Lian Li shares prototype Mini-ITX chassis with hinged access panel

Premium case make Lian li recently posted photos and specifications of a prototype Mini-ITX chassis known as the PC-Q33 in an effort to gauge feedback. The chassis is unique in that it features a hinged top / front panel that drops down to give complete access to the hardware within.

How to use two Power supplies on one computer

How to use two Power supplies on one computer.

Ok let me start off by stating that many of us have old power supplies laying around our house. This guide will give you step by step directions to use that spare power supply unit [PSU]. Why would you want to have two PSUs anyways? There are many reasons to have multiple PSUs for your computer. One reason is to take the load off of the PSU that supplies power to your Proceesor, thus allowing for better stability for overclocking. Another reason is so that you can power up other 12volt items without your computer examples being Peltiers, Cold cathode lightuing, external fans, and so on. One more reason is that if you have a generic PSU and need power for your new high end graphics card, you can dedicate a spare PSU to run only that item. Over all there are many reasons to have some extra power on tap, I am just going to help you get that power really cheap :thumbsups .

Suppies

1 Spare Power Supply

2 Male pins [ need to fit the 20pin PSU molex]

1 piece of 16 guage wire 2-3 inches [5-8cm]

Optional supplies

1 Single Pole Single Throw switch(SPST) "Push On-Push Off"

1 4pin fan or light "for testing purposes"

Tools Needed

Wire cutters [needle nose pliers work as well]

Wire crimpers [needle nose pliers work as well]

Pin insertion tool [needle nose pliers work as well]

(If you couldnt tell all i used was Needle nose Pliers)

Ok now on to the Fun part, Modding the PSU

Step: 1 Cutting the wire

Ok now take your little piece of wire and strip the ends off.

Your wire should look like mine in the picture below.

Step: 2 Making your Jumper

Take your Male pins and with your needle nose pliers crimp them onto the wires on both ends so that you can just bend it around so that the pins can touch each other.

Step: 3 Jumping the PSU

Here is the tricky part, We need to find the Pins that the Motherboard uses to turn on the PSU. On most PSUs the wire that turns it on is Green wich needs to connect with a groundBlack. I have created a image that shows what all the different wires do on the 20 pin connector, and have pointed out the Power on [PS_ON#]and the closest ground [COM]. We will use our jumper to connect them together.

Below is the image showing where the pins are located, the clip is on the right in my picture.

STEP: 4 Connect the dots

Ok so all you have to do is this, with the clip to your right count 4 pins up and place your jumper in the 4th hole on the right side. Refer to image above for pin locations.

Then go ahead and take the other end of the wire and conect it to the fifth hole, Right above the one you just inserted, it should look like the image below. Refer to image above for Pin locations.

Thats it now plug in your fan and turn it on to make sure it works.

Alternative Steps

Installing a on off switch to turn on your PSU.

From step 2 instead of creating a jumper do the following. Take a Single Pole Single throw(SPST) "Push on Push Off" switch, And install wires to the switches posts. And on the ends of the two wires install the Pins. Then follow step 4 above to insert your switch into your PSU. Should look something like the image below.

Now that that is done you can mount your switch anywhere you would like it to be on your case.

Refer To : http://www.overclock.net

Turn on PSU without motherboard - the 'paperclip trick'

You may or may not have heard of this before, you might have not even thought of this before, or if you are just wondering how it's done, we'll present you with the so-called "Paperclip trick" today -- a commonly known trick between computer enthusiasts and modders.

After reading the previous paragraph, you are probably still wondering, "Yeah yeah, whatever. Just tell me what the heck are you talking about!?" The whole thing behind the "paperclip trick" is to allow you to turn on your power supply (PSU) without plugging it into the motherboard and pushing the power button in front of your computer. This is too inconvenient for people who wants to use their power supply to test out certain things, and to get around this, we'll have to fool the power supply into thinking that there is a motherboard there and the switch on your case is pressed.

