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What to do with generic PSU's?

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Aceros

Aceros

Member
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Joined
Feb 10, 2007
I got a case for parts / moding offline, and it came with a 600W generic PSU. I'm afraid of using the PSU so was wondering what, if anything, are they good for.

Is it possible to take a few crappy ones and do something at least interesting / entertaining if not usefull :p Seriously open to anything.
 
Ya, I suppose. Your giving me ideas of an externally powered octopus fanset, not sure what for tho ><. There has to be something at least... visually stimulating their capable of, if only for a brief few seconds hehe :)
 
A while back I gutted a computer, put the mobo in an origional xbox case, along with the psu, which I took the case off of to fit into the xbox case... Worked out nice, and was a use for an old 160watt I had from the p2 era
 
Its always good to have a spare PSU around for testing purposes. Of course, if you really don't need one, just sell it on eBay.
 
Smaller ones that cross my desk get scavenged for future needs. I take out the bridge rectifiers, large capacitors, fans, ferrite beads, power sockets and power filters. Some even lose their power cables for use in extending wires on other power supplies.

Larger ones are boxed and used later as troubleshooting psu's, should I ever need to diagnose a power problem on one of my comps.

If you're into large power hungry setups, it can be used as a secondary supply for lights, fans, pumps, CD drives etc... leaving the good power supply for the mobo and video cards alone.

I've used them for powering a car audio setup in my garage too. Ya know psu, head unit and amps installed into a kicker box. Sounds much nicer than most garage units/boom boxes.
 
Use the caps to make a small railgun!

A 600w PSU should have all you need to make one... minus the rails and sabot ammunition.
 
I had a 450w that came with a case for $26. I used it to test some car radio I was moding. Then I put it in a 1.5ghz P4 rig while I was waiting on a new power supply from newegg. It died after running for two days.
 
like others have said, its always nice to have one lying around for several reasons. I always have a spare PSU, for just in case, to hold me down till I get a new one. But for some reason in the past, every time I need that spare PSU, I can't seem to find it.

--pak
 
pak said:
like others have said, its always nice to have one lying around for several reasons. I always have a spare PSU, for just in case, to hold me down till I get a new one. But for some reason in the past, every time I need that spare PSU, I can't seem to find it.

--pak
Click to expand...

Haha, that just made me think, where the hell is my backup? I think it's back at home, lot of good it's doing there.
 
I finally bought a few shelving units and organized everything, so if I need a spare PSU or something else, I can find it pretty easily. I've even got an AT PSU permanently hooked up to test lights, fans, fanbuses, etc.
 
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