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Thread ID: 45660 2004-05-30 01:24:00 Recommended power supply brands? Billy T (70) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
240350 2004-05-30 15:27:00 To the best of my knowledge, DSE psu's are Leadman/Powermax PSU's.. not crash hot in my books (seeing as my leadman 400w tried to emulate chernobyl and melted the ATX socket on my mobo) but they're not shockingly bad either.. peg them up as a positive side of mediocre

In other news: The best way to paste a DSE link is to not bother copying and pasting out of the address bar.. such links are often session dependant, so when someone else goes to browse it they just get kicked back to the main DSE homepage.

The more universal way is to copy and paste the mailto link:
mailto:?body=%0A400W%20P4/Athlon%20Supply%20%0Ahttp://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/en/product/XH6906%0A

Remove all the guff:
www.dse.co.nz

And voila!
whetu (237)
240351 2004-05-30 21:04:00 Seems that particular PSU is "out of stock" until 20th june anyway.

Another way to paste DSE links is to find the product info page rather than the advert (which as said, is cycles out over time) and pop that in.

Cheers Murray P
Murray P (44)
240352 2004-05-30 22:32:00 > ( my leadman 400w tried to emulate chernobyl
> and melted the ATX socket on my mobo)

That may have been a mobo fault whetu. When a plug/socket combination overheat it usually starts with either a poor contact surface on the mobo pin, a poor contact surface on the PSU plug or a spread socket on the PSU plug.

I always find it confusing to describe these as the PSU plug is a female socket and the mobo socket is a male plug. Go figure!

Prior to this problem the only power supply failure I had ever experienced was a Enermax :(

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
240353 2004-06-01 03:51:00 Bought the DSE 400W, it looks very well made and weighs in at just under 2 kg . That is pretty solid and on taking a shufti inside, it looked to me like it is very well made with hefty heatsinks, good quality components and an all-round "nice to look at" feel .

I couldn't see a maker's name unfortunately, so it is probably on the underside of the PCB . I didn't take it up myself, but for around $25 you can extend the warranty to three years so even at retail pricing that has to be a good deal .

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
240354 2004-06-01 04:31:00 Nah billy.. wasnt to do with any of my gear, it was to do with the house we were in - extremely noisy mains.. and so the PSU's filtering had to be good enough to handle it.. obviously the leadman (and the novia that replaced it temporarily) couldnt hack it

And of course being a student at the time I couldnt afford a UPS or line conditioner

Another thread has recently been created at ocnz which appears to be a good read:
forums.overclockers.co.nz
whetu (237)
240355 2004-06-01 07:45:00 I read the thread whetu, but then I started to get confused . I can't see a 12 volt rail being used to power a low voltage CPU, and the very high current rating of the 3 . 3 volt rail suggests that it is the source of all electrons for the main processor . I tend to lose faith in advice if it appears to contain a major flaw yet the guy who wrote the pages you linked seems pretty credible otherwise .

Apart from memory I don't particularly know what else in a computer runs from that low a voltage . This PDF doc ( . intel . com/design/pentiumiii/applnots/24508501 . pdf" target="_blank">www . intel . com) by Intel seeems to confirm that view, though they do use modular dc to dc convertors for providing localised higher current supplies .

It might have been the go back before processor power demands escalated but knocking 12 volts back to 3 . 3 or so would generate a fair amount of heat at the current levels required .

Maybe Godfather can clarify this for us if he happens to drift past this thread .

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
240356 2004-06-01 07:58:00 The MB does have a DC-DC converter (2,3 or 4 sets of mosfets and coils beside the cpu socket) to give the CPU anything up to 100 Watts at only 1.5-2.0 Volts. There is some heat, some MB have heatsinks on the mosfets.
The voltage regulator used to be fed from the +5V supply but it took over 20Amps to supply the Watts. Newer MBs use +12V to cut down the need for starter cable sized wiring. Watts=Volts x Amps.
PaulD (232)
240357 2004-06-01 08:23:00 ATX supplies have a separate 3.3v rail. The 12v rail would be lightly loaded in terms of Watts, compared to the 3.3v and 5v rails.

The output capabilities are probably related to the output of any one rail I suppose, but its a strange way of relating it in that article. I suppose the intent was to show that nameplate ratings may not always tell the truth.

Example:
Power Distribution for 430 watt PSU

DC O/P Load Max. / Peak
+5V (Amps) 44A / -
+12V (Amps) 20A / 23A
+3.3V (Amps) 38A / 43A
-5V (Amps) 2A / -
-12V (Amps) 1A / -
+5VSB(Amps) 2.2A / -


BTW, I agree that output (and quality I suspect) are closely related to the weight.
godfather (25)
240358 2004-06-01 22:38:00 > Newer MBs use +12V to cut down the need for starter
> cable sized wiring . Watts=Volts x Amps .

Hi Paul

Just out of interest, if you have a spare minute or two you might like to look at the PDF doc I linked . It has some interesting images showing how MB makers get around that problem by using multi-layer boards with large-area copper groundplanes to carry the big supply loads . The relatively short distances limit voltage-drop problems and very high currents can be moved around .

As I mentioned in my previous post, Intel does talk about modular DC to DC convertors too, but I wouldn't have thought there would be much use for 25+ amps at 3 . 3 volts anywhere else but for a CPU . Mind you, there is 25+ amps capacity for the 5 volt line too, but a few more devices use 5 volts so the load on that rail would be higher anyway . In the final analysis, with PSUs being non-specific I guess that they provide capacity for all MB variations so 12/5/3 . 3 volt CPU supplies are all catered for .

I cut my teeth on 6 & 12 volt DC to DC multi-output convertors to run 25 watt output all-valve VHF radiotelephones (and before that, high power motor-generator and vibrator supplies for marine applications) so this has been an interesting learning curve for me and I no longer take computer power supplies for granted! They are quite extraordinary pieces of technology .

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
240359 2004-06-02 01:00:00 Hi Billy, You've already mentioned to whetu about poor connection in the power plug and socket. That's where the problem is, the limit is something like 6 Amps max per pin.
Some video cards are using CPU amounts of power these days. That and memory probably get 3.3V.
This seems useful:
www.quepublishing.com
PaulD (232)
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