Dual PSU Adaptor

[Chalenge]

I knew someone would come up with this one day. I do it a little differently by buying a 20-24 pin adaptor ($1.29) and cutting nearly all the wires off and jumping two wires to a 4-pin molex of the primary PSU. Not everyone can solder though so this might come in handy for somebody that wants to use two good PSUs instead of buying a more expensive unit.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21193

[Chalenge]

A little more expensive but sometimes one shop runs out of items:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5637/cpa-167/Lian_Li_Dual_Power_Supply_Adapter_Cable.html

[Krusty]

I'm a little bit aware of some issues with electricity, but by no means trained or certified or anything.

Wouldn't this cause problems? What if the PSUs were putting out different levels?

Part of me wants to say that would short them out. The other parts says "nah, just like hooking 2 AA batteries up in a remote doesn't short them out" but that assumes identical power supplies.

[Krusty]

Wait, I think I'm missing something.



Why only the 2 wires? What's on those wires that is being shared with the 2 PSUs, but not any of the others?

[Chalenge]

If you dont hook the 20/24 pin male to anything the PSU will remain on the entire time. The jumper (and thats all those two wires are) just sends a small current across those two wires which tells the PSU its time to power up. That way the case switch can be used to power on two PSUs.

If your PSU puts out a different 'level' then why are you using it? Its either a PC PSU or its not and any PSU you buy should be quality stuff.

[Krusty]

Ooooooooh, I get it.

Totally disregard my first post here, it was nonsense. I thought you were taking two different sources of 12v (for example) and wiring them together going to the same place. That made no sense to me.

I get what it does now, it just allows control of the PSU, and you just selectively plug different things into the different PSU connectors.

 

[Chalenge]

What really got me was about four months ago I decided I was going to be looking at quad SLI (real quad SLI not the gimmicked 295s) and the power requirements for me were pushing 1100-1500 Watts. The only 1500W  PSU I could find of sufficient quality was running very near $1000 which seems ridiculous considering that half that value (750W) was less than $200. So I learned how to do this and bought enough cases to go around the house but so far I have only converted three systems to dual PSUs. I dont think I will need more but time will tell.

This patch cable will make it easier for anyone that wants to do the same thing but has never seen a soldering iron.

[Masherbrum]

The NZXT Khaos includes a cable to join two PSU's.   

[Denholm]

Dang Chalenge! You should have patented your modifications. If you had done so, you could have been buying us all a year's worth of subscriptions.

[Chalenge]

Your kidding right? 

[Denholm]

I won't make you cry...