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Hi all,
I recently purchased an A4000 desktop and would like to know if the following cards will kill my PSU.
I want to add the following cards to the A4000. Picasso II, Toccata sound card, Quicknet Ethernet card, Cyberstorm MKII 060@50MHz. Maybe possibly a Buddha phoenix card as well with an extra 2.5in HD. Will the PSU handle all these cards??
Cheers
i'd be a bit wary thb, my psu recently died and took out the mouse controller chips with it, check out Sky's thread on her psu mod ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by AmigaNut08
http://amibay.com/showthread.php?t=7593
@Juv
I'm a bit concerned that your "Mouse" driver chips were actually taken out by ongoing battery acid erosion, these chips next to the RTC bus logic IC.
I noticed an issue like this with my A4K & took pre-cautionary action & re-neutralised the whole area....
That battery crap gets under those SMD chips, it's invisible & continues to do it's damage..
TC :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCorfiot
i agree bud, but also remember how unstable and "spikey" my A4K became just before the psu fizzled, sparked and let out the magic smoke?
The PSU may cope all those cards, but I strongly advice you to replace the guts of it for a decent ATX 400W (or more) PSU.
No need to replace the whole thing, swapping the guts are very easy for people with enough electronic knowledge.
If you have a LiteON psu then it can power these:
A4000 + 16MB ram
csppc 233mhz + 060/50mhz
G-Rex4000D + voodoo3/3000 + arxon SD + terratec512i + Deneb + 8139 lancard
2.5" HDD, IDE cdrom + 2x Acard SCSI adapters
and finally the multimedia & design monitor switcher
the more common Skynet PSU's cannot deliver enough power for the above to work properly
BUT
in your case, whatever psu you have you are OK!!! don't worry!
I think it was a combination of spikey PSU and possibly errosion?Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCorfiot
eitherway I plan to clean and reflow the area properly while the mobo is here and I am replacing the serial shifters =)
If my capacitor bundle arrives in time I will replace the caps too =)
---------- Post added at 01:06 ---------- Previous post was at 00:29 ----------
lets see if I can shed some light... (fingers crossed)Quote:
Originally Posted by AmigaNut08
1. Toccatta Sound ( estimate 8 watts )
2. Buddha Peonix ( 6 watts +1.5 watts for 2.5" drive )
3. Quicknet Ethernet ( estimate 12 watts when net-connceted )
4. Picasso 2 ( estimate 15 watts )
5. IDE HDD 3.5" ( estimate 25 watts )
6. Motherboard ( estimate 20 watts)
6. Cyberstorm Mk2 060@50 +128MB RAM ( estimate 45 watts )
Estimated use - 132.5 watts
Original A4000 PSU is 175Watts (mine only had 145watts DC originally stated) - (released in 1992) = 18 years old - so pending release date your PSU could be 15 - 18 years old... IMHO its way past the prime of CBM's cheap PSU.
My personal opinion would be to retro-fit a newer - more powerfull PSU within the existing PSU housing.
When choosing your new PSU pay close attention to the minimum amp output on the +12v(4amp) / -12v(0.4amp) and +5v's (18amp)
I would recommend at a minimum a good quality 350 watt + unit for you A4000, have a look around for dimensions of the PSU you intend to retro-fit and ask others whom have retro-fitted their own =)
heres a link to my A4000 PSU retro-fit in my album =)
Hi all,
I would like to thank all who have replied and a special thankyou to you Zetr0 for your well informed reply. I forgot to mention that it has a CDRW so thats a few more watts there.
The PSU in the A4000D is 165watts. If i do fit all the cards into it, it would only be temporary. These cards are currently in my towered A4000, and i want to use them in the A4000D till i get the mobo in my tower repaired as it has the dreaded audio issue that most A4000's get. Once i have the mobo audio fixed the configuration on the desktop A4000 would be as follows.
3.5inch HD to boot off of course plus a CDRW
T-Rex 040@40MHz with 32Mb (The 040 will surely suck more power than an 060 would???)
Delfina Lite audio card
Buddha Phoenix ED with 2.5inch drive
and maybe a Peggy Plus mpeg card, but this may go into my A2000
Surely this config should be PSU friendly??
Cheers
You shouldnt ever need more then 250W. Anything more is overkill in my books.
@tokie
To be honest my friend 200watts is probably the maximum an A4000D could use - but to be fair, using a 200Watt PSU at close to 100% capacity thoughput will give it ashort life.
When we put this into the realms of ATX psu's a 200 watt unit is pretty touch & go if its going to provide the right amount of amps upon the +5volt +12volt and -12volts - most cheap 200watt ATX boxes fail miserably with an 040 expanded A1200
I believe rkauer and thecorfiot have put point accross in a couple of threads now - in regards to PSU's always have more than you need - in some instances atleast twice as much - as a heavily taxed PSU will be error prone and its voltages will swing wildly - thus possibly damaging attached equipment.
So although a good quality 200watt ATA unit should be able to provide the nessasary power - its life expectancy will be seriously reduced... with the cheapness of some ATX units I serously doubt it would last 3 years of typical use in a loaded system.
For the sake of handfull of pennies more - a good quality 300 or 350 atx would ensure better - cleaner power at the A4000D's peek load and still have room to breath.
At the moment I am retro-fitting a 400 watt ATX into an A2000 PSU for some lucky owner ;) - it wll never need that - infact if it taxed half of it I would be surprised but - the PSU should last a good 10 years even with the A2000 fully loaded with cards and devices. (also its the only spare PSU I have laying around.