tony's dual power supply f.a.q's

[joan2]

you can find the atx12v specs from the web, it is in pdf format, very interesting reading.....i have the revision 1.2 of the spec not sure if i can email you, send me a pm with your email, i'll see if i can send you the file....

[joan2]

q : I have an enlight 340W PSU that used to power a P4 1.6A at 2.2GHz on an Asus P4B-266C and has excellent voltages accross rails (voltages never going .01V less from spec).

Now it's powering an AXP 1700+ at 2.0GHz on an Epox 8RDA+ and using the same peripiherals (DVD, CD, 2x HDD), the 3.3V rail is running very low. Below are the average voltages as reported by MBM:

+3.3 2.47 V

+5.00 5.00 V

+12.00 12.44 V

-12.00 -12.16 V

-5.00 -5.14 V

Considering the PSU's heft, I could say it's a good unit and it used to power my old Athlon 1.0 @ 1.6GHz with the same number of peripherals and a 172W TEC. Do you think adjusting the trim pots (I opened it and fiddled it some before) would fix or would the PSU need serious modding?



a: 1. the 3.3 volt rail is still within the lower limit of 2.46volts, you can tweak the trimpot to get this higher, but doing so would raise the other rails also, just be guided by the limits of 5.25 and 12.6 for the 5/12 volt rails.

    2. your psu can benefit from a rectifier upgrade, replacing the 5 and 3.3 volts rectifiers can increase your rails by as much as 0.25volts, quite significant if i may say so....



what the above shows is that amd procs rely  more heavily on the 5 volt rail than an intel proc would.....



thanks to slide for making this thread sticky, and for your question....

[lsouljah]

bro u powered that athlon rig with a 172wTEC??? parang nakakatakot ata un ah.  nakagamit ako ng 156wTEC pero di ko try sa HEC 350w hirap magpa RMA eh try ko nga s crappy 300w ni ayaw umikot ng todo ung fans ng radiator  heheh.

[joan2]

dulber gave me two psu's for a dual psu setup, one is an elan vital 300watt, and the other an icute 300watter, what are the differences ansd simmilarities between the two?



I.  Elan Vital 300watt:

    1. uses 2 stage pfc passive ckt.

    2. uses 4amp bridge rectifier

    3. 2 x 680ufd/200 mains filter caps

    4. ic type 5volts standby ckt.

    5. big mains chopper transformer

    6. uses 12amp type chopper transistors

    7. uses heavy heatsink

II. Icute 300 watt:

    1. simple pfc passive ckt

    2. uses a 1amp bridge rectifier

    3. 2 x 330ufd/200volts mains filter caps

    4. small mains chopper transformer

    5. uses 7amps type chopper transistors

    6. lightweight heatsink

both uses 30amp 5volts rectifier and both uses synchronous type rectifier for the 3.3v rail

so which one to use on an athlon xp/ge force4 ti setup? the Elan Vital of course, incidentaly, the elan vital has a trimpot to tweak the 5volt rail if needed....the 5volt rectifier will be upgraded to 60amp type as sson as the material gets in....

[yaj555]

my 3.3v thingy is at 3.14 ryt now...



rig specs



axp 1700+ @ 2200+ 1.7 vcore, 2.8v agp

CAK488t

MSI kt3v

256 DDR333

1 cdrom, 1 writer (unplugged for now)

Gainward ti4800SE

CMI 8378

300 watts dynamo twin fan PSU

3 80 mm .20 amp fans

[yaj555]

im planning on getting an 8rda+ rev 2 this month, and im just making sure that my PSU is up to it :|

[joan2]

your 3.3volt rail is still within spec, although on the low side....dual psu?

[cLaw]

i'm using a psu that came w/ my exodus casing...the 5v rail is reported to be @ 4.84v...the rest are ok...dual psu? or psu trimming?

palomino 1800+, 8k3a,2x256  mem modules,cdrom,cdwriter,1 maxtor 7200rpm,1 fdd, cak4-88t, 2 dditinal fans..

i'm planningto add more fans and OC the processor to 166fsb...

i have two spare 300w psu (pentium4 from tornade & task from saxon)

[joan2]

your psu 5v rail is still within specs, lower limit is 4.75.....but we can mod your psu...i have 5pcs 60amps rectifiers coming in maybe this week....

