PC PSU Conversion- Resistors necessary?

[Zeus.:God]

I'm interested in converting an 850W power supply I have laying around, and from the modest amount of searching I've done, I've seen some people saying that resistors are, and some saying that they are not, necessary, where they are at has been iffy as well (5v wires to provide a load has been one mention, so as to regulate the 12v side of things)...

So the question is, are they or are they not absolutely necessary, or better yet, has anyone got a link to a solid writeup that isn't overly confusing? Also, to create two sets of outputs (so as to connect two separate chargers), I would just need to split the power and ground wires evenly between two sets of banana jacks, correct?

[monkeyracing]

The resistor is to provide a dummy load so the PSU "thinks" it's powering a computer. No load and the psu shuts down. The load should be on the 5v lines. BTW, you can use a small 12v automotive bulb, should a resistor be difficult to obtain.

You're right about splitting the lines to provide multiple sources. Just don't get carried away!

Its a fairly easy job. Just be careful around those capacitors! This link is as good as any...http://m.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Compu...b-Power-Supply

[monkeyracing]

Or...this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9774 simple plug in breakout board.

[Charlie-III]

In general, older PS's need the resistor, newer ones may get away without.

So, wire it up, if it works, great, if it dosen't, add a resistor.

Some more info... Modding a PC Power Supply into a 12 Volt Supply for your DC charger

[Zeus.:God]

The power supply I'm using is from an old gaming build circa 2008/2009, but was decently high end at the time, but I'll go ahead and do that, just try it out without, and then go from there. Thanks for the info, guys.

[Zeus.:God]

Well now, one more thing I hadn't thought of... I have a PSU with multiple rails (4), at 20 amps each, with a total wattage of 760-790 something (6 or 9, don't quite remember), if I were to set up two sets of jacks for two chargers, should I just put two rails per set of jacks? I think that's what I'm going to do, just curious as to others' line of thought.

[smoedog]

my charger had 2 20 amp rails. i have 2 outputs, one powered by each rail. just make sure that your seperate the positive leads coming from each rail.

[Zeus.:God]

I'm talking about combining 2 rails for 2 sets of jacks. Each jack would have 2 of the 4 rails, and the reason I'm considering this is because I'm concerned about wattage. The chart on the side labels the combined wattage of all 4 rails as just under 800, so I want to have 400 watts per set of jacks, so....