If you have an extra power supply dedicated for testing components, this tutorial will also be very useful. So from now on, after this simple trick, you can now turn on your power supply with the switch at the back of it. And all you need is a paperclip and around two minutes or less of your precious time. You won't need much computer knowledge or something -- just follow the simple instructions and use some common sense. If you need your power supply later to power up a computer normally, simply remove your paperclip -- no modifications are done to your power supply either so you will not void your warranty.

DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible if you do any damage to yourself, any kind of living things, nor are we responsible your computer equipment. Please do this at your own risk.

This will now be the switch to turn your power supply on and off...

First of all, find a paperclip and bend it to something like the picture below.

The second thing is find the 20/24 pin connector that's supposedly used to connect to your motherboard. Ignore the extra 4 pins that's with the 24 pin power supplies. In the 20 pin block, find the green wire. There's only one. There are two black ground cables beside it.

Next, put your paperclip into the pin with the green wire and the other end into one of the two black ground wires beside the green wire. It doesn't matter which one, either will work.

You're done! Isn't that simple? Just don't let that paperclip touch anything that's conducting (Including you). For safety issues or if you are going to leave the paperclip on indefinitely, just wrap it in electrical tape.

Or if you are REALLY leaving it on indefinitely, why not make it look nicer? This is what I've done with one of my extra power supplies.

First, I shortened the paperclip quite a bit. After all, who would want it sticking out so much? If you can shorten it so much that it connects both pins with nothing sticking up the top, that would be perfect.

What I've done is that I made three very short pieces of electrical tape and wrapped it...

Then I neatly taped the rest of the connector block with electrical tape. Isn't this neat and easy? Now you can use your power supply to test out components without the motherboard, or you can now have an use for the extra PSU laying around!

Refer to : http://aphnetworks.com

Power Up an ATX PSU without a Motherboard

Today we have a quickie guide on powering up a power supply without the aid of a motherboard. This guide is aimed at the user who needs just a little more power to get that peltier working or to get more fans in your box. A 250W may not be enough for those chores, so here we have a solution. Get another PSU just to power those specific components.

As most of you know, motherboards usually come with just one ATX plug. How that works is, the two pins on the row of your motherboard is usually connected by a momentary switch. To put it in layman's terms, the switch you press in front of your case causes a 'jump' in those two pins which in turn tells the power supply to turn on.

The above picture is the general design of an ATX plug. The green box and black box are the exact locations on the plug we will be working on. The green (Pin 14) is designated as the power on line, while the black (Pin 13) is just a ground line.

To keep a PSU alive, a momentary switch is not needed since you will not be going through a motherboard. A permanent switch is needed though, to keep it powered as long as needed. To do this, we will need the follow:

SPST (single pole, single throw) Switch

• 
  
  
• ATX Compliant Power Supply

That's it, all we need is a switch that can stay on all the time and the PSU will be continuously powered. Some people have mentioned that just taking a wire and connecting the two points on the plug will do it. To turn off the unit, just hit the switch on the back of the PSU. Well, what happens if you don't have a switch on your PSU? That's where the SPST switch comes in handy.

Here are the two wires that come out from the SPST switch, you don't really have to worry about which goes where since the switch will just act as a pass through. Either wire can be placed within the green or black Connector on the ATX plug.

You can solder those points into those plugs for a more permanent solution. We just placed it in position for the time being to make sure everything was working.

To test if the little mod worked, we will attach a small heatsink with a molex connected fan to the power supply. We turned the power supply switch to the on position after attaching our SPST switch. The SPST switch will be used to power on/off the unit from now on. It is fortunate we have both switches to utilize, but if you are stuck without a master on/off switch on your PSU, the SPST can be used instead.

And there you have it, we have our little heat sink spinning up just fine. Make sure when you plug more devices onto your extra PSU, to power down first to prevent any sparks and failures. Take it from us : ) Good luck!