Heckin' heavy power supply!!? Can it be used to power TWO motherboards?

1337Goat

Gawd
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Apr 15, 2020
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I recently ordered a used workstation power supply off a certain auction website.
It's a 1060 watt BEAST from a Lenovo ThinkStation apparently.

What does all this weight mean? I have another 1000 watt PSU, but it's not nearly this heavy.
Is it just really darn stable and powerful?

Anyways, my issue is the fact that I'm putting it into a case that already houses two motherboards. However, one of the motherboards already has a power supply, although its current PSU is only 430 watts. It's a retro machine, so it doesn't need much.

Here's my true query: Can I run two motherboards off of one power supply? This power supply seems to have one normal motherboard power connector, but it also has another set of wires that contain what looks like TWO HALVES of one motherboard power connector. What is this? Can I just plug it in and see if it works?

Is there a risk of damage? The PSU is called a FS7052 41A9762 and it's from a ThinkStation D20.
 
Those two plugs are the CPU power connectors (one for each CPU socket). However, they are not the standard 8pin EPS connectors we’re used to, so they’re not likely to work for you unless you’re using it to power a Lenovo D20 motherboard.

I honestly wouldn’t use this PSU for any other board than the ones Lenovo designed it for. There’s no telling what other proprietary nonsense they’ve done with it.

You can power two boards from one PSU, but you need a splitter of some sort, preferably one that also isolates the boards from each other (example).

Weight doesn’t necessarily indicate quality, except that low quality units tend to be lighter simply because they’re missing components, have inadequate cooling, and use thin flimsy metal for the casing to keep costs down.
 
I'm using it to power a Lenovo motherboard that seems to have some of that "proprietary nonsense," although it's a not exactly a workstation board. But it'll likely work for my use at least.

The second board is serious retro, and only needs a 20 pin connector and molex for the ancient GPU.

Anyways, a search for a splitter was rather fruitless. I supposed it'll be tough to find one.

You think there's a chance it'll damage the motherboard if I plug the CPU power cables into the 20 pin connector?
 
I'm using it to power a Lenovo motherboard that seems to have some of that "proprietary nonsense," although it's a not exactly a workstation board. But it'll likely work for my use at least.

The second board is serious retro, and only needs a 20 pin connector and molex for the ancient GPU.

Anyways, a search for a splitter was rather fruitless. I supposed it'll be tough to find one.

You think there's a chance it'll damage the motherboard if I plug the CPU power cables into the 20 pin connector?
If the lines don't match (12v, 5v, 3.3v, gnd, -12v) then yes there is a good chance it'll blow out at least a few electrolytic capacitors. Me personally, if I had so inclined, I would open up the PSU and remove uneeded cables then solder in a second 20-pin MB connector. Wouldn't be the first time I changed around what cables I was given by the MFG. All power supplies are modular if you on don't mind voiding the warranty ;).
 
If the lines don't match (12v, 5v, 3.3v, gnd, -12v) then yes there is a good chance it'll blow out at least a few electrolytic capacitors. Me personally, if I had so inclined, I would open up the PSU and remove uneeded cables then solder in a second 20-pin MB connector. Wouldn't be the first time I changed around what cables I was given by the MFG. All power supplies are modular if you on don't mind voiding the warranty ;).

If you wanted to message me and extensively help and guide me towards the right configuration, then sure. But if that's too much work, then I'll probably not go into the PSU.
I'll just use the second PSU I have.
 
If you wanted to message me and extensively help and guide me towards the right configuration, then sure. But if that's too much work, then I'll probably not go into the PSU.
I'll just use the second PSU I have.
I means how comfortable are you with a soldering iron and do you have more than a 25w stick? The wires are pretty big, I normally do my soldering at around 70-80 watts with my adjustable station. A 25w stick iron won't get the wires hot enough to even solder. It's probably not even worth the effort honestly unless you just want a project. Keely in mind, you could only have one of the PCs controlling the power to the power supply, so if you shut down one PC that's in control the other will drop power. Or I'd you shut down the PC without control it'll just sit at the screen telling you it's ok to manually shut off power. Even though it's all possible I don't think it's going to turn out that good anyways.
 
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