2 PSU's on 1 PC

[iDevil]

Hey guys, just a question about running my PC with 2 power supplies.

My Corsair TX650w recently stopped working so I returned it to OcUK for RMA and was told that it had been returned to Corsair, and that it will be about 2-3 weeks before I get a repair or replacement back.

For the time being, I've put my old 'generic' 500w PSU into my machine and this works fine, however if I go to play a demanding game with higher video settings, after about 10 minutes I can smell a sort of electrical 'burning', and believe it to be the generic PSU struggling to power my rig under load.

I have a spare 450w PSU lying around, so I thought perhaps I could 'jump start' it and have it power just my 5870? As I imagine thats sucking up most of the power under load. I don't have any other demanding components in my rig as per my sig.

I imagine it's easy enough to do - just hook up the 6-pin cables to the card. But I was unsure as to whether doing this could cause any damage to the card?

 

[kalvindeane]

I would advise you not to use the Generic (Unbranded?) PSU at all, especially if it smells of burning.
That does not sound good for your system, you don't want your Corsair PSU to come back but have
no use since your system has caught fire because of a dodgy PSU.

What brand is the 450W PSU? If you really need to use your computer, and it's a reliable model,
you should be able to just use that on it's own. Sure, it won't be enough to fully power your rig.
i am almost 100% positive that having too little power won't mean a problem (as far as stability
and breaking your gear is concerned at least).



As always, I recommend you wait for a second opinion, from one of the more learned members,
and until then, do not use either of those PSU's. Can you check the thread from another device,
i.e laptop, second computer or phone?

*edit* As for your question about dual PSU's, I've seen them in other people's rigs before, shouldn't
cause any problems. The only foreseeable problem to me, is if you have ONLY the gpu powered by it,
which I read either here or on another well-known computer forum, that it destroyed someone's
graphics card. (Again, not an expert on the subject, await confirmation!!!!!!)

 

[d_brennen]

Doesn't sound like a great idea tbh. Bit in the name of science go for it! Make sure you get someone to film you doing it... Something for your folks to remember you by

 

[Mayfair]

I would advise you not to use the Generic (Unbranded?) PSU at all, especially if it smells of burning.
That does not sound good for your system, you don't want your Corsair PSU to come back but have
no use since your system has caught fire because of a dodgy PSU.

Agreed, Isn't such a good idea.

 

[iDevil]

Fair enough guys, I'll scrap that one then. I have read of people doing it for powering extra components, I'm guessing fans, hard drives and such which have relatively low power consumption. If it was a cheaper machine I'd just dive right in and go for it, but since it's a nice rig I don't want to risk it really.

Bit in the name of science go for it! Make sure you get someone to film you doing it... Something for your folks to remember you by

Haha!

 

[kalvindeane]

Fair enough guys, I'll scrap that one then. I don't want to risk it really.

Best not to, was trying to write that message quickly, incase you were about to blow your house up!

Hmm worded that the wrong way me thinks, I meant to say good for you for being sensible

 

[d_brennen]

Fair enough guys, I'll scrap that one then. I have read of people doing it for powering extra components, I'm guessing fans, hard drives and such which have relatively low power consumption. If it was a cheaper machine I'd just dive right in and go for it, but since it's a nice rig I don't want to risk it really.

It's entirely possible, just not something to try at 1am on a Monday night without much research and preparation.

 

[JonJ678]

You need some way to force the two supplies to agree on what earth is, and to worry about the 450W supply only providing 12V (most atx supplies expect load on all the rails). Aside from that, an old 450W may be from the era where computers drew heavily on 5V and not much on 12V (I know that at some point in the past this was true, but don't know when), so it might not be able to run the graphics card all by itself.

Screwing both psu's to the same case will probably solve the earth issue. I think I'd give it a go, but don't be unduly surprised if it goes terribly wrong and leaves you with dead components.

 

[iDevil]

Best not to, was trying to write that message quickly, incase you were about to blow your house up!

Hmm worded that the wrong way me thinks, I meant to say good for you for being sensible

Haha! Thanks I can't see it blowing the house up but I guess it's not really worth trying anyway, I've not read of anyone using a seperate PSU to power GFX cards so

I have been using the 500w generic 'COLORSit' PSU for a few weeks on this rig now. I have used this power supply in my old Intel dual core rig and the Pentium D rig before that for about 3-4 years in total with no problems, so I'm not really worried about it failing under basic usage.

 

[kalvindeane]

I talk in your thread you talk in mine tehe