Super Flower Claims World's First 2-Kilowatt Power Supply

[nukemaster]

"I have to wonder if you can use both sides of the panel(double breaker) to get 240 volts(same way the stove and electric dryer or furnace do). This would reduce the current requirement(get you under 10 amps) so 14 gauge will handle it without issues again. You would clearly need a 240 volt plug to prevent issues like plugging something else into this 240 volt outlet."

Yes you can. You can tap either leg to ground for 110-120 or you can tap leg to leg for 220-240. But you wouldn't just want to rewire an existing breaker in your panel. Technically speaking, its possible, assuming proper wiring, but its not smart. In the best case, this would violate electical codes. In the worst cast, you die. Next worst case, assuming inpropering wiring of your house, or you dont do it correctly, and you could fry lots of shit. Violating electrical codes would be an issue if you wanted to sell your house, and be an issue with insurance...

The way to do it is to add a new breaker on 240, and run a dedicated line to a proper 240v outlet. 240 is a lot more dangerous then 120. Call an electrician unless you know what you are doing.

It is more the lack or a "neutral" that makes me wonder.
I mean its X and Y hot(120 per side) and your normal ground. I do not even know if computer power supplies are polarity sensitive.

Its not exactly hard to use a double breaker(pick the right amp rating) for this and the same 14/2 that runs in most houses is also good for 240 volts. You can get power tools that use 240 volts and you have to wire a plug in accordingly for those as well.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

If you have a 15 amp circuit in the US, you wouldn't even be able to run this thing at max load without tripping the breaker...

yes. If you go boil the kettle to make a coffee you will defo trip the breaker if its on the same circuit (assuming you have a pc able to pull that kind of load). Most power boards would trip also.

 

[InvalidError]

I mean its X and Y hot(120 per side) and your normal ground. I do not even know if computer power supplies are polarity sensitive.

Internally, universal-input (or manual input PSUs in the 220-250V position) put the line voltage directly through a bridge rectifier and dump that across the input caps. They do not care which side is live, neutral or if there is no neutral whatsoever; both incoming lines are wired as if they were live. That's why universal PSUs can usually also work across any two phases of a 120V L-N three-phase feed (208V L-L) as well.

 

[rluker5]

"Without the volt mod you should have been ok(would save about 200 watts across both cards.). You had to bypass the power monitor/limit on the card right?"

That's one of the things the bios mod does. I just keep upping the tdp until GPU-Z stops telling me the cards are throttling due to tdp. I could give them more too, if that greasy turd of a psu weren't dropping my core voltage by 50mv under full load.

 

[coxbw]

gee I must be old ,I remember the 63 Watt PSs that came with the original ibm pc,might this be used for a file server?

 

[InvalidError]

gee I must be old ,I remember the 63 Watt PSs that came with the original ibm pc,might this be used for a file server?

I have an old PSU from a 8088 PC-XT clone in one of my junk boxes and it is rated 150W. I wonder how clean its outputs might actually be. I already know from frying a few school projects with it that the 5V output surges to at least 8V when coming out of a short and never used it again after that.

 

[leeb2013]

If you have a 15 amp circuit in the US, you wouldn't even be able to run this thing at max load without tripping the breaker...

or a heater, or a kettle, or portable a/c.......

 

[mrmez]

Cool.
But given that a GTX 980, which has gotta be the fastest single card and only draws 165w... well... you could run 4 of them and a high end system off a decent 1Kw PSU easily.

 

[mctylr]

Yes, as others have pointed out, this won't be available in North America (as in for a typical residential or light commercial 120Vac @ 15A wall socket).

Given that most data centres are twice as aware as general IT about "green computing" that I'm surprised to see Sun / Oracle has 2 kW+ supplies; I expected n-tier units maybe up to >= 2 kW total. I don't expect to see this in any server rack (even in a hydro or nuclear power plant).

I don't think there are enough yahoos in North America would buy them to make a NA 240 Vac version (as used for electric heaters, electric range / oven, electric hot water heater, and not your microwave) fesible, yet alone the legal liability of being seen as encouraging idiots to "hack" their electrical panels to use 20 Amp breakers and/or 240 V for the circuit to their PC's outlet, without replacing their in-wall existing wiring, or removing the other 120 V devices on the altered circuit. "Hack" as in to wilfully violate electrical (NEC) and fire safety code (NFPA).

