Help- Need Power Supply that does 12v at 16A

Matt Simis

Hi,


I was wondering if anyone had some input on my power supply problems:

I have just bought a 156w Peltier, from www.overclockershideout.com (excellent service BTW). To use this I will need a way of powering it, seperate from the PC.
Its power requirements are 14v at 16amps.
It will work at 12v at 16amps also.

I have several options:

Find a shop (in Ireland if possible) selling 350w (or above) Power Supplys, which (should?) will give me 17amps at 12v. I will then mount that inside my case with my existing 300w PSU.

OR

Use a dedicated (ie non PC power supply) than can meet the above requirements. I have seen many that can meet or exceed the voltage, but nothing even close on the amp side of things.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Matt

Gerry

have a look in maplin electronics on jervis st. They may not have the exact psu in stock, but they should be able to order it in for you. (I am referring to non-pc psu's here) Make sure you get one that can supply the 16 amps continuously, not just one with a max of 16 amps.

WhiteWashMan

i would assume that if you buy something and it needs a power supply that doesnt run of a pc power supply then it should come with the package.
other than that, check what youre buying next time

_CreeD_

WWM, peltiers are sold as is. They presume that if you know enough to buy one that you will know that you may need an extra PSU...'May', it depends on the PSU you already have, the devices already running off it and whether you need the peltier to run at full whack constantly (It'll run on a lowe power PSU but with proportional inefficiency as the wattage available drops).


Anyway. If 'twas me I'd grab one of those nice big Enermax Jobbies from http://www.overclockers.co.uk.

156W...sheesh, What HSF are you using to keep it cool?

Gavin

What does the peltier do ?

Gav

Gerry

theres no real need to buy an expensive pc power supply for this peltier, you won't be using its other voltage lines, and you don't need high quality regulation and filtering for a pelt either. Since its a 156w pelt, I reckon you must be watercooling a tbird. 80w pelt was about the max a decent slot1 heatsink could handle.

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by _CreeD_:
WWM, peltiers are sold as is. They presume that if you know enough to buy one that you will know that you may need an extra PSU...'May', it depends on the PSU you already have, the devices already running off it and whether you need the peltier to run at full whack constantly (It'll run on a lowe power PSU but with proportional inefficiency as the wattage available drops).


Anyway. If 'twas me I'd grab one of those nice big Enermax Jobbies from http://www.overclockers.co.uk.

156W...sheesh, What HSF are you using to keep it cool?</font>

fair enough, but i still stand by the fact that if you are buying something, you sould know enough about it to know these things then

Matt Simis

Hi,

Gerry, your right, Im watercooling a 750 Tbird running on a self modified Abit KT7 Raid. Its runs at 1150MHz now. Ill be changing over to an AthlonMP and a new mobo in the near future.

Verb- A peltier supercools devices. Basically its a small piece of "metal", one side runs super hot and the other super cool. Which is why you need excellent cooling to actaully cool your CPU further. It draws a LOT of power also.

Whitewashman- Ive used extreme cooling before. I knew all about the PSU issues. The problem is I somehow convinced myself that I had a spare 300w ATX PSU... when I checked it was only a 230w!! The Overclocking people sell a dedicated Power Supply (non-PC) for $125. It used US Voltage and that was a little pricey for my liking. Although Ill prolly end up paying that (or more) in Ireland.

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Matt Simis:
Hi,

Gerry, your right, Im watercooling a 750 Tbird running on a self modified Abit KT7 Raid. Its runs at 1150MHz now. Ill be changing over to an AthlonMP and a new mobo in the near future.

Verb- A peltier supercools devices. Basically its a small piece of "metal", one side runs super hot and the other super cool. Which is why you need excellent cooling to actaully cool your CPU further. It draws a LOT of power also.

Whitewashman- Ive used extreme cooling before. I knew all about the PSU issues. The problem is I somehow convinced myself that I had a spare 300w ATX PSU... when I checked it was only a 230w!! The Overclocking people sell a dedicated Power Supply (non-PC) for $125. It used US Voltage and that was a little pricey for my liking. Although Ill prolly end up paying that (or more) in Ireland. </font>

fair enough. i wasnt having a go at you mate, but there are a few people who do this sort of thing because they heard about it somewhere and then dont have a clue what to do. you know the type.
personally, i havent a clue what it is you bought or what it does. maybe you could tell me

_CreeD_

I admire your dedication, and I know it's probably done as much for the challenge as for the performance, but methinks you're now spending more on cooling equipment than the cost of just buying a new faster cpu.

Gavin

Hehehe, I wouldn't mind seeing your electricity bill after u get this thing

Gav

Matt Simis

Im pretty much doing this "just because", for the challenge and coolness of having a system thats faster than the fastest CPU you can buy normaly (when I get an AthlonMP).

Btw, whitewashman, sorry, thought you were one of those who gives people "moral lectures" when they are doing something out ot the box. Sorry!

My aim is to have a 1.7GHz Athlon, which will mean that it will be faster than anything you can buy for 6 mths (according to Intel\AMD) roadmaps). Of course since the P4 isnt clock speed comparable (lower performance per clock), so a 1.7Ghz P4 gets whooped by an Athlon at a much lower speed.

Cost wise, its not too bad. Remmember you can reuse most of this stuff on your next CPU, which is what I plan to do. If I left it running at 1250MHz, then yes, it would be cheaper to just buy a 1.2GHZ (+) cpu! But as I said, my target is much higher.....

Just need a little more funding, (*cough* check out For Sale board *cough*)

Matt Simis

BTW, if anyone wants to checkout what a Peltier is, head here:
http://www.arstechnica.com/guide/cooling/peltier-1.html

Matt

Gerry

Excellent, good luck with it and let us know how you get on. I would like to water cool my pc, but I don't think it would go much faster because the fsb is pretty much at its limit. I might water cool another older pc just to get experience at it.

Snowbat

CQ Communications, 22 Lwr. Ormond Quay (Ph.8722752) should have 13.8V 20A power supplies in stock, as these are required for certain types of radio communications equipment. They had a snazzy metered model with variable voltage 12-15V last time I was in.

Matt Simis

Hi everyone, got a PSU.
Unfortunately Snowbat, I didnt see your post till it was too late. Although the same unit was in Maplins for £99, it prolly was too expensive anyway. What I ended up doing was getting a PC PSU in Peats, from one of their server cases, that does 12v at 15amps. Which I must say, is the highest Ive seen on 300w PSU for £69. It seems to be working fine.

As a little sidenote, Peats "downstairs, electrical" told me they have never heard of such a PSU and Peats upstairs didnt know what I was talkin about, "Hi, Id like a PSU that supplys 15-16amps on the 12v rail"..They just handed me all their 300W PSUs.

Maplins on the otherhand told me that they didnt sell the above mentioned "standalone" PSU, even though they had some on their shop floor! I then was told to "go thru the catalog" because they didnt know what I was talking about. Rather sadly, the staff openly slagged off Peats, while ironically being just as useless!


Anyway, Ill post a new post with the results and info on the Peltier later on... cos some people expressed interest.