• 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.

Taking the case off a PSU

T

thejawn

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
77
Is it safe to take the case off a PSU before putting it in th case, like leaving it open to anything.
Why?
Because I'm cramming a PC into an old VCR, and all the VCRs that I have don't seem to be high enough for me to be able to put the PSU in. BUT, if I can take the top off and put it in it will fit. Will this risk any electrical problems (or fire hazards)?
 
I did this in the system in my sig. The case is a microATX acrylic case that couldn't fit a standard ATX PSU. I made a new plate for a standard ATX Enermax PSU (out of lexan) and mounted it at the top of the case. I've been running this PSU like this for over two years and haven't had any issues... except for that I've shocked myself pretty bad like five times. Just make sure that if you have a fan in the housing and remove it that you still have good airflow going over the PSU heatsinks in your new setup... and be careful not to shock yourself.

Theoretically, there could be more EMI coming out of it which could cause premature failure of other hardware or something, but I haven't experienced it. Also, I probably should have made the mounting plate out of metal and tied it in to the ground, but I haven't noticed any issues with that either.
 
thejawn said:
Is it safe to take the case off a PSU before putting it in th case, like leaving it open to anything.
Why?
Because I'm cramming a PC into an old VCR, and all the VCRs that I have don't seem to be high enough for me to be able to put the PSU in. BUT, if I can take the top off and put it in it will fit. Will this risk any electrical problems (or fire hazards)?
Click to expand...

This is one of those subjects I'll probably make noone happy about. But...........

Can you do it and have it work? Yes.
Is it safe? Probably not when something goes wrong with the power supply.

The housing is meant not only to stop EMI as BBB said (and really I can't give you a concrete answer on how much more EMI there will be) but also to contain the unit in case of failure. That is one of the aspects the UL is supposed to certify products based on but since they seemingly certify acrylic units that I have had literally melt on me I have to wonder how serious they look at that possibility. If the unit were to catch on fire (which I have had happen) you have removed part of the casing so yes there is an increased chance of that not staying contained and any spark that occurs when a tranistor or a diode or rectifier etc blows will not be contained in the unit but will have access to whatever is near the section removed.

Yes there are many power supplies that are designed and used in open configurations such as this but they typically would be designed into systems that would additionally address these possibilities.
 
Obviously I never meant to shock myself. Yes, I should have had it unplugged while messing around inside.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top