[cLaw]

ok...tignan ko kung kailan ang next na trip ko sa manila... =) then maybe i would let you mod any two of my psu..:)

[joelreg]

i am using an enermax 350 watter...setup=tbred 2100+, 8k3a, 1x256 mem module, 1 cdrw, 1 fdd, 1 maxtor 7200rpm, 1 maxtor 5400rpm, gf4 4200, sbLive soundcard, lan card, modem, watercooling, 2x120 mm. fans, 4x80 mm....at default setting with 1.45 vcore running prime95 overnight,  the ff. are my average voltages using MBM5: 4.97v, 12.7v, 3.3v....

but, at 187x13 (2429 Mhz) with 1.95v vcore, 2.7vdimm at turbo, and prime95 for about 6 hours, the ave. voltages are perplexing...4.62v, 13.67v(!), 3.32v.....

sir tony, am i courting trouble with my present set up? i am assuming MBM is accurate as my bios have similar readings...i am apprehensive in pushing it a little bit more. although 4.6v ave. is below desired lower limit i think it is running stable...but the 12v rail reading worries me...should i expect something blowing up? is there something wrong with my MB? can something be done?

[joan2]

dr. joel,

your 5volt rail is below spec, lower limit of 4.75v, while your 12v rail is over the spec of 12.6 volts, i wonder if you got random reboots, yes you are courting trouble....these power supplies were not meant for over clocking per se,.....good feedback though!!! so others may be forewarned...

[joan2]

q: would i find a prob if i mounted 2 PSU but not acting simultaneously. sort of independent from one another. separate power cords.



one Enermax 350watt PSU dedicated to my system composed of DVD-ROM, CDRW, 2pcs 80gig, 120gig SATA, P4 2.6C, ASUS P4C800 mobo, ATI 9600 pro, internal modem, 1gig PC400, 3pcs, Harddisk Cooler and Zalman CPU Cooler.



another PSU, don't know the brand but it came with those cases with a window. dedicated to 4pcs 120mm Enermax fans, 3 CCFL, 1 PCI cooler and 3 HDD cooler.



i tried to hook up everything to the 350watt PSU pero over load na talaga yun di ba. the case can accomodate another PSU kc its a full tower. yun nga lang, wala na akong vacant na 5.25 bay and the case doesn't have a 3.5 bay. so i can't make use of switches. parang mas convenient kung papatayin ko na lang ang power ng isang PSU and leave the other running.



what problems would i encounter with this idea? i was planning to convert the second PSU into a tester PSU type, removing other cords sch as those going to the CPU to reduce the wire. nwei, tambak lang naman yung PSU ngayon sa stock room e.



a: yes you can with that setup, but if you use it for say, another hardisk and or cdrom, then you can not, the psu must come on simultaniously, why? because     as you power on your psu,post routine is done thru your bios to detect all your hardware and see if they are there as previuosly set up or has any changes to your hardware occured sine the last time you booted up. now if you on your main power supply then on the second one moments later, then how do you suppose your bios can detect the change? so your second psu must come on at the same time as the main one...

[ferdz_33]

sir joan2,



can you post the spec limit/recommended voltage of each rail (or whatever you call it)? so we can easily refer to it if the need arises. thanks

[joan2]

rail----------low------------high

3.3v---------3.135---------3.465

5.0v---------4.75-----------5.25

12v----------11.4-----------12.6

-5v-----------4.5------------5.5

-12v---------10.8-----------13.2

values in between low anf high are ok, those values outside of these are out of spec......

[ferdz_33]

thanks very much sir,



very helpful indeed. =D

[juandelacruz]

OT:



sir joan2,



do you also repair UPSs? i'm thinking of buying one since the electrical supply in our area fluctuates so badly that my PC reboots. the fluctuations happen at least 2X a month. i'm asking just to be on the safe side.



also what is your recommended brand of UPS? i'm looking at the APC ES UPS 500 now but would like your opinion with regards to its quality and repair-ability in case it gets fried. any other brand and/or model you can recommend.



TIA for you help.

[joelreg]

sir tony, thanks forl the response. the lo - hi value list is very informative.

[joan2]

juandelacruz.

yes i repair psu's but right now i am in neck deep work, remind me later, i have yet to finish gobbit's.



alexan is selling a kit, ups cum modified  sine wave inverter unit, please check it out, i suggest you only use it for your cpu, monitor can use regular outlet, in case of power failure you can use hibernate function, or do Alt-F4 to shut-down your cpu....



i am more in favor of line tamers or line conditioners, avr's are a no-no for me, not needed, since your monitors and pc psu's have good line input voltage regulation to begin with, thus negating the need for avr's. avr's are good for hi-fi home enternainment units, not for pc's

[juandelacruz]

alexan is selling a kit, ups cum modified sine wave inverter unit, please check it out, i suggest you only use it for your cpu, monitor can use regular outlet, in case of power failure you can use hibernate function, or do Alt-F4 to shut-down your cpu....

thanks, i'll take a look at it.

yes i repair psu's but right now i am in neck deep work, remind me later, i have yet to finish gobbit's.

ok, i'll pm you later.