[Ilugc] [OT] IDE disk power connectors and SMPS recommendations
- From: siva.ilugc@xxxxxxxxx (Sivasankar Chander)
- Date: Sat Oct 7 12:38:55 2006
On 10/7/06, Toufeeq Hussain <toufeeqh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
1. Any recommendations for good 4-pin IDE disk power connectors ?
The ones which come with the el-cheapo SMPS's get worn out in a year
and start to fall apart. There seem to cheap Rs.5/- available in
Ritchie Street which serve as extensions but they seem to be brittle
and don't even last a month.
There are numerous problems with current el-cheapo PSUs, including
connectors and cables. If you're willing to desolder/solder etc., you can
look for high-quality '80s scrap AT PSUs at Ritchie St. (say Rs.50 each)
with good Molex connectors and *thick* cables, and do some transplants.
Any good 400W+ SMPS available in
chennai ?
Most of the PSUs available here have fake ratings, usually 2x the
real rating. In practice, 250W (real) should be sufficient for most
apps., including yours, but they're hard to find. Look for a Dell/Hipro
250W PFC ATX PSU, and replace all secondary capacitors over
470uF with Nichicon or Matsushita low-ESR long-life professional
grade types, and you'll be OK for the next 10-20 years.
The other good brands worth salvaging/upgrading are Delta, Etasis,
Enhance, Sparkle, Fortron, AcBel. They're hard to find in India, but
scrap IBM/HP and other obsolete MNC boxes may yield Deltas.
Any Delta over 180W should be OK.
In the worst case, shell out about Rs.3k-5k for a HP Kayak PII/PIII
dual-processor server, and cannibalize it for the 385W Delta PSU
that it has - that PSU is worth its weight in gold. It may require rewiring
of the ATX connector though - it's probably 24-pin, not 20-pin.
-Siva
P.S. Avoid Deer/L&C, Allied, Powmax and Bestec like the plague.
They aren't worth their scrap value, but they're usually the only
ones available locally, usually rebadged as a Mercury or Kobian
or similar. PrimeSource sometimes has rebadged Enhance or
Fortron/Sparkle - they're OK, but Fortron/Sparkle has started
using cheap Chinese capacitors over the last few years in
basically good circuit designs.
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