First post, by ptr1ck
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I have been thinking of how to use a modern style power supply to properly power old equipment. I had a light bulb moment the other day when reading some old threads, specifically this post: Re: New solutions to the ATX -5V problem
My idea is to use a common 24 to 20 pin adapter, an EPS connector (or maybe PCIE) and a 12v to 5v 40a step down converter. Terminate the 5v at the 24 pin connector. 12v in from a modern power supply's CPU or PCIE connector will feed the step down converter. The output of the converter connects to the 5v pins on the 20 pin ATX connector to motherboard.
Thoughts:
12v power from modern supplies is abundant and under used on an old system.
The EPS connector is useless on most anything pre-P4 and Athlon XP (some XPs).
Would this be too inefficient or noisy?
By freeing up the rail shared by 3.3v/5v now by allowing it to be 3.3v only, would that allow more wattage to be dedicated to 3.3v or just prevent possible brown-outs?
It would be about $50 in parts to build, but would also be modular in that it's not a permanent modification to the motherboard or power supply. If an electrical engineer type person would chime in, it would be greatly appreciated.