Then again I'm surprised that even die-hard overclockers would have a desire for such a beast. I suspect they would be better off spending the equivalent cost of the 2kW supply on newer video cards and CPU for better performance per dollar returns.

 

[mctylr]

Maybe I could use this to finally overclock my i486 Overdrive to 5.3 GHz with liquid helium cooling.

/s

 

[aldaia]

100-130 V is only used in US, Canada, Mexico, Japan and a few minor countries. The rest of the world (about 90% population) runs on 220-240V and sockets are typically rated at 10A or 16A. A 220V x 16A socket and even 10A ones can run this device with no issues at all.

Time to change to 220V, and while we are at it, adopt the metric system too ;-)

 

[nukemaster]

Yes, as others have pointed out, this won't be available in North America (as in for a typical residential or light commercial 120Vac @ 15A wall socket).

Given that most data centres are twice as aware as general IT about "green computing" that I'm surprised to see Sun / Oracle has 2 kW+ supplies; I expected n-tier units maybe up to >= 2 kW total. I don't expect to see this in any server rack (even in a hydro or nuclear power plant).

I don't think there are enough yahoos in North America would buy them to make a NA 240 Vac version (as used for electric heaters, electric range / oven, electric hot water heater, and not your microwave) fesible, yet alone the legal liability of being seen as encouraging idiots to "hack" their electrical panels to use 20 Amp breakers and/or 240 V for the circuit to their PC's outlet, without replacing their in-wall existing wiring, or removing the other 120 V devices on the altered circuit. "Hack" as in to wilfully violate electrical (NEC) and fire safety code (NFPA).

Then again I'm surprised that even die-hard overclockers would have a desire for such a beast. I suspect they would be better off spending the equivalent cost of the 2kW supply on newer video cards and CPU for better performance per dollar returns.

I do not think anyone said they would try to run 20 amps over 14 gauge wire. Anyone planning a 20 amp circuit will be running 12 gauge wire.
As for the swap to 220/240. 14/2 that is used in homes will actually take 220/240 @ 10 amps without issues(the wire is rated for 300volts already).

 

[InvalidError]

As for the swap to 220/240. 14/2 that is used in homes will actually take 220/240 @ 10 amps without issues(the wire is rated for 300volts already).

The cable might be rated 300V but the electrical code says white = neutral. If you put a 240V split phase circuit on a normal cable, the white "neutral" wire is now L2, 120V to ground. You are supposed to use a cable with black and red wire insulation for 240V circuits - physical communication that this cable should be expected to be carrying L1+L2.

 

[nukemaster]

I am almost sure you can mark the wires with shrink.

 

[InvalidError]

I am almost sure you can mark the wires with shrink.

The typical wiring scheme is to bring a cable from the breaker box to a ceiling light box and fan wires out from there. If you are going to paint or heat-shrink wires to mark your re-purposed cable, you would need to ensure the re-purposed cable has been adequately marked at every junction box where it is exposed and disconnected from anything else it may have used to be connected to that is not part of your intended 240V mod.

It is probably allowed by the more permissive electrical codes out there but I can easily imagine how it could go wrong, so I am guessing it is also not allowed in the stricter codes or has a bunch of extra conditions attached.

 

[mctylr]

[...], yet alone the legal liability of being seen as encouraging idiots to "hack" their electrical panels to use 20 Amp breakers and/or 240 V for the circuit to their PC's outlet, without replacing their in-wall existing wiring, or removing the other 120 V devices on the altered circuit. "Hack" as in to wilfully violate electrical (NEC) and fire safety code (NFPA).
[...]

I do not think anyone said they would try to run 20 amps over 14 gauge wire. Anyone planning a 20 amp circuit will be running 12 gauge wire.
As for the swap to 220/240. 14/2 that is used in homes will actually take 220/240 @ 10 amps without issues(the wire is rated for 300volts already).

Yes the wire gauge (diameter) of the existing household wiring is fine for 240 Vac, but my point with modifying an existing circuit wiring to 240 Vac, is that the other outlets or hard-wired devices (e.g. light fixtures) on that circuit, would also receive 240, rather than the expected 120, unless removed. My point being that household wiring is not a point-to-point topology, but a series circuit.

I hope anyone who tried to alter their home wiring would know how to, hire a professional, or take the time to correctly learn to re-wire and/or isolate such a modified circuit. Based on the numbers of people who are killed or injured by electrical mishaps annually, I suspect that at least one or more people who would attempt to do such a modification would do so incorrectly.