Computer black block power supplies: can I parallel the out[puts?

Sterlingtimes

My son has a Dell gaming PC that is fed by an external black block power supply rated at 19.5 volts, 240 Watts maximum.

He has installed a large graphics card but the original power supply is insufficient to meet the power requirements of the PC with the new graphics card installed.

At some expense I have bought him a replacement external black block power supply rated at 19.5 volts, 330 Watts.

I feel that the power increment may be insufficient. My son thinks otherwise.

Can I run the two power supplies together, 240 + 300 Watts by paralleling the outputs? Could one power supply damage the circuitry of the other?

MalcolmY

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Could one power supply damage the circuitry of the other?

No it won't. But you're not actually running them in parallel. You'll be running most of the PC from the main PSU and supplying extra juice for the GPU from the second unit plugged directly into the card. It's only the card that will be getting power from two different sources (including the power it's getting from the slot on the MB)

enfield_freddy

I have recently ventured into building machines using ITX boards and micro cases , this site might help you with PSUs http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10


when dealing with conventional PC boards you use a "pico" psu







this is fed from an external PSU unit , the above boards are available from about 90w upto about 160w


then using the higher wattage ones you use a special 4 into 2 adaptor , look at the 192w adaptor half way down this page http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10#univ




and before you become "watt hungry" , work out your "true" consumption , here http://powersupplycalculator.net/


my intel i3 4170 , with a itx board inc 2 h/drives (2.5) and Bluetooth/wireless only uses 26w on idle and 76 w on full chatter


my own unit (vesa mounted on back of monitor) uses a m350 case , but because of 2 drives restricting airflow I have changed to a i3 4150t cpu that uses 35 w instead of 54w




you need to look what is feeding your motherboard , after the "brick"

Cycrow

the 330w power brick you got, was it just the external power brick, or did it include the internal part as well ?

you cant connect 2 external bricks to the same psu, as it doesn't work that way.

it would have been easier, and probably cheaper to replace the pc case and got a more powerful ATX psu instead

enfield_freddy

it would be a lot easier if the OP was to tell us the model of "dell gaming computer" so that people could check the motherboard/cpu setup and more importantly the PSU arrangement




OP , what model is it?

Fightsback

What is the exact graphics card ?

Sterlingtimes

Thank you all for your help. I will get the details from my son this evening. I think that the machine is "Alienware". I will find exact detail for the machine and the card. I was thinking concept initially.

Sterlingtimes

Ok. My son tells me that his computer is a Dell Alienware X51 R2. The replacement graphics card is a GTX 960. Does that help please with providing a answer?

Fightsback

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Ok. My son tells me that his computer is a Dell Alienware X51 R2. The replacement graphics card is a GTX 960. Does that help please with providing a answer?

The 330w should be enough to run it, see this review here where a GTX670 (a higher watt card) was used with the 330w PSU:

http://www.legitreviews.com/alienware-x51-r2-review_125229

The reference design wattage* for a GTX 670 is 175w where as it's 120w for the GTX 960

* NB if the card is an overclocked version then the wattage will be higher than the reference design.

DO NOT add the two PSUs together under any circumstances as it is dangerous (fire risk) and may cause damage to electronics , the 330w should be ok, I'm assuming that this is the official Dell 330w psu.

Sterlingtimes

Thank you, Fightsback and others for your kind advice. In the end the 330 Watt power block did suffice.

However, we struggled for many hours to get the card working. I carried out extensive tests with the mulimeter. We installed and uninstalled drivers several times over. We played with the BIOS. We kept getting a black screen showing only the task bar strip at the bottom.

Eventually, we ticked a box in the BIOS labelled "PIC". We have no idea what this is, but suddenly everything burst into life.

Fightsback

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Thank you, Fightsback and others for your kind advice. In the end the 330 Watt power block did suffice.

However, we struggled for many hours to get the card working. I carried out extensive tests with the mulimeter. We installed and uninstalled drivers several times over. We played with the BIOS. We kept getting a black screen showing only the task bar strip at the bottom.

Eventually, we ticked a box in the BIOS labelled "PIC". We have no idea what this is, but suddenly everything burst into life.

Good news then

However I think you mean PCI rather than PIC, PCI tells it to use PCI graphics card rather than the on CPU graphics processor - hope this explains things.