"Crack Rack" Power Supply Mod Question

[CADsortaGUY]

Alright - I hope this is the appropriate place for this question so here it goes.

I am in the process of builing a "crack rack" (basically caseless with mobo's stacked on top of each other), but I don't like the fact that I'll have to have 1 Power Supply for each mobo; power supply fans tend to be loud unless you buy good ones. Also this is on a budget of sorts so buying "good" ppowersupplys for each is not a good option. I am building it using Abit BP6s (dual celerons) so each board needs ~175W+ of power. My proposal is that I take a good quality/quiet ~350W or bigger (depending on actual board power draw) and mod it so it has 2 ATX mobo headers. I won't have a need for any other power except for the HDD and maybe a floppy.

Has anyone ever attempted to do this? and if so with what board and PS? and what were the results?

Thanks,

CADkindaGUY

 

[ChrisADuffy]

never heard of that one before, but sounds interesting.

 

[Neuroanatomist]

I have no idea if it would work, but it definitely sounds interesting.

One suggestion, instead of hacking into your existing ATX powersupply cable, get 2 ATX extension cables and use this to form the Y cable and do all the splice work. (That way, if it doesn't work.. you're only out the cost of the extension cables)

cyberguys.com search for "atx"

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks for the suggestion Neuroanatomist - but unfortuantely I think there is going to have to be some mods internally to the powersupply to adjust for the draw of the second board. I will try that first before I break the Power Supplies seal. I think I'll be cracking the powersupply case anyway to mod the fan unless I buy a supper quiet one. Any other suggestions or comments?

Thanks,
CADkindaGUY

 

[socketman]

try the "cases and power" forum over at hardocp ( i think), if its not there.. try at overclockers.com.
They have some pretty smart guys when i comes to electrical mods.

 

[RaySun2Be]

Lord_Demios built an RC5 crack rack (TMR) and modded the power supplies. He wrote a "how to" thread in the Distributed Computing forum on it. From what I remember, he strongly recommended modding the P/S instead of using Y connectors.

Do a search of the Distributed Computing archives, hopefully it is still around.

FOUND IT!

Look here: 3 nodes 1 power supply

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks for the link RaySun2Be!

I think i'm gonna stick with 2 per Power Supply. I don't want to fry anything

socketman - I've been over on that forum lurking but everytime I try to register on the Forums I get errors so I can't post. Oh well - from reading the thread Ray linked, I should be OK with my "plans" - they aren't exactly what LD did but I am just going to add a bit more protection and maybe a few other "surprises" in the mix. I'll let you guys know when I get it done.

Anyone try this mod recently - with boards that use more juice than the ones LD and DanC were using? (the thread was in Oct of 2000 with 250W and lesser PSUs)

DanC, LD, anyone who has experience want to jump in?

Thanks,

CADkindaGUY