VOGONS


First post, by OldSimFan

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I've started collecting parts for a retro flight sim setup and am looking for recommendations for a PSU. I'm having a hard time finding a unit that has the proper connectors.

The MB has 3 sources of power. 1 x 20 pin ATX, 1 x 12v P4 connector (4-pin), 1 x Molex 4-pin.

So far, Ive got:
Asus P4B533
P4 2.6
2 GB RAM
Radeon Pro 9800
Audigy 2
Optical drive

I have to admit that this will only be the second time I've pieced together a custom PC and the time before was 20 years ago. Any suggestions appreciated.

Reply 1 of 6, by Shponglefan

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...

Last edited by Shponglefan on 2024-02-23, 10:16. Edited 2 times in total.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 3 of 6, by Shponglefan

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OldSimFan wrote on 2024-02-19, 23:19:

Thank you for the info Shponglefan

I learned a few things and hadn't thought about an adapter for the connectors. Appreciate it.

Following up on this, I realize I gave some bad advice. I've been doing a bunch of builds and tests with different systems and incorrectly reported which PSUs I was using with which system.

I was actually using an older Antec TruePower PSU with the Asus P4S533-E motherboard, not the more modern Seasonic.

I decided to test the Seasonic with the Asus P4S533-E motherboard and discovered it doesn't actually work. The system won't power up.

I'm not 100% sure why. It might have something to do with respective current draw on something like 5V rail, since the Antec PSU supports much higher current. The only other difference is the Antec PSU also supplies -5V whereas this is absent on the newer Seasonic PSU. I'm not sure if the Asus P4B533-E actually requires -5V, however.

Based on this, I would recommend going with an older, more era-appropriate PSU from the early 2000s.

In the mean time, I'm going to keep testing and see if I can figure out why this newer PSU won't work with this board.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 4 of 6, by momaka

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If the motherboard has a 4-pin 12V CPU connector, any modern PSU should be fine to use (given it has all of the peripheral connectors one needs for the rest of the system.)

In regards to the Asus P4B533, it's Intel i845 Northbridge, which has a TDP of about 10-15 Watts tops. I didn't look too deeply into the pictures of the motherboard online to try to see if power for the NB is derived from the 5V or 3.3V rail... but in any case, you're looking at either 3 Amps max from the 5V rail or a 4-5 Amps from the 3.3V rail. Both of these should be trivial for any modern PSU. So no need to look for era-appropriate PSUs if you don't want to.

I personally prefer to buy used older PSUs from major OEMs (like HiPro/Chicony, Delta, LiteOn, Newton, AcBel, and Bestec, to name a few), but that's only because I DO actually like to recap them and because I want to help reduce eWaste. Also, I trust my recapped units more than I trust modern units. I consider lack of APFC in the older units another plus, as it usually makes them more reliable in the long term (decades of use.) APFC tends to stress the primary cap(s) of a PSU quite a bit, and the average expected life is typically 10 years (or less with cheaper cap brands.)

Reply 5 of 6, by Horun

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I have a few older ATX boards that will not power up with a newer ATX 2.4 spec PSU but will with older ATX 2.0x spec (2.01, 2.03, 2.04). Cannot remember exactly which boards but they are P3/P4 era and left notes in their boxes....

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 6 of 6, by OldSimFan

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Shponglefan,

I couldn't get the recommended Seasonic to work. The Seasonic unit would just click, get not even 1 fan revolution and then stop. I think it could have been a dead unit (from eBay) as a jumper didn't trigger the fan to run either.

After looking at the pinout diagrams for the motherboard, I decided to try to find an immediate solution. I picked up RM750E modular power supply from Best Buy locally and re-pinned the new PSU to the old 20pin connector (from the Seasonic donor) and converted the CPU 8pin on the new PSU to the 4pin ATX power for the CPU (also from the Seasonic donor). Everything fired up first try after that.

The brand new PSUs I found locally all had dedicated 24pin power without the detachable 4pin pigtail.