Two power supplies, one computer

**thingie2** · #1 18th May 2008, 11:19

Well is this possible? because I have my new gfx card, as it was on offer, however my current power supply is not powerfull enough for it, but my brother is bringing back a power supply from Uni that he was using till he got his new laptop. But that PSU also is not powerful enough on it's own, so is it possible enough to use that PSU to power the gfx card, whilst using the current one for the rest of the computer? And if so, what are the risks about doing this, and what would i need to do to do this.

Thanks

**Hybr!d** · #2 18th May 2008, 12:51

I doubt it, both would need to be plugged into the mobo to get the signal to turn on from the case switch.

**serverguy** · #3 18th May 2008, 14:57

Yeh, its possible.

I do it quite regularly when I can't be bothered to take a drive out of a computer to swap into another. I just plug the SATA cable into the other PC and power them both up.

No reason why it couldn't work with a graphics card as long as you can get some way to start the second PSU up.

Heres some ideas

PSUs aren't really that clever, they just supply the juice.

If you do it, make sure you take some pictures

**thingie2** · #4 18th May 2008, 15:45

I don't know if I will though, because I don't rearly want to fry my new £200 gfx card

And I thought, maybe if I used a piece of wire to connect the pins to turn the PSU on between the two PSU's (so the same pins were connected) when one got the signal to turn on, the other would do aswell. However I don't know if this would work or not.

**serverguy** · #5 19th May 2008, 07:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by thingie2

I don't know if I will though, because I don't rearly want to fry my new £200 gfx card

And I thought, maybe if I used a piece of wire to connect the pins to turn the PSU on between the two PSU's (so the same pins were connected) when one got the signal to turn on, the other would do aswell. However I don't know if this would work or not.

Yes, that should work.

You normally just have to be a bit of experimenting to find out what you have to connect to get the PSU to fire up.

**Mike0001** · #6 19th May 2008, 09:45

I guess you are doing this because it is zero cost. It would be better to buy a more powerful PSU. Not sure how this solution compares with buying a cheap but powerful PSU, depends how good the two low-power PSUs are!

One solution would be to activate start-on-power-on if you have it in your BIOS. This means the PC starts as soon as you throw the mains switch (as opposed to the button on the case front). Then you either switch it on and off at the wall or get one of those wireless power-saver switches to power it on.

**thingie2** · #7 19th May 2008, 10:06

I wasn't doing it as it's a zero cost sceme, I was doing it so I could try out my new gfx card on my current build, before I get the rest of my build, however I am getting a coolermaster 1000W for my build, so i won't need it after that.

**pete21** · #8 19th May 2008, 13:12

if you use a second power supply you will need to hot wire the power supply

check my website out for instructions

http://mypcbuild.piczo.com/(18)psuho...linkvar=000044

**thingie2** · #9 19th May 2008, 13:47

ok, i'll keep that in mind for if I decide to do this, and it also gave me the idea to turn my website into my computer build site, it won't be very interesting as i'm not doing any mods to it, but what the hell, i'll do it anyway.

**serverguy** · #10 19th May 2008, 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by thingie2

ok, i'll keep that in mind for if I decide to do this, and it also gave me the idea to turn my website into my computer build site, it won't be very interesting as i'm not doing any mods to it, but what the hell, i'll do it anyway.

Whats your sites address?