Crazy Power Supply Question

nanite · Post by **nanite** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:44 pm

I was wondering if there was a way to take a single high quality power supply and use it to power two seperate computers? I know this wouldn't be advisable for high end setups, but I'm not going to be using anything of the sort, seeing as though both computers will be pretty low end. Thanks for your comments!

Edit: I just looked online at some ATX splitters, and was wondering how would power work? If you booted one computer, thus turning on the power supply, would the other computer boot on too? Or would it be independent?

I am looking at this beast to accomplish the task. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... =58&depa=0

I'd basically be running something like 2 motherboards with cpu and ram along with another two hard disks total.

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 7:26 pm

Yes, it is possible.

One of the reviewers at overclockers.com did it. He had to remove the power-on wire (green one) from one of the connectors, so he could power on both systems. It was a weird and complex arrangement to get both systems running or just one. I can't really remember how it all worked out, but it was possible.

The reason the reviewer was doing it was to test PSU's, I believe.

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 7:28 pm

i can't be real specific here, but i know i've seen that done (run 2 mobos off 1 psu) a lot by guys setting up folding farms / clusters. try a good google for 'folding farms' and i bet you could get some answers.

for an extreme version of this... check out the latest post to http://www.mini-itx.com. they have a guy running 12 mobos off 1 power supply, though its not an ATX psu of course. but he wired up some switches for each mobo so maybe you could do the same.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 7:41 pm

This is a BAD BAD BAD idea.

Most power supplies in the 400W+ range cost $90 or more. There's a reason for that. I would be highly suspicious of any power supply that claims to be rated for 500W but is being sold for less than $60. And that's not even addressing the question of whether it's quiet or not.

Read MikeC's recommended power supplies page. Here's Page 2. I noticed that they don't provide a temperature that this rating is valid for. And the voltage range that it's good for is a fixed voltage rather than a range. That would raise some red flags for me.

Next, read up on what others have to say about no-name brand power supplies. And realize that you would entrust this to TWO computers.

Once you get up to the cost of where OTHER power supplies are at, you'll probably find it cheaper to simply get 2 good quality 300W power supplies. Axion Technologies has the Seasonic SS-300FS for $37 plus shipping. Two of those would be cheaper than one decent 500W power supply.

ruprag · Post by **ruprag** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:57 am

Well if you have a low power system then you can run bothe mobos of 1 good 300w

PiSan · Post by **PiSan** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 1:49 pm

Good idea for folding farms.

davide_casarin · Post by **davide_casarin** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:54 pm

my fanless psu delivers 194 true watts, is atx form factor and costed 300 US$, so you can understand why I do not want to buy and install a new one for my itx-in-atx project