Dual Power Supplies

[CyNics]

Guys..I'm thinking of upgrading my PSU because I'm getting a new system pretty soon. I'm using an Enlight 300w now, 3.3v + 5v = 165W. Brands like antec, enermax & sparkle are nearly impossible to get in my place. I have to travel about 700-750KM to another place to get it.

My new rig:
XP1600 & suma ti4200SE 3.3 (very heavy overclock)
512mb ram
1 WD 80GB
1 dvd-rom
1 cd-rw
1 tv tuner
1 audigy
2 NICs
6 120mm delta
1 80mm delta
and some other small stuffs
My enlight 300W is doing very well so far. it supplies enough "juice" for my current rig (tb 1333@1500, geforce 2 ultra). I'm afraid my new system might be too much for my 300W. I have a generic atx 250w PSU at home now. I'm planning to use this PSU for all my fans, optical drives and my HD, leaving my enlight 300W for my motherboard, cpu and graphics card. Is this going to work? or I need a more powerful PSU, such as the antec truepower (i have to travel 700km to get them 🙁)?

thanks

 

[farmercal]

I am not an expert on power supplies but I thought that you had to have the power supply connected to your motherboard before it would operate. How are you going to do this unless you are going to modify the connector. You couldn't get a generic 350 or 400 power supply where you live?

 

[CyNics]

There are 20 pins on a standard ATX connector. You must first locate pin 14. This pin is very easy to spot since it's the only one with a green wire. All you have to do to make the power supply start is to ground this pin. All pins with black wire coming out of them are grounds. Once your pin 14 is grounded, the power supply should turn on. So you can actually use a switch to control the on/off. Simply install the switch between your pin 14 (green) and your ground.
generic 400w? you mean DEER? no no I dun trust DEER anymore although it's available here🙂

 

[eplebnista]

Here is a link to an excellent article on combining 2 power supplies.

hth,
eplebnista

 

[CyNics]

okay..maybe I didn't state my question clearly. I know they will work. What I mean is that since I use my second PSU to power all my drives, fans and optical drives, my first PSU will dedicate only to my mobo, CPU and graphics. Now I'm gonna overclock my XP1600 and SUMA ti4200SE heavily. Can my enlight 300W (3.3v + 5v = 165) provides enough 'juice' for them? Altough my display card is a ti4200, it's a special edition ti4200. It uses 4400/4600 8-layers reference design, with lotz of BIG fat capacitors that gonna sux lotz of juice from my PSU. So can my first PSU (enlight 300W) handle this(it will only power my mobo, CPU, graphics cards and PCI devices, my fans, drives and optical drives will be powered by another PSU)?

 

[CyNics]

anyone?

 

[Goi]

Your Enlight should work, since you're freeing it of a lot of load by taking the fans and drives out of the question. However, you would probably have to have some sort of switched power on system where the "slave" 250W PSU would turn itself on once you turn on your main Enlight 300W, if not your drives wouldn't spin up together with the rest of your system, and your system wouldn't boot up properly.

Note that your HDDs, and other optical drives draw power from the +5V and +12V rail, and your fans draw power exclusively from the +12V rail. You'll be freeing up the +12V rail completely from your Enlight 300W, so in fact nothing is using that rail of your Enlight - only its +3.3V and +5.0V rails are being tapped. Your 250W PSU however will have its +12V rail bogged down by so many equipment, so make sure it has enough juice to supply to those components.

Just out of curiosity, where in Malaysia do you stay? Shouldn't places like Penang, KL and Johor sell lotsa computer stuff?

 

[CyNics]

I'm from Perak 🙂 penang is the nearest but I couldn't find any antec or enermax (maybe because I don't know that place well). KL is quite far and johor is 650km away from my town 🙂 I can get enermax in KL ut they normally OUT OF STOCK, and the sellers sell it for a freakin high price. RM500 for a 350W. uuuhhhhhh...I can get an Antec 430 truepower for RM300 from singapore 🙂

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: CyNics
I'm from Perak 🙂 penang is the nearest but I couldn't find any antec or enermax (maybe because I don't know that place well). KL is quite far and johor is 650km away from my town 🙂 I can get enermax in KL ut they normally OUT OF STOCK, and the sellers sell it for a freakin high price. RM500 for a 350W. uuuhhhhhh...I can get an Antec 430 truepower for RM300 from singapore 🙂

Perak?? sheesh.....

Anyway, Xp1600 and SUMA will not suck all the juice your PSU can supply. Forget Dual PSU. Save the trouble and get a 400W rated PSU.

 

[CyNics]

Originally posted by: pillage2001

Originally posted by: CyNics
I'm from Perak 🙂 penang is the nearest but I couldn't find any antec or enermax (maybe because I don't know that place well). KL is quite far and johor is 650km away from my town 🙂 I can get enermax in KL ut they normally OUT OF STOCK, and the sellers sell it for a freakin high price. RM500 for a 350W. uuuhhhhhh...I can get an Antec 430 truepower for RM300 from singapore 🙂

Perak?? sheesh.....

Anyway, Xp1600 and SUMA will not suck all the juice your PSU can supply. Forget Dual PSU. Save the trouble and get a 400W rated PSU.

pillage2001: tiam tiam larrrr 😀 😀 😀...Antec or Enermax??? Do you know if there is a safe way to disable the thermal control (Antec Truepower) so that all of the fan connectors and/or atleast the PSU fans work at normal speeds??