EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: SuperShermanTanker on May 30, 2016, 02:33:17 am
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So I'm building a low powered Pentium G3258 build that has no graphics card out of spare parts i have for someone I know so they can play Minecraft, Roblox, and Robocraft and I have 2 power supplies but I don't know which one to use I have a 11 year old 250watt FSP group power supply that I pulled from a old 2005 ACER desktop and I also have a 700watt Apevia power supply that's only a year old I don't know which one to use and the build is not going to consume more then 150 watts under load so which one should I use
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I would seriously recommend using the newer PSU. If you can't, then reduce your risks by inspecting and testing the 11 year old as much as you can:
(1) Check the connectors. Does it actually have enough/the right CPU connectors? Is it using some horrible non-standard main connector?
(2) Open it and visually look around, clean it out if it's dust filled. Check both sides of the PCB for blown parts, leaky/expanded/bulging caps and heat damage.
I'm not sure of your level of confidence/experience: read about discharging mains input capacitors if you are not already familiar with identifying and dealing with them. Computer PSUs tend to have atleast one or two large 400V (or similar) electrolytics as well as smaller input filters (eg X-caps).
(3) Run it without a load (bridge the green wire on the ATX connector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX) to ground). Measure all of the voltage rails (ripple too if you have a scope). Run it again only with a 12V load (as big as you can do). Measure the voltage rails.
Some old designs required load on the 5V/etc rails for everything else to be stable and in spec. Your modern computer won't do that.
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My experience with testing electronic boards isn't too good and all I have is a crappy cheap made in china tester that I wouldn't trust anywhere near a 400v rated cap I could test the lower power rails and I did dust it and looked at the caps throug the vents on the 11 year old power supply and they all seem fine
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if you are not going to buy a new PS then go with the year old PS.
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11 years is a long time for a computer power supply. I would be anxious using it - especially if it's for someone else.
The 1 year old is much less of a concern.
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Thanks for the advice guys I wen't with the newer PSU and now I'm currently getting linux installed on it and it seems to be working great