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Computer Power Supplies

Ron Texas

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I was thinking about building a new desktop and much to my surprise I found most ATX power supplies were out of stock. It's not like you can't get one at all, but they are scarce. Lots of listings on Amazon are a week out. Local Fry's and Microcenter had slim pickings, either cheap junk or way high end. I guess it's the new toilet paper.
 

somebodyelse

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A bunch of other PC parts have had their supply lines hit too. It's supply side - the toilet paper thing was demand spiking for no good reason.
 

mansr

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How odd. I bought a PSU a couple of weeks ago. Now the same model is listed as back-ordered until 30 September, and the price has gone up by £10. Guess I was lucky.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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A bunch of other PC parts have had their supply lines hit too. It's supply side - the toilet paper thing was demand spiking for no good reason.

I noticed AMD ATX motherboards were scarce too. Micro ATX was available. Yeah, lots of people built computers to work from home in March. Manufacturing may have been interrupted in Taiwan and China as well as work at US importers. Shipments are slow. This could go on for a while. Cleaning supplies are still in short supply. It kind of took me by surprise. I guess that project will be delayed.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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Computer power supplies are still in short supply. Along with the expected shortages of cleaning products most bicycle stores are sold out. Some popular models of hair clippers intended for home use are sold out. Masks and hand sanitizer are easily available now. A lot of stuff is turning up on Amazon with high markups.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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That guy works for Corsair now I believe. They make legit PSU’s.

I have a Corsair power supply which was submerged during the dreadful Harvey flood. It's still running.
 

Sal1950

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I was thinking about building a new desktop and much to my surprise I found most ATX power supplies were out of stock. It's not like you can't get one at all, but they are scarce. Lots of listings on Amazon are a week out. Local Fry's and Microcenter had slim pickings, either cheap junk or way high end. I guess it's the new toilet paper.
Have you checked at Newegg ? They've always been my go-to for computer parts. I was looking at fanless PS there the other day and supply seemed good.
 

Tks

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Idk jack about computer PS on a technical level. I was wondering since people in audio are always like cocaine addicts whenever discussion about "power" comes into play. With that said, can one take a computer power supply and make use of it in an audio system (sure the I/O is different, but I am wondering are there any issues with rails or how power is managed or things of that nature). Seeing as how getting 1000W power supplies is not a problem. But in audio it seems to be a massive headache with these things going up in flames (figuratively) whenever they're turned on even sitting at idle the damn things require tones of active cooling and heatsinks.
 

Icboschert

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I just built a mid ATX tower and PSU I had to overpay on but I got a solid modular option. Have you used pcpartpicker.com?
 

mansr

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I got my new build up and running properly today (MB delivery was delayed) with a Seasonic PSU. Thanks to the gamers, I guess, there are no nice PSUs below 600 W. On the bright side, that means the fan doesn't start moving even with the machine hard at work.
 

Tks

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I got my new build up and running properly today (MB delivery was delayed) with a Seasonic PSU. Thanks to the gamers, I guess, there are no nice PSUs below 600 W. On the bright side, that means the fan doesn't start moving even with the machine hard at work.

Show us the build, I love seeing people's new setups. Btw, Seasonic I think makes a 450W, I think it's called the Focus-SGX450 or something like that. Idk if that goes as low as you need it.
 

mansr

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Show us the build, I love seeing people's new setups.
It's too dark now. I'll get a photo or two tomorrow.

Btw, Seasonic I think makes a 450W, I think it's called the Focus-SGX450 or something like that. Idk if that goes as low as you need it.
I went with their Prime PX due to the better lifetime rating. At 650 W it's totally overkill. Measuring the AC power consumption under heavy load, it peaks at about 180 W. Even though I'll probably add some more storage, I doubt I'll get anywhere close to using all that power. On the bright side, the fan doesn't even start moving.
 

Tks

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It's too dark now. I'll get a photo or two tomorrow.


I went with their Prime PX due to the better lifetime rating. At 650 W it's totally overkill. Measuring the AC power consumption under heavy load, it peaks at about 180 W. Even though I'll probably add some more storage, I doubt I'll get anywhere close to using all that power. On the bright side, the fan doesn't even start moving.

Yeah my brother got TX Ti80+, the fan only kicks in once his GPU gets pegged for rendering at full load with all CPU threads also firing up. Otherwise, dead silent. And even when the fan does start, I don't hear it unless I literally walk myself over and put my head near the exhaust port of the PC case.

So what do you think mansr, can these power supplies be modified to be used in audio? Or are there noise or whatever else metrics not suited for the job? I think I've seen molex adapters or something, but my memory is hazy.
 

mansr

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So what do you think mansr, can these power supplies be modified to be used in audio? Or are there noise or whatever else metrics not suited for the job? I think I've seen molex adapters or something, but my memory is hazy.
Do you mean to power something other than PC motherboards? If you can find suitable connectors, I don't see why not.
 
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maverickronin

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can these power supplies be modified to be used in audio? Or are there noise or whatever else metrics not suited for the job? I think I've seen molex adapters or something, but my memory is hazy.

The voltage isn't high enough to replace a power supply in a home audio power amp and is complete overkill for a headamp or DAC

You could repurpose one to power a car audio amp to run 2 ohm subwoofers in your house or something.
 
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Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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Well, except that they don't "make" PSUs, they buy from OEMs. Personally, I've never seen the need to use something else than Seasonic; why bother when the best isn't that expensive?
Seasonic units are showing up locally although there is a price premium. It's going to take a while until things get back to normal. Not long ago fresh meat packages were limited to one per customer and there were no large packages. Things have improved markedly since then.
 

zermak

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The voltage isn't high enough to replace a power supply in a home audio power amp and is complete overkill for a headamp or DAC

You could repurpose one to power a car audio amp to run 2 ohm subwoofers in your house or something.
Well the +12V line of the most powerful ones is queit powerful (I've seen 1300W, 108A with a quick search) so if any amp need +12V to work you have plenty of power (in a real scenario, as noted on this site you just need 5 clean watts practically). Dunno if it could work but some have two separate +12V lines sometimes and maybe you can have +24V with half the amperes.
 
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