• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Power supply cords!

W

Wicked_Bass

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2000
Messages
1,052
Looking to make a custom power cord for my power supply. I dont think that the dinky 18gauge is lettin gin enough juice and heck it would be fun besides that. Anyone know where to buy the connector to the power supply itself? Also does anyone make custom power supply cords that you can buy?

Thanks, Wicked

[URL=http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=1447][/url]
 
If you mean the cord between the wall outlet and PSU, 18 gauge is just fine (unless you have a 1000 watt PSU and are actually using that much power).

However if you must, you can find 14 and 16 gauge cords here.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am all set with the nordst. :) I bought some 10-2 and the connectors cost me about $50 but I have a nice new cord.

THanks
 
Why haven't you upgraded your output wires as well? After all they may have to carry at least as much current as the AC wires do, and I was able to overclock my system by an extra 0.3 GHz after I rewired the mobo cables with 4 ga. wire taken from battery jumper cables.
 
Dude you just wasted money on something so completely non essential. A bigger cable isn't going to make any difference unless you pulling more than 1,000Watts. 18 Gauge stranded wire can carry up to 10 amps of current. That is 1100-1200 Watts.
 
Seriously. You would have been better served buying a 115 to 230V step up transformer. Or maybe just wire the outlet for your PC up for 230V.

This would cut the amperage going into the power supply in half. This improves PSU efficiency, especially if your power supply has active PFC. If your power supply doesn't have active PFC, then the transformer acts as passive power factor correction.

A power cord is going to do squat for you.

It's like buying bigger boxer shorts. It doesn't make your package any bigger.
 
Just about all of them. Some of them are autoranging, others are manually swtiched. Just make sure that if your going to wire it for 220 that any switches are set for 220. Otherwise you start popping things.
 
why bother replacing the 3 feet of power cord when the shit in the walls was put in by the lowest bidder?
 
I suppose I can rewire its easy wnough first floor I can just fish a new wire and I can put it on its own breaker
 
I"m completely lost though as to why your wanting to go 220 now. Unles it's to drop your electric bill a couple dollars, there really wouldn't be any forseeable gains. No offense. There's also the issue of other devices not being able to work with 220 like router, some printers, speakers, etc. You could use a step down transformer to power those devices, but then you'd be losing the efficiency your striving for to begin with. Are you going to add a 220v outlet next to the 110v?
 
^^^ For around $50 to $60 you can buy a fairly good step up/down transformer in the 500 to 750+ watt range.... He could plug just his psu into it and not affect his other devices.. I don't really think it practical however.. The money would prolly be better spent towards a better psu..
 
Wicked_Bass said:
Yeah I would run a new 220V outlet next to my original 110.
Click to expand...

Okay, but the question still remains. Why are you wanting to dot this? I don't mean any offense, I'm just really curious.
 
I dont know been reaplcing power cords on my home audio for years and I thought why the hell not. For fun mostly and that fact that it doesnt cost that much.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Seriously. You would have been better served buying a 115 to 230V step up transformer. Or maybe just wire the outlet for your PC up for 230V.

This would cut the amperage going into the power supply in half. This improves PSU efficiency, especially if your power supply has active PFC. If your power supply doesn't have active PFC, then the transformer acts as passive power factor correction.

A power cord is going to do squat for you.

It's like buying bigger boxer shorts. It doesn't make your package any bigger.
Click to expand...
oh I didn't know this was possible... so changing the wall outlet to 230v will lower your electric bill much? Or is it a negligible difference...
And does this have any negative effects on the power supply or anything?

I might consider this for the few computers I have here running 24/7 full load...
 
Makes no difference if you run 120V or 240V. Your still paying for nearly the same amount of power. Buying a transformer to convert that 120V to 240V....pffft. The transformer has losses too.

Let me make this clear. The only advantage of going with 240V is that the same wire CAN (but doesn't mean it WILL) now carry twice the amount of power as before. Usually for electrical purposes, if a motor can use 120V or 240V, choose the higher voltage and you can run thinner wires to the motor for a cost savings of not having to buy the more expensive thicker wire.
 
It's actually better for your PSU to run at 230 since it's more efficient and the computer will see smaller voltage variations since it's coming from a higher voltage to what the computer needs. As for lowering your electric bill, maybe a few dollars a month depending on how much you use you computer and how much wattage it's pulling.

Also PFC works much better and cooler at 220 than at 110 since there aren't as many amps going through the PSU.
 
Seriously, it takes like 5 bucks per month to run a computer continuously 24/7. If you have a super hard core system, say a dual core prescott, and a Crossfire setup, you might see that to run a computer 24/7 takes 10 bucks per month. Now, seriously, how much of a difference do you think it's going to make. Let's assume that your powersupply is 75% efficient at whatever load. Running it at 240V maybe boosts it up to 85%? Now tell me, you would spend a couple hundred dollars, vs. a difference of a dollar per month on your electric bill?
 
Well I am thinking about the long run. I have 4 pcs running F@H and getting more as we speak. So if I can take away some heat by having the psu rin better I think it night be worth it.
 
IF you computer comsumes an average of 180 watts and your PSU has 75% effeciency at 110v the you be using 240watts to power your PC. Now watts ratings are per hour, so you be using 5.76kw/h per day running your computer after 30 days your PC will have consumed 172.8kw/h of electricy. The average rate for electricy around here is $0.08/kwh. That'll be $13.82 of youer total electric that your PC contributes to.

Now is he swtiches it all to 220v and gets a whopping 85% efficiency, that mean that his PC will consume about 212 watts per hour. That's 152.64kw/h or $12.21 per month. You'll save a grand total of $1.61 per month. With four pcs that's a combined savings of $6.44 on your monthly bill.

Of course your variables may be different and those final numbers will be a couple dollars off. And that's not taking into the consideration the negligable heat difference the PSU outputs between 110v and 220v. However it can still be beneficial on your PSU since it doesn't have to "work as hard" to provide the power your PC needs especially at higher loads like when your gaming.

All that work to get minimal gains is something I'd not worry about. But then I'm a lazy sucker. This sounds like something your doing just to have something to do.
 
I think he took the high-end audiophile mindset for this little venture. They usually swear by very good high end power cables and how much it helps the sound. They will do nothing for computers. But, you have really nice cables now that you can keep and reuse on some of your other equipment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top