Is it possible to use 2 power supplies in one case?

[Spoooon]

I've got a 235 watt power supply laying around with nothing to do, so is it possible to add it to my computer? I was thinking I could have it take care of the fans and drives, while my 300 watt takes care of the mobo and stuff.

 

[vss1980]

In a short answer, yes you can have two PSU's in a computer. I've seen server cases that will accept 3 PSU's. You have to make sure they share a 'common ground' (ie. 0V/GND lines of each supply are linked) but as most PSU metal casing is grounded this shouldn't be too difficult to do.

 

[Mday]

there is always a but...

each and EVERY power supply must have a certain load on it to stay on. this means the stuff plugged in must draw enough power to keep the power supply on. this is usually 10% which is not VERY much. so don't freak out if your power supply does not work if you have a simple fan connected to it. you will need several fans...

and since you are splitting the mobo and HDDs, don't worry about the load issue.

---

in addition to vss's comment, don't forget about the power good and power OKAY of the ATX design (20 pin mobo power connector).

everything is simple with at since they have a real off button.

 

[MagnusPAH]

Hey vs1988, where did you see a server case that will accept 3 PSU? Right now I have modded my Enlight midtower to accept 2 PSU (fortron 400W and antec 300W) but my third PSU is sitting outside. I have a water cooler with 2 78W peltiers cooling the core right now. Those peltiers take over the 400W PSU while the 300W is taking care of the Gig Athlon (oced of course). However, I am trying to chill the water temp with 2 more 72w peltiers attached to 2 vos32. Those will be attached to a 3rd PSU. If I can get a server case that will accept 3 PSU, I can actually have my 2 78W peltiers have their dedicated PSes (each 78W with each PSU) since I have a fourth PSU lying around.

Back to Spooon question: yes you can have 2 PSU in one case.

 

[Spoooon]

Okay, so then, how do I get the 2nd power supply to turn on? Will it automatically switch on with the other one, if I just have it plugged into the hard drive and stuff? I guess I'm gonna turn off the computer and find out...

 

[MagnusPAH]

Go to this site:
http://www.swiftnets.com/cgi/shop.pl/page=FrameSet.htm
Click on MC2001 Specs.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the section where they talk about Power.

I had mine setup like this and it worked great. Turned the main on, the other PS turns on also.

 

[Spoooon]

That should be pretty easy. The gray and black wire that is supposed to be spliced together, I guess they are the ones on the ATX connector?

 

[MagnusPAH]

Yep. They are not that hard to splice. Took me less than 5 minutes. Just becareful with what wires you splice.

 

[SniPeZ]

Ok, it's probably just me, but i don't understand the diagram at all. Can some explain it to me like a 6 year old child??? (the diagram on the swiftnets website about joining 2 power supplies)

 

[Spoooon]

This is how I understand it: on power supply two, get the white/grey wire (mine has both?!?) and a black wire (ground) and solder them together. Use shrink wrap to insulate them. Now, you take your green wire from ps2 and splice it together with the green wire on ps1. Do the same for the ground wire. You can probably just strip the wires on ps1 and solder them together with the wires from ps2. But it'll look a lot better using molex connectors. I've kinda given up on adding one though, because my brother's power supply is getting screwy so I'm giving him my old one.

So, in essence, you have the green wires from both power supplies and a ground wire from both plugged in to the motherboard.

 

[vss1980]

To MagnusPAH, I saw this 3 PSU case in an advert in an English magazine sold by a company called 'Linefeed' at address 'www.linefeed.com'. But they have since gone broke about a year and a bit ago.

Dont loose heart. Another company that has since gone broke used to sell empty Compaq server cases that could take 2 PSU's, so you may want to try to see if a company around you does the same.

 

[MagnusPAH]

Thanks vss1980. I guess I will have to settle for my current case right now. I can handle 2 PSU but my third PSU is lying on the ground and so will my 4th PSU

 

[vss1980]

Just checked Enlight to see what cases they do. Some of their server cases use more than 1 PSU. To have a look yourself: http://enlightcorp.com/server_cases.shtml