Misc Questions about Power supply

[David Nguyen]

Hello,
My question is about standard to fix and insert powersupply. What is
Zippy ? I suppose a manufacturer but also a certain standard. What are
standards to fix the PSU (I am not talking about connector) ? What is
PFC, active or passive what ?
Thanks

 

[Robert Inkol]

Hello,
My question is about standard to fix and insert powersupply. What is
Zippy ? I suppose a manufacturer but also a certain standard. What are
standards to fix the PSU (I am not talking about connector) ? What is
PFC, active or passive what ?
Thanks

I think Zippy is a brand.

There are several standards for computer power supplies. The AT
standard power supplies (which did not support soft off and had to be
switched off manually) have been obsolete since about 1998. More
recent desktop computers generally employ ATX type power supplies. The
ATX standard has gone through several revisions. The latest one is
distinguished by having an additional 4 pin connector which is used to
provide a dedicated connection for the CPU power in P4 and Athlon64
systems. To replace your current supply, you have to determine which
type (ATX etc.) is required and the minimum rating (watts total and
currents for each of the output voltages). Your existing supply
probably has a label that provides this information. If you think you
might upgrade your other hardware at some point, you probably should
get a supply that is rated for at least 350 watts. Power supplies made
by reputable manufacturers such as Antec are preferable, but are also
more expensive.

There are a few special cases to watch out for. Some Dell computers
(older ones I think) had non-standard arrangements for the assignment
of power connector pin numbers and voltages (which could cause nasty
problems).

PFC refers to power factor correction. This causes the AC current
drawn by the power supply to better approximate a sinusoidal waveform.
Passive PFC uses passive components (inductors and capacitors) at the
input of the power supply to shape the current waveform. Active PFC is
a more sophisticated approach that achieves a similar result by
modifying the operation of the power supply. I understand PFC is
required by European standards, but not in North America where it is
quite rare.

Robert

 

[David Nguyen]

For P4 prescott can I use ATX12V 1.3 or 2.0

I think Zippy is a brand.

There are several standards for computer power supplies. The AT
standard power supplies (which did not support soft off and had to be
switched off manually) have been obsolete since about 1998. More
recent desktop computers generally employ ATX type power supplies. The
ATX standard has gone through several revisions. The latest one is
distinguished by having an additional 4 pin connector which is used to
provide a dedicated connection for the CPU power in P4 and Athlon64
systems. To replace your current supply, you have to determine which
type (ATX etc.) is required and the minimum rating (watts total and
currents for each of the output voltages). Your existing supply
probably has a label that provides this information. If you think you
might upgrade your other hardware at some point, you probably should
get a supply that is rated for at least 350 watts. Power supplies made
by reputable manufacturers such as Antec are preferable, but are also
more expensive.

There are a few special cases to watch out for. Some Dell computers
(older ones I think) had non-standard arrangements for the assignment
of power connector pin numbers and voltages (which could cause nasty
problems).

PFC refers to power factor correction. This causes the AC current
drawn by the power supply to better approximate a sinusoidal waveform.
Passive PFC uses passive components (inductors and capacitors) at the
input of the power supply to shape the current waveform. Active PFC is
a more sophisticated approach that achieves a similar result by
modifying the operation of the power supply. I understand PFC is
required by European standards, but not in North America where it is
quite rare.

Robert

 

[George Macdonald]

For P4 prescott can I use ATX12V 1.3 or 2.0

See http://www.antec.com/pdf/article/ATX12v2.html

Also have a browse around http://www.power-on.com/ for connector adapters
and pin configurations.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

[David Nguyen]

See http://www.antec.com/pdf/article/ATX12v2.html

Very Good article, So I think I can use ATX12V 1.3 cause I don't have
PCI express on my board even if I got a prescott. But my question is
what power, I've seen recommendation for 350W however I think 300W would
be OK.

 

[George Macdonald]

Very Good article, So I think I can use ATX12V 1.3 cause I don't have
PCI express on my board even if I got a prescott. But my question is
what power, I've seen recommendation for 350W however I think 300W would
be OK.

You can probably get away with 300W IFF it's a high quality one. OTOH,
350W is generally what's recommended those days and if there's any chance
you'll upgrade some component before the P/S, it's short-sighted to not
spend a few extra $$ now... IMO.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

[The little lost angel]

I think Zippy is a brand.

If it's the same Zippy being used in servers around here, it's a
pretty good brand too

--
L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work.
If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me
Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or ASP, Javascript.
If you really want, FrontPage & DreamWeaver too.
But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code

 

[Lady Chatterly]

You can probably get away with 300W IFF it's a high quality one. OTOH,
350W is generally what's recommended those days and if there's any chance
you'll upgrade some component before the P/S, it's short-sighted to not
spend a few extra $$ now... IMO.

Do you wonder if recommended those days and if there is any chance
they Will upgrade some component before the ps is?

Rgds, George Macdonald

Can you guys take this to somewhere else?

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who,
me??

They are only pretending to be not psychotic who.

--
Lady Chatterly

"You need to adjust your code a bit Lady C. Looks like you have the
word you: caught in a loop. I makes the above statement
incomprehensable." -- Crawdad