Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!gsm001!gsm
From: gsm@gsm001.uucp (Geoffrey S. Mendelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Power Supply Question
Message-ID: <1991Jan3.164247.20933@gsm001.uucp>
Date: 3 Jan 91 16:42:47 GMT
References: <91002.184505ERSHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Organization: Geoffrey S. Mendelson -- Software Consulting
Lines: 35


 eric schweitzer asked:                    
>I have just added a 2d hard drive ......
>Is my 150 W power supply
>enough? 

IBM (and clone) power supplies are designed to shut down completely if:

1. There is no load (which would cause it to overvoltage and burn out).

2. There is too heavy a load or a direct short and it would burn out.

3. The power supply cannot maintain +5 volts accurately.

My advice, from experience, is if it works, use it. but don't expect it to
work when you add another device.

I've had a system run fine on a 65 watt supply until I added another 3 1/2"
floppy.  Then it stopped working. It just shut down, with no damage to it.  

If you have a real 8088 in your machine switching to either an 80c88 or
a NEC V20 will give you about 1 amp @ 5 volts (5 watts) of power back, about a
10% increase in speed and the 8080 instruction set if you want to run any
old cpm stuff.  (Last I checked you can get a 10MHZ V20 for about $10.)  

As for using the old power supply as an external one, it would work, albeit
clumsy and unsightly.  On the other hand, I recently bought an XT 200 watt
power supply for $60 at a local clone store.

If you are good at marketing you probably could get close to $60 for both
of the old supplies and pay very little out of pocket for a new one.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson
(215) 242-8712
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