dual PSU's

[94blue302gt]

Is there a way to turn on two (or more) PSU's when I hit the power on button? I have a few smaller one's laying around and would like to use them for cooling and other auxillaries if possible. I'm building my own case, so putting them somewhere isn't an issue.
Thanks
Lee

Everyone has a humble beginning...

 

[Crashman]

I think all the grounds are common to the chassis ground, so he should only need to parallel a green one.

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[94blue302gt]

So i can have on psu for the MB and drives, and then one for the vid card and fans? Or maybe even just one for the fans and lights? I have a 350 powering the system right now, and i'd like to add on some heavy duty fans, lights, and possibly a water cooling system, but i'd like to keep that power seperate so it doesn't interfere with the other components.

 

[TunaSoda]

Isn't this already the case (using separate rails) within a typ psu anyway?

 

[fishmahn]

Usually not. Usually there is 1 'rail' for all the 12v, 1 rail for all the 5v and 1 rail for all the 3.3v. Even those PSUs that have '2 12v rails' really have it coming off 1 voltage regulator with 2 current limiters (there are exceptions in the case of high quality PSUs). IIRC, Intel removed the dual rail recommendation from their latest PSU specification.

Mike.

 

[fishmahn]

That should be fine. I would have 1 for the mobo, graphics card & CPU and one for the lights/water cooling. Drives I would put wherever it looked like I had extra power.

Mike.

 

[Kordain]

on a previous work PC i used a power bar that has a current sensing socket on it, when it detects power being taken from this socket (ie when your computer starts up) it turns on all the rest of the sockets so it powers up my monitors, sound amp, light etc. you could get one of these and short the black and green wires (semi) permanently and as soon as you powered up your main power supply all the rest would be fired up via the distro bar.

A very neat solution, requiring no joining of other units wires together which could possibly create cross regulation of voltage across different PSUs ( i was very close to trying something similar lately but didnt in the end so im not sure if that would be a problem not) you should be able to get one from the big electronics stores if not the catalogues.

Worked like a charm for me,

Have fun...

P.S. Fishman's is a very true comment about which power should go where. Cards plugged into the mobo should share the mobos PSU just to be safe.

 

[fishmahn]

I had one of those power strips once. Very nice idea, and made it much easier to power up all the peripherals and external stuff long ago.

Mike.