VOGONS


First post, by Tetrium

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Hello all!

After having lurked on these forums for a long while now, it's time to participate a bit more actively 😉

Recently I've been going through my old AT mobo's and some of those have an ATX power connector. I have no previous experience with actually using an ATX power supply on such a mobo but it seems ATX psu's fit right into AT computer cases.

It seems difficult to find any information about using an ATX psu with an older mobo.
I have a couple 235W units I'm probably not gonna be using anyway as I already have plenty ATX psu's for my ATX mobo's so I was considering using those with my AT mobo's.

Does anybody here have some experience about using ATX psu's with AT mobo's and cases they could share with me?

Edit:woops...maybe I should've posted this in the 'Marvin' forum instead of here? Admin, plz move if you think that´s best

Reply 2 of 9, by Tetrium

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No, the mainboards are AT but they have both the older AT and an ATX connector.

I´m basically asking if anyone here has some practical experience with them since I found so little on the internet 😉

Edit:I have enough AT cases but I have limited AT style PSU's. I'd prefer to use an otherwise useless ATX PSU for my AT mobo's whenever I can without blowing one of the AT mobo's up or something 🤣.

Reply 3 of 9, by 5u3

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Many late AT boards had an additional ATX power connector. It's perfectly OK to use an ATX PSU instead of AT.

Just make sure the connector on your board really is a standard ATX connector. A few boards (mostly from "brand name" machines, like Dell or Compaq) used a different pinout on their connectors.

Reply 4 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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The only issue with using an ATX PSU instead of AT, is that you have to do something about the difference in power switches. That's not a big deal in cases that use the pushbutton switches, because those can be modified pretty easily, but the ones that use a rocker switch can be a bit more of a challenge to convert. A common solution years ago was to use the reset switch as the power button.

Reply 5 of 9, by Malik

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With an ATX switch (i.e. ATX PSU connected to the ATX power connector on the motherboard with the casing's power cable connected to the power switch jumpers on the board), you have the option to "soft-off" your system if using Win9x and above. With AT power supply, you have to turn off the system manually.

I use the AT to ATX converter connector with an ATX PSU (with a -5v rail for compatibility sake) to use my GA-586TX2 socket 7 motherboard.

Of course, this is not related if using DOS only.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 6 of 9, by Tetrium

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Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I was thinking of putting an AT board in an ATX case but I don't have any of the back plating needed (the aluminium strip with just a single hole for the keyboard).
Since I have plenty AT cases that's not an issue right now anyway.

Reply 7 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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Yeah, those Baby-AT IO shields are pretty difficult to come by. You could always just take a regular ATX one, cut a hole in the right spot, and cover the rest with aluminum tape. Or just don't install one at all, it won't hurt anything to run without it... it looks a little ghetto, but the back of the computer is usually hidden under a desk or facing a wall anyhow.

Reply 8 of 9, by h-a-l-9000

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Allowing rodents to die inside 😉

1+1=10

Reply 9 of 9, by Tetrium

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I was thinking of making these myself...it's basically just a thin aluminium strip with 1 hole cut in it, how hard can it be hehe 😉
Anyway, IF I decide to put an AT mobo into an ATX case I'd rather use a shield or something will fall in or get dropped in with the system running eventually

The ATX 2 AT cables look realy neat actually!

I'm not sure how to mod a standard AT case power switch to be used as the power switch of an ATX power supply. I guess that will differ from case to case.

I'd rather use a 235W Fortron ATX supply instead of a lightweight no-name AT power supply...I'm not likely ever gonna need a 235W ATX power supply for anything else as 300W ones are very cheap to get these days.

Thanks heaps for sharing all!