Taking a PC overseas - any power issues to be aware of?

[apianoman]

Hi,

This is probably a stupid question, but I'd really appreciate some accurate informtion as any answers I find seem to conflict with one another!

I'm moving to Australia from the UK fairly shortly. I own a home-built PC rig with some relatively expensives components inside. Because of weight restraints and shipping costs, I'm leaving my monitor and chassis at home, but will be taking the following with me:

Hard drives (hand luggage on the plane, stored in hard enclosures)
Motherboard/CPU/RAM, DVD drive and graphics card - carefully packaged in box inside hard suitcase with lots of padding

The monitor and case will stay at home as they're too big to transport with any practicality. I'm happy to buy new once I get to Australia.

Here's the question though - will I need to buy a new power supply in Australia? I'm sure the internal power cables will be fine but I'm not tech-savvy enough to know if there's a different current/voltage. Can I take the current PSU with me and just get a different cable at the other end with an Australian plug on it?

The same question applies to my laptop - if it's got a transformer box attached on the power lead, does that mean I can just buy an alternative plug cable at the other end without needing to buy a whole new power lead?

Any advice would be much appreciated - apologies if this is posted in the wrong forum.

Many thanks.

 

[Onus]

It will depend on whether your existing PSU has Active PFC (no little voltage switch) which means it will operate on ~100V-~240V AC. If that's the case, a new cord is all you need. If not, you should replace the PSU with a better (not necessarily bigger) unit that does have Active PFC. Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, XFX, new FSP, and Enermax/LEPA are among the better brands.

 

[apianoman]

It will depend on whether your existing PSU has Active PFC (no little voltage switch) which means it will operate on ~100V-~240V AC. If that's the case, a new cord is all you need. If not, you should replace the PSU with a better (not necessarily bigger) unit that does have Active PFC. Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, XFX, new FSP, and Enermax/LEPA are among the better brands.

Thanks for the quick response. The PSU is one of these: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124926

Arctic Power 600W. There's no little switch on the back, so does this mean it's good news? I'm quite happy to only buy a new cord if that's what's needed!

 

[ScrewySqrl]

then you should only need the new cord. probly AU$3-4

 

[smorizio]

with your ac laptop power brick contact the vendor of the laptop and see if you have universal power brick. some power bricks are made for 110-240v ac. some are fixed. if your is a fixed power brick then all you need is buy a universal brick.

 

[nukemaster]

The power brick should list its voltage range. Something like 90 - 250 VAC or similar.

Even have an old 90's laptop power supply rated @ 100-250 volts

 

[bliq]

just read the labels on the PSU and the powerbrick. It will say something like "Input ~100-240V 50-60A" if it can automatically adjust for different voltages. (I can't remember if those are the right values for Amps, but for Voltage, I'm sure that's what most of them say)

 

[apianoman]

That's great news - many thanks to everyone who replied. I really appreciate your time.