can you take the psu out of the psu

[keakar]

If this is what your using Geez give that comp a good PSU dammit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817163013&Tpk=ultra+400w

thats a piece of crap.

mine is no high end gem itself but at the time it was and still is a very stable good quality psu. although this is the "V" series and mine is the "true power" series they are the same. the "v" series replaced the "true power" series a while back.

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=59&pPath=369&productID=370

 

[keakar]

Dude I was messing around with a PSU that had sit for about a year unplugged when I got shocked the last time. I was stealing it's fans when my screw driver slipped.:shadedshu

you must have had it running when you took it out. the juice drains out slowly by bleeding back through the devices hooked to it that stay powered up, usually just the motherboard. but it still should have dissipated by that amount of time unless you have something wrong with that psu, a month maybe but a year? i think it was static discharge.

it can be trapped like a battery if it has juice in it and is not plugged into anything. i always recommend turning off and unplugging main power cord then waiting overnight before you unhook it.

you can safely remove stored up juice from the psu by plugging it to any motherboard and in around 12-14 hours it will be drained.

 

[keakar]

I had my PSU open for a couple of months with a 140mm fan on top of it. It was on top of my computer and I got shocked a couple of times (accidentely touched where the power comes in a few times), but I didn't die. I think you exaggerate things. It's still dangerous though..

EDIT: Of course you can die, but not from just pointing at the PSU with a wooden stick.

well i was talking about keeping the psu inside the case. i could leave the psu case open only because i have worked with "live" power all my life so after being shocked over a hundred times and feel i can work around it safely. i once lost the use of my arm for 2 days and it was numb and hurt like hell all by a slight touch to a live terminal. what makes the difference on living and dying is how well you are grounded. the better you are grounded the more amps you get and the harder it hits you.

 

[Frick]

are you talking about a push in pull out fan system or do you mean you put a push in push in fan system?

Push in push out, I think.. Push in via the front, push out through the back. But that was with a 6 year old 350W PSU that sucked when it was new, so anything was better than the orignial cooling. It was the same PSU I had opened with the 140mm fan on top it. It didn't like my x1950 pro very much..

Also, pfha.. Grounding are for cowards.

Seriously though, it's not, but.. If you're careful most things are cool. I mean, a PSU isn't that big, so it's easy to see everything (not to mention if something looks bad) and therefore do everything in a somewhat safe way. I assume it's harder when it's something big and there's a lot of people involved..

 

[spud107]

check if the psu's fan is linked to a thermal control, could just change it to a manual one.

 

[niko084]

You can, but don't.... The directed airflow is much more efficient at cooling then just open air because it passes over everything it needs to cool. A larger casing would be good with larger fans, but it does need to be directed...

Also the whole shielding part does play a large roll and parts in a psu can be pretty dangerous if you touch the wrong part, even if its unplugged.

 

[Cuzza]

Its the amps that do the damage, not the voltage.

You can get hit by 200,000 volts and not die if the amperage was low enough.
Too many amps causes your heart either to stop or to fall out of sync, which is why you see them using shock paddles (defribulators) in medical movies/tv shows like house. Defribulator paddles can not start a stopped heart, but they can shock a heart that is running out of sync back into sync.

You'd have to be a highly resistive person to not get death amps from 200,000 volts though right? I stuck a wire in a wall socket when I was a kid, got a mean jolt outta that.

I also had a physics teacher who used to charge up caps and leave them lying around the lab when the class came in, then he'd have a great laugh when some unfortunate bastard picked the thing up. What a funny guy.

 

[Carcenomy]

I do find it moderately entertaining, all this talk about how important the body of the PSU is. It's not thicker - most power supplies I see either use thick steel to mimic heavier components, or use the same SECC steel as the chassis it came in. If the casing was so important, how do people get on with windowed power supplies, acrylic covers, and so on?

Yes, you can mount it outside its casing - but it needs to be pretty exceptional circumstances to warrant it, you need to position it VERY carefully, do NOT lose any of the insulation that fits between the PSU's PCB and body, and don't handle it straight after it's been powered up - leave it to discharge for a while first. Putting it under some load with the juice off can help.

To illustrate this, I've relocated a power supply PCB recently. The machine was an old slot-load Pentium III, we're dropping a slocket mounted 933 in it to replace the original 533, and equipping it with a crazy air cooling system of my design. But the PSU was mounted directly over the CPU, and was not only an aesthetic bane, but a performance issue. So now it's mounted in the lower front, and has its own venting system to the bottom of the case. Hasn't shocked anyone, performs fine, looks good.

I guess the moral is - if you want to do it, it's feasible, but take LOTS of care, and if you don't feel up to it, stop considering it altogether.

 

[Wile E]

You'd have to be a highly resistive person to not get death amps from 200,000 volts though right?

No. Voltage doesn't kill at all. Amperage is what kills.

 

[kwchang007]

No. Voltage doesn't kill at all. Amperage is what kills.

Amps kill....volts hurt, and volts also are the things that paralyze you.

 

[Cuzza]

No. Voltage doesn't kill at all. Amperage is what kills.

I know that. my point is it takes quite a bit of resistance to stop a serious current flowing across 200,000 volts. like the guy on this page http://physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html says, skin resistance can be upwards of 500,000 ohms. at 200,000 volts that still gives you 0.4 amps. That's above the death zone but still pretty bad.

 

[kwchang007]

I know that. my point is it takes quite a bit of resistance to stop a serious current flowing across 200,000 volts. like the guy on this page http://physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html says, skin resistance can be upwards of 500,000 ohms. at 200,000 volts that still gives you 0.4 amps. That's above the death zone but still pretty bad.

That's under the impression that your running 1.0 amps at 200,000 volts. Then you have 200,000 watts, which divided by 500,000 ohms will give you 0.4 amps. If you have say..0.1 amps through 200,000 volts, you'd have 20,000 watts divided by 500,000 (let me get the calculator, lol) .04 amps. So that's defiantly under...see it all depends on the amps. Oh and I never knew that above a certain point you're safe...huh. Anyways, best way to keep yourself safe is when working on electric things (opening a psu) DON'T ground yourself, and try to use one hand.

 

[Cuzza]

I would love to see in a movie or something, maybe MacGyver, someone intentially electrocute himself to get out of a tight situation and knowing the current would be above the death amps range. And then make a bomb out of string and chewing gum. Go MacGyver.

 

[thebeephaha]

You can, just don't touch anything in there. It hurts really really bad. You just have to trust me on that one.

Hahaha, ooooo. Been there done that, it hurts about as much as if you've ever tried to take apart a disposable camera with flash and bumped the cap in there after its just been charged......

 

[keakar]

That's under the impression that your running 1.0 amps at 200,000 volts. Then you have 200,000 watts, which divided by 500,000 ohms will give you 0.4 amps. If you have say..0.1 amps through 200,000 volts, you'd have 20,000 watts divided by 500,000 (let me get the calculator, lol) .04 amps. So that's defiantly under...see it all depends on the amps. Oh and I never knew that above a certain point you're safe...huh. Anyways, best way to keep yourself safe is when working on electric things (opening a psu) DON'T ground yourself, and try to use one hand.

........................... stop all the damn math, your making my head hurt lol.

i think the list goes like this:

very painfull

original crispy

extra crispy

and burnt