[Suns-at-Home] RE: [Suns-at-Home] RE: [Suns-at-Home] Ultra 5 - Quiet Power Supply

[Lewis, Benjamin (Ben)]

>Hmmm back to the shop for an ATX v1 PS I guess.

Finally got back to the shop on Friday evening and changed the ATX v2 power supply for a v1. I had quite a time explaining the problem (in french! not my native tongue) but I had the pinout specs printed to use as evidence. The first clerk took me to see "the hardware guy" but he had some difficulty understanding that it was not for a PC. "Yes but what processsor is it?" he kepy asking and wouldn't take "UltraSparc" for an answer. Finally they gave in just to get rid of me :)

Not as high spec but only about a third of the price of the first one. The chap said that I couldn't have cash back but I could have the difference in a voucher. They only sell PC stuff so I didn't know what to buy. The only interesting thing I could find was a blue neon tube! (they actually had water cooling kits but I resisted!).

I took some pictures of the installation :-

http://www.ipcress.net/images/html/Ultra5/Ultra5.html

The good thing is that the neon tube comes with a switch built into a PCI blanking plate so that you can turn the thing off, that blue colour looks cool but is pretty harsh on the eyes after a while.

It doesn't actually seem much quieter. I think the source of most of the noise is the 8cm fan in the front left of the case. I also bought a "super-quiet" fan which fits right into the plastic housing. Trouble is the connector is different so I will need to fire up the soldering iron when I get the chance.

Best regards

Ben

Brussels, Belgium