You could use one supply for, say the 3.3 and the other for the 5. But you can't tie them together, the regulation will not work.
It all depends on how they are built. If they are identical and they use a shared supply for the 3.3 and 5 then you could gain by using just one line per supply.
The key is knowing your real power needs. Look at compact systems that run fine on good 200W psus.
In todays not so modern anymore atx computers, obviously the power supply doesnt have a switch right?? heh ok.. In my pos P3 i have, It is atx and i ran out of plugs and the lil pws in it wouldnt run if i was to put a splitter on it.. So after a mod to the front of the case where the fan was supposed to go and a power cord going out of the back of the case, I installed a AT power supply.. It works and powers 2 extra hds, one misc fan and any cdroms that i am performing surgery on via one plug i left outside the case on intention... So if that is what you are looking for. Give it a go. In easier terms. one powers mb and hd the other powers everything else.
Trev
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited December 2003
What pcscustom said is a better idea. This guy I talked to said that it's still not great, because of potential problems with a common ground, but it should be fine. What is not a good idea is combining 2 PSes to power the same device.
Ok i read the procooling article and tried it and it worked!!!!!!!!!!! It worked good as far as i could tell. My PSU's stayed cool and everything worked just fine. I wanted to point out that the only modification you need to do is to disconnect the ground from the case of all but one PSU. Not the ground from the wall. But the case cannot be connected to the 12 volt ouput ground that goes to the pc components. There is normally some solder at the bottom of the PSU's board that is pressed up against the case. If you can put some black tape in between that and the case on all but one of the PSU's then it shoudl work according to them. It is working for me with 3 of them running at 30 amps and 12 volts!!!! Im wondering if it is unsafe to do this? A ton of people are saying you cannot team them because it will break the supplies but mine are working fine. My question is will it hurt the equipment i plug it into? I am using a 1500 watt car audio amplifier. Thats why i plan on teaming many more. Like 10 of them if i can. Also is this going to send my amp bad dirty power?
So my 3 questions are....
Is it bad for my amps?
Is it sending my amps dirty power?
Is it possible to charge a car battery with these? My PSU's seem to run at 12.07 volts when nothing is plugged into them.
:celebrate
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
Is it bad for my amps?
Is it sending my amps dirty power?
Is it possible to charge a car battery with these? My PSU's seem to run at 12.07 volts when nothing is plugged into them.
Possibly, possibly, and no.
Just because it works doesn't mean it's a good idea. You're still running the risk of killing the power supplies and possibly everything connected to them.
I dont understand. According to the procooling article because you disconnect the grounds from the case (except the ground that comes from the 110 volt wall outlet) from all but one of the psu's then why would it be bad? Can you explain to me why it isnt good? My psu's seem to be working great. Also why can you not do this with ATX power supplies. You dont need a switch to turn them on. You connect the black and green wires (i think the black and green) and it starts right up.
Also the procooling article says you can do this with 2, 4, or 10 psu's but could i do it with 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 , 11 or more PSU's???? Im runnning 3 and it seems to work ok.
Also would 350 watters work or only 250 watters?
Also why in the world would you like Bush? Hes a maniac completely.
:Canflag:
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited July 2004
Offhand, I can't explain it to you, no. I'm not an electrical engineer. HOWEVER, I know someone that is. I'll e-mail them and get an answer for you as soon as I can.
As for Bush; Short-Media Rule #8 is:
Self-expression is fully encouraged, but please refrain from non-technical debates (i.e. politics, religion, etc.) in the Pub or any other forum. We encourage members who are interested in debate-oriented discussion to visit an affiliate site: Keyboard Jockey
That being said, if you'd like to discuss it via private messages, I'd be more than happy to explain my logic to you.
I would be willing to talk about it for a few. Although i am new to this forum and cant/dont want to take the time to find out how to IM you. You can email me at
johni @amaa.com
I put the space in my email address so that web crawlers wont find that and ad my email to a bunch of mailing lists.
But more importantly i need to know about the PSU's.
Also why would it not charge a battery? I know it would be unsafe due to over charging possibilities but if you were watching the voltage of the battery couldnt it work? I know a ton of people use them to charge up there remote control car batteries. But not a real 12v car battery.
Why would anybody want to mess about with power supplys like this? Modern PSUs are quite complex devices regulating voltage, power and, if decent, fault conditions. I dare say you could make it 'work' to a point but what happens when something goes wrong? Just buy the PSU that you need.
I just want to understand why it isnt going to work for very long. If i buy the size of 12 volt power supply that i need it would be in the $200+ range and this is a extremely cheap alternative.
Also it works great for peltier CPU coolers that cannot run off of a standard pc power supply because there just to power hungry. Its for people that are overclocking.
Comments
It all depends on how they are built. If they are identical and they use a shared supply for the 3.3 and 5 then you could gain by using just one line per supply.
The key is knowing your real power needs. Look at compact systems that run fine on good 200W psus.
http://www.procooling.com/articles/html/linking_multiple_psu_s_as_one_.php
Bottom line:
Very, very, VERY bad idea.
Trev
So my 3 questions are....
Is it bad for my amps?
Is it sending my amps dirty power?
Is it possible to charge a car battery with these? My PSU's seem to run at 12.07 volts when nothing is plugged into them.
:celebrate
Possibly, possibly, and no.
Just because it works doesn't mean it's a good idea. You're still running the risk of killing the power supplies and possibly everything connected to them.
Also the procooling article says you can do this with 2, 4, or 10 psu's but could i do it with 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 , 11 or more PSU's???? Im runnning 3 and it seems to work ok.
Also would 350 watters work or only 250 watters?
Also why in the world would you like Bush? Hes a maniac completely.
:Canflag:
As for Bush; Short-Media Rule #8 is:
Self-expression is fully encouraged, but please refrain from non-technical debates (i.e. politics, religion, etc.) in the Pub or any other forum. We encourage members who are interested in debate-oriented discussion to visit an affiliate site: Keyboard Jockey
That being said, if you'd like to discuss it via private messages, I'd be more than happy to explain my logic to you.
johni @amaa.com
I put the space in my email address so that web crawlers wont find that and ad my email to a bunch of mailing lists.
But more importantly i need to know about the PSU's.
Also why would it not charge a battery? I know it would be unsafe due to over charging possibilities but if you were watching the voltage of the battery couldnt it work? I know a ton of people use them to charge up there remote control car batteries. But not a real 12v car battery.
Also it works great for peltier CPU coolers that cannot run off of a standard pc power supply because there just to power hungry. Its for people that are overclocking.
Just click on Geeky1's name (above his post), then click the Private Message (PM) option
To see your PM's click the "User CP" link at the top of the page, then the List Messages link