GC from recycled parts from PC Power Supplies

[Mikett]

There are so many "burnt out" PC power supplies around that I thought it would be neat to reuse parts from these.

I can think of the receptacle and switch for starters.

The case itself is also useable, the wiring itself can be reused.

Fan itself and the diodes for the power supply.

Are the heatsinks in combination with the fan sufficient cooling?

There are also a number of capacitors that are usually around 330mf and very high voltage. In parallel, these might be very good for a low ESR power supply.

There are also ferrite cores. Are these good for line noise reduction?

Any other suggestions?????

The exercise is not purely for the best sound but a "recycling" exercise for interest. I would imagine just adding a 3875/3886 and a transformer and a few pieces of hardware, you could really get a powerhouse on the cheap.... excellent for PCs.

[BAM]

Cheap power supplies are often notorious for noise. You might instead want to use Matsushita "Panaflo"-brand fans. The low-speed (L1A) fans are very quiet, and even inaudible when running at 5 volts.

[Vikash]

Hi Mike,

I'm basing my first GC on the same recycling concept . So far I've stripped a PC AT PSU, and an old amplifier. I will also get some components from old motherboards and old heatsinks in on the action...

[ir]

all my amps have cost nothing. ALL are from 100% recycled parts. so far to count is 6 and growing

PC powers supplies are a good start, they have as you mentioned, a fan, an IEC inlet, high voltage caps (altho low value), various diodes, high wattage resistors etc. as well as a big bundle of high current capable wire. there's also a collecion of inductors which can be unwound and rewound to make the optional output inductors for the LM series amps

if you get hold of old AT supplies instead of ATX, you'll also get a mains DTST push button mains switch and normally these supplies also have a high voltage/high current bridge rectifier too instead fo the individual diodes, which is always handy.

old dead computers also have heatsinks, hundreds of screws and, if you have enough patience - solder board pins by the thousand (from teh harddrive/floppy connectors). desoldering them can be a pain but once you get the technique down, you can strip a motherboard down in under 30mins. i've found the pins are very handy as all the pc connctors from everything (speaker, LED's etc) are that standard size which is also convieniently the standard hold spacing on perfboard! also if you can be bothered, old AT motherboard have socketed cache chips. the sockets can be desoldered and cut down to size to suit DIP8 - DIP18, very handy for opamps of course

other sources for parts are of course old dead audio gear. people are quite often happy to just give it to you if they know it's doesn't work and can't be fixed - of course to me, fixing it isn't the point, i just want parts.

lots of old equipment has transformers too of course, trouble is finding transformers with centre taps - a lot of old gear is all single supply

this reminds me, a friend of mines father works at a computer wreckers. they recieve hundreds of computers ($100 for a tonne they pay!) they strip it all down and sell the scrap metal as well as the ic's (ic's have more gold per pound then the highest yeild ore on earth). anyways points being, old mainframes have large audio compatible sized heatsinks, also a lot of computer gear is in rackmount cases. the front panels will need replacing yes, but a blank 3U panel is like $20NZD whereas a 3U case is like $90NZD