| power supplies
Posted: 2/11/2006 11:55:47 PM | Does anyone know if I can use a power supply for a PIII on a PII? | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 12:30:04 AM | | I don't see why not. Both should have motherboards that use a 20 pin connector. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 4:59:54 AM | If it fits, it fits and should work. The 20-pin connector is an ATX connector. Only if the motherboard/PSU came out of a Compaq machine should you be concerned - some models of Compaqs had custom/non-standard wiring that could fry the motherboard.
Some P-II motherboards had both ATX and the older AT connectors... chances are it should work. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 10:04:38 AM | | if you do this make sure that you have the voltage set on the power supply fo the board cause newer power suplys use 300 watts and older p2 boards were 250. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 11:18:12 AM |
If it fits, it fits and should work. The 20-pin connector is an ATX connector. Only if the motherboard/PSU came out of a Compaq machine should you be concerned - some models of Compaqs had custom/non-standard wiring that could fry the motherboard.
Some P-II motherboards had both ATX and the older AT connectors... chances are it should work.
Dell is also bad about having standard connections but different pinouts. Some are standard some are not. It's usually a hit or miss proposistion but you can find out with a quick trip to google.
I have one of those transistional motherboards that had both. It was an AT/ATX hybrid. It accepted both types of power supplies as well as socket 370 and slot 1 processors.
if you do this make sure that you have the voltage set on the power supply fo the board cause newer power suplys use 300 watts and older p2 boards were 250.
The only thing you are going to be setting on a power supply is the line voltage. 115V for the USA or 230V for the UK (generally, different countries use different line voltage but those are the most prominent examples).
As far as the computer is concerned, it sees no difference between 250W and 300W. All it cares about is if the computer will run. It uses what it needs. It's better to have more than you need than not enough. Power didn't really become a problem until power hungry processors (older Athlons) and GeForce video cards came into play. It became an even larger problem when everyone started "needing" RAID setups with four 7200rpm drives in an array combined with the things mentioned before. 300W to 400W seems to be the average now.
Wattage is irrelevant where this situation is concerned. A p2 or p3 board wouldn't care if it was running on a 250W, 350W, 500W, 750W, or even 1kilowatt power supply. No adjustment needed. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 3:05:47 PM | | as a matter of fact not all p2 boards were designed to handle 300 watts or higher. you obviously have to take into account the type of capactiors used. thats why there is so many different type of boards with different styles of power supplys. when using older tech its best not to overdo. because parts for boards like p2's are very hard to find. so why try and push more thru a board then it may be able to handle. its the classic with over clocking video cards. just because you can does not mean it is smart. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/12/2006 7:33:19 PM | The power rating on a PSU merely reflects the maximum load it can handle.
A 300 watt PSU can drive most loads as long as the load doesn't try to pull more than 300 watts.
So if you've got a HDD, motherboard, DVD drive and video card that all combined draw 150 watts - you can use a 600 watt PSU and only 150 watts would actually be used. If you use a 100 watt PSU on a 150 watt load, the PSU is going to cut out (due to current trip or thermal overload).
These are switch-mode, regulated power supplies. No matter how much load you put onto them (as long as it's less than the maximum rating), the output voltage is going to remain constant, and that's all the motherboard cares about.
The devices connected to the PSU draw what they need, and the PSU does its best to keep the output voltage constant. From the motherboard's point of view, it can't tell the difference between a 150 watt PSU and a 650 watt, as long as 12 volts is 12 volts, the 5 is 5, the 3.3 is 3.3... and so on. | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/14/2006 9:28:00 PM | Power supplies depend on the *case* you are putting them into.
The voltage of the Power supply is the same for a PIII as it is
for a PII.
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/19/2006 6:25:55 AM | If it is a name brand (Dell, Compaq, HP, etc) I would contact them directly for a replacement. If it is a clone, "any" compatible power supply will work. The only thing you need to know about it is AT or ATX connections inside. If there is an ON/OFF rocker switch on the back, near the power cord, chances are it is a newer ATX power supply. Now the reason you need a minimum wattage is simply the number of drives, CD/DVD, daughter cards (sound,video,capture cards, etc) Essentially, you should get the highest wattage your bank account can stand. Generally the higher price of a new p/s means higher quality parts inside the p/s
Hope that helps | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 2/25/2006 9:22:51 PM | | ATX is ATX, and AT is AT if your PSU is ATX it will *connect* to any other ATX board the power requirements of the new computer is a diffrent story though | |
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| power supplies
Posted: 3/1/2006 11:39:11 AM | I agree 100% with jaguar, i would not recommend using the power supply on the p2, cause it's a matter of watts difference and connections, cause a ATX power supply is different from an AT power supply, so the higher the wattage to run your system is the better, you get better service when your systems lead and not lags with voltages and wattage.  | |
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