hey there
just wondering, silly question but perhaps might make a difference.
i have a 400 wat psu, and another brand new 400 watt psu.. i was wondering if it would be any benefit to my system if i was to use both of them. for example, one psu for mobo and another for graphics card, hdd, cd rom etc.
because i will be having to upgrade to a much better psu soon wen i get new mobo and cpu, but would this be just as good as getting a new 600 wat psu or just a stupid idea?
cheers

I think you should get the 600W and use all three simulteanously.

really?
or are u just takin the piss out of me? lol

oh and would it work?
hehe come onnnnn help us out here

Not practical to instal more than one PSU in a "standard" box. Get a quality unit with twin 12V rails.
Apart from the space issues, putting extra PSU in brings its own power management problems. With only one main 20/24 pin motherboard socket how are you going to control startup/shutdown of the second PSU?

I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Now that we've managed to get your head out of the clouds, it would be nice to know your full system (component) specification, including the two PSU's.

In addition to the brand name, don't forget the amp distribution their various voltage rails.

ok system specs...
semrpon 2800 (754)
1 gb ddr 400
radeon x850xt (thats y i want more power)
and if i upgrade cpu and mobo, which will be soon cause their bottlenecking mu gpu.
psus are 400 watt kings world enterprises. lol some crap generic i suspect.
80 bg hdd...want to upgrade that too..

If you posted the specs of your system, then posted the make & specs of each PSU, we could tell you if the idea should even be remotely considered. If you're asking about a system with a 2800+ Sempron, my guess would be one good 400W PSU would be all that's necessary.

and i dunno about the amp distribution etc. sorry i cbf looks...my case is a pain to open cause i modded it.lol

ok the psus specs are.
king world enterprises
400watt atx

input: 115VAc
10a max
60 hz
230vac
6a max
50 hz

output: 400w
+12v 17a max
+5 v 40 a max
+3.3v 28a max
-5v .3a max
-12v .8a max
+5v/sb 2a max
+3.3v &+5v max 220w
+3.3v,+5v & +12v max 380w

dunno if that helps u? their both identical

ooops, got distracted by a movie & forget to click "submit". I see the others are on top of things.

"and i dunno about the amp distribution etc. sorry i cbf looks...my case is a pain to open cause i modded it."

If it's too much trouble to come up with your PSU specs, we're not gonna be able to help you. But I think it's safe to say your "kings world enterprises" PSUs are cheap generic garbage.

20 seconds apart...lol.

yeah id say their garbage too...but 2 together would be better than one alone? especially if i go to upgrade cpu and mobo.
probly a far out idea but yeah just wondering u guys opinions
thanks

Garbage is garbage.

You could easily run that rig one GOOD 400W unit, you certainly don't need 2 x 400W.

40A on the +5v rail is totally unnecessary. Cheap PSU manufacturer's pump up the +5v amperage to give the PSU a higher overall wattage rating. Those units are probably closer to 300W than 400W.

My guess is you're not from the USA?

Interesting. You could fire up the second psu by shorting some of the pins.

But the components in a PC are not independent. I believe you'd probably need a common DC ground so the voltages would have the same zero level. That means at least one of the black wires in each psu would need to be connected together.

Another possible problem is due to the fact that no AC to DC power supply is perfect. It tries its best to take a sine wave and output a DC (flat) wave but there still will be some AC components. When you combine the two psu's together the AC components of one may interfere with the other and cause unacceptable voltage spikes or drops.

It would be interesting to try, but only with hardware you're willing to lose should the experiment go awry.

yeah im from australia...
thanks for all the comments guys

Look like he's from "down under". Hey OP, if you can also provide the UL markings on your Kingworld Enterprises PSU, we'll know who really made those PSU's................LOL

http://www.ul.com/ (I think jam first posted it)

Here's the direct link:

http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/...

You can put 2 psu's together with no problems. If you tie the lines in paralell (red to red... black to black.. etc) you wil increase current (the addition of easch psu). You can also tie them in series (red to black and then use the black from one psu and the red from the other psu to get 24 volts) but this is NOT what you want.

I use 3 psu's on my test bench for lots of things other than computers... tie them in series or parallel depending on my needs at the time.

There will be no problems with any ac passthrough (which is next to nothing in a computer psu)

But I quite agree with JAM... there really is no need for that kind of power.

Just to mention also in Australia the input voltage of your powersupplies will be 230/240V, not 115V If the supplies have a switch on the back to select 115/230V and you put it in the wrong place you will fry your system.

If the labels indicate 115V AC Input but there is no selector switch on the back of the unit then the label is clearly wrong. Australian standard domestic AC Mains supply is 240V.

I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

In theory, this "dual psu" thing may work.

In practise, you'll blow yourself up (actually, blow the fuse in both PSUs).

Don't do it, just invest in a good new PSU.

ASRock K7S41GX
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 1850MHz
512MB DDR333
WD 160GB IDE HDD
ATI Radeon 9200 128MB AGP8x