCZ and Thermaltake), PC
Power & Cooling, Lite-On, Delta, and Zippy-Emacs. The UL registration
number, which starts with "E", can usually tell you the actual
manufacturer if you check the online database at
www.ul.com. >> Stay informed about: PSU, both fans died.. just replace fans or the whole unit? 
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