Modular power supplies...

[Mako Eyes]

WHO HAS ONE!?

This is sort of a continuation to the screwless case thread.

Thanks to skoreanime, I have learned of modular power supplies and upon looking them up I was immediately interested. Well, last Monday I ordered a 500W Ultra X-Connect V-Series. Well, today it came in and I got to work faster than you can say... something that doesn't take very long to say.

The results are attached; the first two shots are before the modular PSU and the latter two are shots taken after I installed it. As you can see it helped clear up a lot of space, and further tidiness was achieved by routing the fan wires around the case and removing one IDE cable (I could never get a master-slave configuration working for my CD and DVD drives, until I found out their position on the IDE cable is important like five minutes ago).

So far it works fine, and it's very quiet thanks to its 120mm fan. I'm a bit worried though: it doesn't have an exhaust fan. Is this commonplace? Will I have to worry about overheating (not likely; I don't run a power-hungry and/or overclocked machine) and dust buildup?

On a semi-partial related note: There are still two sets of cables in my case that I have no idea what to do with. One is labeled as "HD AUDIO." there's nothing in the case's manual that says what it's for and there is no corresponding location on the motherboard, so I just left it.

The other chord is "AC '97." I know it's the chord for my front-panel headphone and microphone jacks and that it goes into a place in the motherboard labeled "FP_AUDIO." I decided to leave it because I don't use my motherboard's sound processor (I have a Sound Blaster installed). I'm wondering if the Sound Blaster would override it and take over if I plug it into FP_AUDIO. I would like to have easily-accessible headphone jacks as it would be useful in the dorms.

My case is also lacking a PC-speaker... I don't know what's up with that

Anyway, that's all.

[skoreanime]

Looking spiffy . I like modular PSUs, have one in my aged AMD system just to keep it clean . 1 120mm is enough. Lots of high performance non-modular PSUs have only a 120mm and works perfectly fine. My OCZ 600W has 1 120mm and it runs perfectly and it's near silent.

[KillerShots]

1. HD Audio is your hard disk's audio. Plug that into your motherboard and you can hear your hard disk through your system speakers (J/K). Really, it stands for "High Definition" Audio. This means digital audio, like SPD/IF. Some motherboards have dolby encoders built in (the nForce 2-4 did), and most do not. If you don't have an encoder, it's not worth bothering with - stick with analog so you can have surround sound.

2. Agreed on the fan - an extra exhaust fan would just block the airflow. You have a sealed box with an intake fan and a hole on the side. The air by definition will be forced out the exhaust.

3. No, plugging your AC'97 audio connector into the motherboard will not communicate with your sound card. If you're lucky, your sound card has pins that would work with that cable, and actually documents what those pins are and what they do / expect. I've never seen one that goes to that amount of trouble though, so this is unlikely.

[Mako Eyes]

Originally Posted by KillerShots

1. HD Audio is your hard disk's audio. Plug that into your motherboard and you can hear your hard disk through your system speakers (J/K). Really, it stands for "High Definition" Audio. This means digital audio, like SPD/IF. Some motherboards have dolby encoders built in (the nForce 2-4 did), and most do not. If you don't have an encoder, it's not worth bothering with - stick with analog so you can have surround sound.

Ah, that explains it. I'm happy with analog audio anyway.

Originally Posted by KillerShots

2. Agreed on the fan - an extra exhaust fan would just block the airflow. You have a sealed box with an intake fan and a hole on the side. The air by definition will be forced out the exhaust.

Originally Posted by skoreanime

Looking spiffy . I like modular PSUs, have one in my aged AMD system just to keep it clean . 1 120mm is enough. Lots of high performance non-modular PSUs have only a 120mm and works perfectly fine. My OCZ 600W has 1 120mm and it runs perfectly and it's near silent.

Fair enough. With this in consideration, I'm happy with a single 120mm fan.

Originally Posted by KillerShots

3. No, plugging your AC'97 audio connector into the motherboard will not communicate with your sound card. If you're lucky, your sound card has pins that would work with that cable, and actually documents what those pins are and what they do / expect. I've never seen one that goes to that amount of trouble though, so this is unlikely.

Yea, I didn't think so. I wasn't entirely sure so I thought I'd ask. I always figured the AUX port on the soundcard was for this kind of thing, but, seeing as how it doesn't fit, I guess not.

The cords will be neatly taped along the bottom of the case the next time I do a de-dusting then. Thanks guys

[refraction]

i use to have a modular power supply, the idea and consept is great BUT only if you dont need all the cables, which unfortunately i did, so the novelty of it was kind of wasted fro me

lucky most modern power supplies have wrapped cables to save room so space isnt much of a problem where they are concerned.

[Bubbafat]

those the ones that you can choose what cord syou want? I want one of those so bad.

[3x3cUt0r]

I have a modular Thermaltake Purepower Rx 600W, is pretty good for my rig, im using only half the cables.