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w_tom

wrote:
Does anyone know if it's safe to disconnect the power supply fan? Is
the purpose of the fan to cool the supply itself, or is it (as I hope)
included as a convince to cool the case of the PC it's intended to
power?

No way for anyone else to tell you because power supplies are
designed without providing such details and because some supplies are
built inferior. Any computer supply should do just fine without a fan.
Heatsinks are properly sized. Some power supplies save that $0.75 by
using no (or too small) heatsink and count on a fan to keep it cool.

So you experiment. Power it. Then measure component temperatures.
If it is hot enough to burn skin, then add a heatsink. Simple? Not
for one minute. There is this massive human safety problem. Those
parts can be electrically lethal - some charged to 300 volts even when
power cord is removed. You better damn well understand why that 300
volts can exist even when powered off AND take appropriate precaution.

Cooling - a little bit of airflow makes a major increase in cooling.
Then airflow must increase 4 times to only double cooling. Massive
cooling occurs with airflow so gentle as to not even be felt by a hand.

Fans of same size come in all types of options. For example, it can
move more air (more CFMs) and then increase noise. Or a same fan with
less CFM and little noise (and heatsinks) can be purchased from
electrical supply houses such as Digikey, Allied, Newark, Mouser,
Jamesco, etc