Copper Ramparts

IT Simplified

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Network
  • Contact

PC Power Supplies (Part 2)

  • hardware

In my last blog i wrote about some of the basics of computer power supplies you can read more here. I spoke about the wattage which is the most important specification when you are buying power supplies. But there are also a few more thing you should consider before you buy. Including cables and connectors, form factor, efficiency, and cooling. Many of these features often spawn more feature and industries like custom cabling, and silent power supplies. Power supply makers have become very innovative and creative in their markets.

 

Before 1995 many computer manufacturers used the AT standard. One of the main differences between the ATX is that the AT power supply included a power switch that was meant to mount to the front of the case. The ATX has momentary switch circuit built into the 20/24 pin motherboard connector which meant the case would plug its switch into the motherboard. The AT motherboard connection utilized a set of 12 wires separated into 2 plugs knowns as the AT P8 & P9 connectors.

Many users are familiar with the ATX power supply and it is by far the most popular. It was developed in 1995 by IBM. ATX motherboards are designed to work the 20/24 pin connector, and the ATX 4 pin 12 volt power connector. There are also variations of the ATX power supply the SFX and TFX is basically an ATX power supply in a smaller case. Many smaller form factor pcs will use these PSUs to save space. The EPS12V is very similar to the ATX except it has and 8 pin secondary connector for the motherboard. EPS12v are usually used from larger multi cpus motherboards, usually reserved for server use. Servers also utilize the ATX standard but many low profile server cases have smaller specialized power supplies. They also have redundant power supplies in a single case for extra reliability but that makes them very expensive.

In addition to the motherboard connectors PSUs also power all the peripheral hardware inside a computer, including optical drives, hard drives, and floppy drives. Since 1976 many of the 5.25 sized drives and the 3.5” hard drives have been connected to the power supply by the AMP Mate-N-Lock connector. Also known as the molex connector, but the molex connector company did not’ create the 4 pin connector that were use inside modern PCs. It just that Molex became common vernacular to refer to nylon encased pin type plugs. AMP Mate-N-Lok isn’t as snappy as molex so i will refer to them as molex as well. These plugs became ubiquitous in early computing even now power supplies might ship with a few connected. The molex plug’s popularity also caused a few issues including poorly manufactured pins to misalign when plugging and unplugging them. This caused jammed insecure connections, and bent and broken pins.  Often poorly manufactured molex nylon housings were either a little to big or small which would cause the pins to become stuck or just slip off. The molex style (AMP Mate-N-Lok) connector has mostly been replaced by the new SATA style power connector.

This entry has gotten a bit long i will write more about the innovations and new feature that PSU maker have come up with in another article.

Sam MMay 19, 2018

Post navigation

PC Power Supplies (Part 3) → ← PC Power Supplies (Part 1)

One thought on “PC Power Supplies (Part 2)”

  1. Pingback: PC Power Supplies (Part 3) – Copper Ramparts

Comments are closed.

Related Posts

Network Troubleshooting Part 1

Even as enterprise infrastructure is moving towards the cloud, physical terminals, clients, devices ect… need to connect to that cloud. Even with wireless networking those wireless access point still need […]

CCTV Systems, Costs

Choosing a Closed Circuit Television System is important and can be very complex, and costly if you do it wrong. Nowadays there’s lots of different choices for cameras and types […]

ThunderBolt 3, and eGPUs A New Form Factor in Computing

Thunderbolt 3 is a relatively new standard by Intel in late 2015. It uses the USB-C standard for the physical connections. Which makes it a little confusing, but it makes […]

Portable Gaming and Power Users

Gaming and Power Users now have a lot of options in regard to portable laptops. The biggest difference in these regards to these 2 type of users is the inclusion […]

Recent Posts

  • Cisco IOS Fundamentals
  • Setting Up Windows Active Directory
  • Office 365 Administration
  • Installing Active Directory on a Fresh Windows Server
  • Network Troubleshooting Part 1

Recent Comments

  • Setting Up Windows Active Directory – Copper Ramparts on Windows Active Directory Domain Services Common Tasks
  • Cross-Over PC Products and Ultra Portability – Copper Ramparts on Computex 2018 Highlights
  • PC Power Supplies (Part 3) – Copper Ramparts on PC Power Supplies (Part 2)
  • PC Power Supplies (Part 2) – Copper Ramparts on PC Power Supplies (Part 1)
  • $500 Gaming PC Builds, are they even worth it? (Raven Ridge APU) – Copper Ramparts on PC Parts Prices Pressure Past Present (Part 1)

Categories

  • CCTV
  • cisco
  • Command Line
  • hardware
  • Linux
  • network
  • OS
  • POS
  • software
  • Virtualization
  • windows server

Recent Posts

  • Cisco IOS Fundamentals
  • Setting Up Windows Active Directory
  • Office 365 Administration
  • Installing Active Directory on a Fresh Windows Server
  • Network Troubleshooting Part 1

About Me

This information is not complete and I do not recommend making any business or financial decisions based on it. I’m am not responsible for any damage you do to your systems. If you need any help please contact me here.

Sam Mark

Powered by WordPress | theme Diamond