Safe to use multiple power supplies for the same computer?

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kedwa30

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Jul 28, 2011
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I was given a computer in which the power supply went bad. It has a video card in it, but I don't have any single power supply on hand that can power both the motherboard and the video card. Is it safe to use one power supply to power the video card while the other powers the motherboard etc.? Obviously I would plug them into the same power bar and attach them both to the case. Any other precautions? Unfortunately this motherboard doesn't have built in video and I don't have a low end video card to try.

Update: It is a 'Raidmax' brand case and power supply, ATX12V 500Watt (that failed)
Nvidia XFX 8800 GTS PCIE16
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L

I have several old computers that died of capacitor plague from which I can salvage a good power supply, but here are two in particular that I want to research before I try:
Dynex Model: LC-B300ATX (300W max)
and
PHIHONG ENTERPRISE CO.,LTD. Model: PSA-2004XT
That produces 8amps on +12volt. and 217W total.
Is this enough to power that video card?

Alternatively, would the 300W power supply be enough by itself and all I would need to do is wire the molex 12V to the six pin connector on the video card? I can find how to wire it, but I just don't know how much power it requires. I know it's safe to run the fans from a separate power supply, and I would even run hard drives from a separate one without worry; I just want more information before trying this because I think it would be much easier to fry the CPU, RAM and video card with mismatched power since they are more directly connected.

And all I really want is information and I don't have any money for buying awesome and safe products. Thanks all!
 
Solution
Mr5oh
Yeah you can run two, however what the sepcs? Even pretty serious PCs generally don't draw more than 300 watts?

You will need to tie the signal wires together on the PSU so they both turn on together.
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Mr5oh

Mr5oh

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I'd have to disagree. Most people think whatever some online calculator tells them is what their PC actually draws. Have you ever put a amp meter on your PC? My 4690K / GTX 760 peaks at 249 watts (drawn from the wall, so the PC is using even less). My media machine G3258 / GTX 750 TI tops out at a whopping 114 watts ? Those numbers are peak draw during 3DMark11.

My previous build 3570K / GTX 570 HD did break the 300 mark while overclocked, peaking at 317 watts.

There nothing really un-safe about connecting two wires? However if the OP doesn't feel confident about doing the wiring, perhaps a $20 board is a cheap solution.
 
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mchldpy

mchldpy

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Jan 16, 2010
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I've been using 2 p/s on each of my computers for over 5 years. One connected to the MB for CPU and Discrete Graphics Card, and monitored fans, the other runs non-monitored fans, HDDs, Optical Drives, Soft-Serve Machine etc ... using the green wire only solution. The biggest problem I've ever had was, needing to flip the switches on the p/s on/off a time or two until they were in sync. (both of them "off" with their switches in the "on" position) Once they are in sync with each other both will start and stop at the same time. YMMV, depending on how you have the "Power On" state setup.

As a side note to JackNaylorPE who said "Most PCs talked about here on these forums draw well over 300 watts. I would not suggest tying any wires together .... the Add2PSU does this safely"

Irregardless of whether the system draws 152 watts or 1803.5 watts, the green wire that is used to tell the system to "power on" has the same low voltage/current values in both scenarios.
 
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