power supply, feasible to do this..?

Is it feasible to parallel 2 power supplies [I have a few 200-250 w.] in order to achieve a little more power { I have the time to do this}?
Ideas , Comments or What Ever..

PURPLEMTN

 

Purple,

It is possible if you isolate the 2 supply functions. If I were inclined to do so, I'd power all drives off 1 supply and fans but NOT the CPU fan. Power the drive and fan power supply 1st, and then the motherboard power supply. This is the safest way to do it but you ARE taking a chance that SOMETHING does not come up correctly when it should. I'd shut the MB p/s off 1st and then the drive p/s.

The reason you do not want to power up the MB p/s 1st is that this would put signals on the drives without having power to them and that is NOT a good idea.

I've power a hd off a separate power supply while doing some testingbut never for any extended period of time.

George

 

iclarius
Thanks for the reply and information.. I was thinking along those lines , but did not think about "Power the drive and fan power supply 1st, and then the motherboard power supply" , I will use the 20+year old time delay switches I have to do that..
Thanks

 

Its trickier than that, since the voltages can vary, the load will NOT be distributed properly since potential is being created where there shouldnt be any. One PSU may end up trying to do a lot more work that it should. You would need a diode array and (for safety) a few cleanup capacitors. With respect to Iclarius' post, I think the best way to go about doing this would be to only use one set of connectors, and have the other PSUs lines tie into the mains of the supplying PSU. (with the diode setup and capacitors in parallel with the line of course). Also splice the sense lines together, so that when whatever PSU is connected with to the ATX connector on the board is powered on, the other will power on at exactly the same time since its sense line is also shorted to ground.