Exterior PSU

[mayagrafix]

Theres is a thread in the cooling section about moving the PSU outside and away of the case like a laptop using a Power Supply Extention cable.

The pros and cons from that thread come down to loosing voltage due to cable length.

Anybody here agree with this? I thought the cable lenght dint matter, as long as the cable was beefy enough.

[Dubbin1]

Unless they are talking about putting it on the other side of the room there will be no problems.

[stool]

I'd agree. You really aren't moving it far enough to make a difference, if going just outside the case.

[mayagrafix]

Thanks for the input guys. Ideally the PSU will go in a wooden box not more than 5 feet away. This eliminate heat from the inside the case and also eliminate fan noise; I hope!

Now, where to find an extension harness 5 feet long?

[larrymoencurly]

How heavy should the wire be for a five-foot power cable?

Also how will you handle the remote voltage-sense wires, which are supposed to let the PSU measure voltages right at the mobo? There's one such wire paired up with one of the orange +3.3V wires, and some PSUs have similar wires for one of the red +5.0V wires and even sometimes for a black ground wire. If you used a simple 20-pin extension cable, those wires will end up sensing the voltges at the start of the extension cable rather than at the mobo, meaning those wires will need their own separate connector.

If the PSU's case isn't connected to the black wires (check with an ohm meter), as is so with some better PSUs, run a couple of separate ground wires between the PSU case and the computer case for safety or else if the PSU fails in a certain way the computer case could get high voltage on it.

[Quailane]

Big main power lines several hundred feet up have thousands of volts because as they travel, voltage is lost. Unless your power supply is powering your neighbor's computer, you should be fine with some copper wire of the same gauge as your power supply's. (I hope the distance we are talking about is less than five, closer to three feet.) All of your power lines should stay within atx spec.

[mayagrafix]

Thanks for the input. My only idea was to move the PSU outa the case and close to wall socket. It seems like a natural solution, just like laptops. The PSU in a Laptop is removed from the main container asembly, and unless it some kind of electrical wonder, works without a fan and noiseless.

[Susquehannock]

Originally posted by larrymoencurly
How heavy should the wire be for a five-foot power cable?

<<<<<<<<,,.

I'd humbly suggest you use at least 14ga wire.
You don't want to lose your amperage. Larger the wire
the less resistance. (Ohms)

rpm sensors would probably do with 20-22ga.

Good luck. :)