Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Hooking up 2 power supplies

Tags:
  • Power Supplies
  • Components
  • Product
Last response: in Components
Share
April 11, 2008 7:36:42 PM

ok before I ask my question let me state my system:
MOBO: MSI P6n Diamond (680i nvidia)
CPU: Intel e8400
GPU: Geforce 9600gt
Memory: Corsair 2gigs ddr2 sdram
HD: 160gig sata3.0 7200rpm
Cd: dvdr sata
1 8mm fans with lights
and thats it,
now here is my question i am running all of this on a roswill 400w psu (which aafter doing the math really only supplies 385w) now according to the handy dandy extreem Power supply calc all i need to run this is a is a wopping 283 watts. Does this seem low to you???
if so what size power supply do i need?
can i take my back up psu and just split the componets up between two psu's one 400w and one 350w??

This is my first build thanks for the help.

More about : hooking power supplies

April 11, 2008 7:43:55 PM

i dont believe extream psu calc, i think all values are lower than the right values..

how long have you running rosewill on your pc?
April 11, 2008 8:03:23 PM

283W is probably aproximatly right... always add 10% to that value for flucturations. Then as that is true only if the optimal configuration of Amps on 12V, 5V, 3.3V is true, witch it never is as most PSU manufacturers add some heavy number Amps to the 5 and 3.3V to get a higher W rating although the important 12V is getting only average Amps you realy need to almost double the amount to be on the safe side unless you buy a highquality PSU with high Amp ratings on 12V. Also when reading the 12V Amps make sure you get the total max strain you can have on this cause it's not unusual that there are several 12V lines (Lets say PSU have 3 lines of 12V and they are rated at 18Amp a peice but total strain on all 3 might only be 35Amps not 3*18 as you might expect). I use a different calc witch showed me that my computer used a bit under 300W but still my 580W PSU is just barely able to cope with the 12V requierments. :/ 
Related resources
April 11, 2008 8:43:34 PM

The rosewill is brand new got it with the case
April 11, 2008 9:40:05 PM

Any of the rosewill PSU's are not known for reliability or stability.
That said I would recommend another PSU for your system.
I would recommend any of the tier 3 PSU's and above from the PSU sticky, at a rating of 500 watts or more. I favor the single rail PSU's over multi rail anytime.
a b ) Power supply
April 11, 2008 10:06:58 PM

Get a reliable supply and save yourself the trouble....
April 12, 2008 3:45:42 PM

I completely agree however, money is ahuge issure here, if you put youreslf in my shoes and knew you had to work with what you got. and you had a rosewill and some old backup, what would you do, would you risk it? or would hook up two psu's? or other???
April 15, 2008 2:05:00 AM

Don't hook up two power supplies to any equipment you can't afford to lose. You can easily get weird issues with ground loops (due to "ground" being at different voltage potentials in the two supplies) and other unintended consequences.
You can buy a decent PS for $50 (free shipping): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
!