Rather than continue to hijack mutha trucka's thread about cases with extraneous discussion about PSUs, I thought it would only be polite to start a new topic.
Dual PSUs, why would I need that?
Powering up a Peltier rig?
Running RAID arrays?
Got a bunch of fans? (I'm currently set up with eleven! total...not all on at once, but still...)
How about water cooling or a bunch of lights?
And let's not even mention all the super-duper video cards that I know ya'll are so fond of...you think all of their onboard memory and cooling solutions run on goodwill?
Well, you say, my PSU is rated at "x" watts, that should be plenty, shouldn't it?
Maybe, maybe not.
Are your "x" watts available all the time or is that a "peak load" rating?
Remember, when you hit your ON button, it takes a big jolt of current to spin up your drives, lights, fans espresso machine, what-have-you. And that's not to mention all the goodies you plan on scoring for Christmas.
Furthermore, a spike in the draw from one component is delivered down the line, dominoe-like, to every other piece in your machine. Including of course, your motherboard. It's not nice to mess with the power to your mobo.
Many of you have at least one other PSU laying around.
With any sort of luck it is an ATX PSU ( this just makes things easier).
If you don't have one, it's pretty easy to get one...a friend who has upgraded or bought a new case, even your local computer repair shop probably has a few good ones laying about.
Worse come to worse, they really aren't that expensive new.
You don't need the biggest, baddest boy on the block to make this work.
This isn't about having the most wattage, it's all about splitting the current draw and isolating your CPU and HDD from the whims of the rest of the system.
If you are creative/daring enough to consider doing this I'm sure you can figure how to mount the second PSU and run the cables so I shan't waste time with that...not to mention that every rig will be somewhat different anyway.
Here is a link describing how to modify the wiring ( which doesn't even involve cutting up your harnesses- although you can if you'd like). It is dead simple and shouldn't really stress out any but the most inept.
If nothing else, you are building in a bit of a safety factor, and almost certainly you'll be the only person on your block with this mod.
That alone is worth it, don't you think? ;)
