Two power supplies at once

[Sean of the Thread]

I've found multiple shit on the web about this from Tom's hardware on down but none of it is really consistent.

I'm thinking of running one just to the mobo fans and dvd and cd drives and one to the HDD and video card.

thoughts or experience and or suggestions?

[LadyKiora]

Alot of cases have dual psu support, but I really don't think anything else was done with it, in that you don't plug 2 psu's into the motherboard. I would imagine that to really setup a good pc layout, I'd use half my fans and the graphics cards on the secondary powersupply. I really don't think there is anything to it but to plug them in and spin them both up at once.

[Gan]

You're just not considering the right power supply...

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4223/ddkx3812hj0.jpg

[Martaigne]

You're just not considering the right power supply...

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4223/ddkx3812hj0.jpg

All that is powered by a dinky 450w power supply?

[Martaigne]

Just get one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817101033

[Ashliana]

People often seriously overestimate the amount of power a PC needs. Additionally, there is no practical reason to hook up two PSUs rather than one more powerful one. If it's a high-quality PSU, say from Corsair, etc, it'll deliver a highly efficient (aim for 80% or higher) and consistent stream.

Anyway, I've got my Q6600, 8800GT and 4GB of DDR2 overclocked with several peripherals (sound card, wireless card, TV tuner card) hooked up with a 550 watt PSU, which is more than enough.

Buying an overpowered PSU can significantly raise your electricity bill, too, if you leave your computer on 24/7. I don't see why anyone would ever need two, and computer cases aren't really designed for that setup. Maybe some server boxes are, but I've never seen any.

[AnticorRifling]

People often seriously overestimate the amount of power a PC needs. Additionally, there is no practical reason to hook up two PSUs rather than one more powerful one. If it's a high-quality PSU, say from Corsair, etc, it'll deliver a highly efficient (aim for 80% or higher) and consistent stream.

Anyway, I've got my Q6600, 8800GT and 4GB of DDR2 overclocked with several peripherals (sound card, wireless card, TV tuner card) hooked up with a 550 watt PSU, which is more than enough.

Buying an overpowered PSU can significantly raise your electricity bill, too, if you leave your computer on 24/7. I don't see why anyone would ever need two, and computer cases aren't really designed for that setup. Maybe some server boxes are, but I've never seen any.

Correct.

But you've never seen a case designed for multiple PSUs?

[Martaigne]

I usually shoot for about 550-600W in my rigs, and currently all mine use the Antec TruePower 600. They're not made anymore, but they now have a TruePower 1000 which comes with the 80PLUS certification, meaning they use 33% less power than other power supplies with an equivalent rating (which often don't fully make the power they claim anyway). I think their next model is the NeoPower but I'm fairly certain they're not 80PLUS certified.

[AnticorRifling]

I don't even remember what is in my current computer, I just know it's a 550 and does the job just fine. When it's time to build another one I'll crack the case and compare parts (just like prom ....wait what)

[Sean of the Thread]

Well I'm using parts laying around buying them are not an options. The ones that fit into 5 1/4 bays are sweet.

But I've tracked down my computer turning off to power supply issues.

So to remedy it I was thinking of slapping a two 450w in. Ones an Antec and the other is some piece of shit Dynex. One for the video card and fans or such as suggested and one for the rest.


So far no shutdowns.

I also took apart the video card and thoroughly cleaned it out and put some clp breakfree (the nectar of the gods) on the fan rotor and dropped the temp drastically.

[Sean of the Thread]

People often seriously overestimate the amount of power a PC needs. Additionally, there is no practical reason to hook up two PSUs rather than one more powerful one. If it's a high-quality PSU, say from Corsair, etc, it'll deliver a highly efficient (aim for 80% or higher) and consistent stream.

Anyway, I've got my Q6600, 8800GT and 4GB of DDR2 overclocked with several peripherals (sound card, wireless card, TV tuner card) hooked up with a 550 watt PSU, which is more than enough.

Buying an overpowered PSU can significantly raise your electricity bill, too, if you leave your computer on 24/7. I don't see why anyone would ever need two, and computer cases aren't really designed for that setup. Maybe some server boxes are, but I've never seen any.


Maybe you haven't seen my current rig. The PSU is duct taped to the top of it. heheh.

Wait maybe I have a picture.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b236/Japgross/left.jpg

[Ashliana]

Still doesn't explain why you think two PSUs is a good idea. If one is failing and not producing sufficient power, it should be trashed. Inadequate and sporadic power can be fatal to certain components..

[Sean of the Thread]

I'm quite aware of that.

One's not failing.. one just can't handle some of the multi tasking i do on this old box and money to upgrade to a new box isn't an option right now.

[Sean of the Thread]

Correct.

But you've never seen a case designed for multiple PSUs?

Not only cases designed for multi but now they design PSU's to fit in drive bays FFS.

I've got one ancient tower of doom that had 10 drive bays that had room for two PSU's that I used for a massive raid storage server. It's still in the garage i think.

[BigWorm]

The point of more than one PSU is redundancy in case one fails, not serving different parts with a different PSU. The components are already segregated pretty well because different parts require different voltages which are usually called rails.