Dan386DX wrote on 2026-06-11, 04:08:

zuldan wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:56:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-06-10, 19:35:

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to us […]
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Meanwhile I ordered a pair of those ATX to AT PSU connector converters... I've read somewhere that they are perfectly fine to use as long as you have strong 3.3 and 5v rails... I guess I'll find out 😁

Those converters are great. I use them in all my 386 and 486’s. Connect those 2 leads directly to the 4 pin power switch of your AT case. Also much safer than having mains (120v/240v) going to the power switch.

I agree, I swear by them; I like to keep the hardware as period correct as possible but it's hard to trust a 35 year old PSU if it's not been recapped/refurbished lately.

The only problem with these, is that those four metal terminals behind the power switch can vary in size, I've had to modify the connectors on the adaptor to make them fit before.

Yes those can be tricky... but then again, that's a much easier DIY correction than hack-jobbing entire ATX to AT connection 🤣 I'm just happy people make these and you can get them brand new. Concerning old PSUs... every time I use them it feels like gambling on a slot machine, but regardless, PSUs from 95-2000 proved to be much higher quality than those from 2001-2005, at least in my experience. I had so many MS and Codegen PSUs blow up... and those like "brands" from early 2000s era, they must have got those bad capacitors as well. (and I'm not even considering inherent bad design here...) Recently I got a pentium mmx rig with very old Seasonic PSU and it works great... checked inside, no bad caps, at least visually.

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 06:20:

Yes those can be tricky... but then again, that's a much easier DIY correction than hack-jobbing entire ATX to AT connection 🤣 I'm just happy people make these and you can get them brand new. Concerning old PSUs... every time I use them it feels like gambling on a slot machine, but regardless, PSUs from 95-2000 proved to be much higher quality than those from 2001-2005, at least in my experience. I had so many MS and Codegen PSUs blow up... and those like "brands" from early 2000s era, they must have got those bad capacitors as well. (and I'm not even considering inherent bad design here...) Recently I got a pentium mmx rig with very old Seasonic PSU and it works great... checked inside, no bad caps, at least visually.

Anecdotally, I agree. The worst power supply cost-cutting and false specs seems to have happened after the 90's.

I opened some of the power supplies I have, and the some of the mid-00's are pretty bad in build quality and garbage caps that have obvious bulging and electrolyte leakage, even the ones that were supposedly a "premium" brand. Then I looked at a used Astec 200W from 1997 with Japanese Nichicon caps (good, visually), good overall build quality, and tests in-spec with minimal ripple.

Seasonic was top-tier, at least back then.

It has also been interesting reading this PS discussion:
Any sense buying modern PSU for old hardware?

I don't have anything meaningful to contribute there, but it does illustrate the challenge of replacement power supplies for the most 5V-hungry hardware from the pre-12V ATX era. Apparently the DC-DC converters can overheat with light 12V load but heavy 5V load. I'm looking at new PSU's in the 650-750W range, with 5V ratings of 18-20A. That 200W Astec has 18A rating on the 5V, and that isn't shared with the 3.3V rail. I'm considering doing a full re-cap of that (I have a few of them) for a retro build (probably PII 400MHz) instead of buying a modern PSU.