Región de Murcia

Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

POWER SUPPLIES

This activity is designed to ensure that you understand the topics about power supplies. You are
required to know the names, purposes and characteristics of power supplies. For example: AC adapter,
ATX, proprietary, voltage, and the different types used for the PC.

Exercise 1: Understanding Power Supply Wattage Rating

Overview: To understand the different power supplies and to know what the requirements are you
need to have an understanding of wattage rating

1. Identify the main elements.

2. What voltage setting should be configured for each area

2.a.Europe:
2.b. USA:
3. What will happen if the voltage selector switch is configured at the wrong setting

4. In what unit of power are power supplies rated?

5. Why is a power supply a field replaceable unit (FRU)?

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 Región de Murcia
Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

6. Which are the mechanism implemented in the power supplies that have protection from short
circuit or overload that could damage the supply or cause a fire?.

7. The power supply in most PCs is described as a constant voltage switching power supply unit
(PSU). What means:
7.a.Constant voltage:

7.b. Switching:

8. Which are the main voltages supplied by the PSU?

9. Why are the main voltages often called rails?

10. Can you fill the gaps

10.a. The power supply must deliver a good, steady supply of DC power so the system
can operate properly. Devices that run on voltages other than these directly must then be
indirectly powered through on-board voltage regulators (VRM), which take the 5 V or 12
V from the power supply and convert that to the lower voltages required by various
components. For example, older DDR (double data rate) dual inline memory modules
(DIMMs) require 2.5 V, whereas DDR2 and DDR3 DIMMs require 1.8 V and 1.5 V, legacy
AGP 4x/8x cards require 1.5 V, and current PCI Express cards use only 0.8 V differential
signaling—all of which are supplied by simple on-board regulators. Processors also require
a variety of voltages (as low as 1.3 V).

10.b. The ATX12V 1.3 and later specifications have removed the -5V

10.c. Serial port circuits usually used +/–12 V outputs, but today most run only on +5
V

11. What is the The Power_Good signal (sometimes called Power_OK or PWR_OK) and how it works?

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 Región de Murcia
Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

12. Which are the main differences beween the ATX12V and the ATX12V 2.0 specifications ?

13. Why some PSU have a double fan?

14. Identify the Power Supply Connectors.

Overview: Power supplies contain one or more auxiliary power connectors. Research power
supply connectors and answer the following questions.
Name the power supply connectors.

15. How many pins are on a typical ATX power connector?

16. What is a molex connector used to power?

17. What is a Berg connector? What is Berg keyed power connector used for?

18. If you can’t remove a power connector by hand, what tool should you use?
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 Región de Murcia
Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

19. Testing a PSU. We need to init the PSU wiring the pin 16 with GND.

Fill the voltages

ATX12V 2.x 24-Pin Main Power Supply Connector Pinout (Motherboard Connector)
Color Signal Pin Pin Signal Color
Orange 13 1 Orange
Blue 14 2 Orange
Black 15 3 Black
Green 16 4 Red
Black 17 5 Black
Black 18 6 Red
Black 19 7 Black
- 20 8 Gray
Red 21 9 Purple
Red 22 10 Yellow
Red 23 11 Yellow
Black 24 12 Orange

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Región de Murcia
Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

+12 V Four-Pin CPU Power Connector Pinout (Wire End View)

Pin Signal Color Pin Signal Color
3 Yellow 1
4 Yellow 2

Eight-Pin +12 V CPU Power Connector Pinout (Wire End View)

Color Signal Pin Pin Signal Color
Yellow 5 1 Black
Yellow 6 2 Black
Yellow 7 3 Black
Yellow 8 4 Black

Peripheral Power Connector Pinout (Large Drive Power Connector)

Pin Signal Color Pin Signal Color
1 Yellow 3 Black
2 Black 4 Red

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 Región de Murcia
Consejería de Educación,
C/ La Iglesia, s/n
Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

IF YOUR MOTHERBOARD HAS MORE CONNECTORS, IDENTIFY THE TYPE AND THE VOLTAGES

20. What is 80 plus. Fill the table.

80 Plus test type 115V internal non- 230V internal redundant

redundant
Percentage of rated 10% 20% 50% 100% 10% 20% 50% 100%
load
80 Plus
80 Plus Bronze
80 Plus Silver
80 Plus Gold
80 Plus Platinum
80 Plus Titanium

21. Power Factor Correction

In order to improve power line efficiency and to reduce harmonic distortion generation, the power factor
of PC power supplies has come under examination. In particular, new standards are now mandatory in
many European Union (EU) countries that require harmonics to be reduced below a specific amount. The
circuitry required to do this is called power factor correction (PFC).

The power factor measures how effectively electrical power is being used and is expressed as a number
between 0 and 1. A high power factor means that electrical power is being used effectively, whereas a
low power factor indicates poor utilization of electrical power. To understand the power factor, you
must understand how power is used.

Generally, two types of loads are placed on AC power lines:

 Resistive. Power converted into heat, light, motion, or work

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 Región de Murcia
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Cultura y Universidades
30012 Patiño (Murcia)
968 26 69 22 /  968 34 20 85

 Inductive. Sustains an electromagnetic field, such as in a transformer or motor

A resistive load is often called working power and is measured in kilowatts (KW). An inductive load, on
the other hand, is often called reactive power and is measured in kilovolt-amperes-reactive (KVAR).

Working power and reactive power together make up apparent power, which is measured in kilovolt-
amperes (KVA).

The power factor is measured as the ratio of working power to apparent power, or working
power/apparent power (KW/KVA). The ideal power factor is 1, where the working power and apparent
power are the same.

The concept of a resistive load or working power is fairly easy to understand. For example, a light bulb
that consumes 100 W of power generates 100 W worth of heat and light. This is a pure resistive load.

An inductive load, on the other hand, is a little harder to understand. Think about a transformer, which
has coil windings to generate an electromagnetic field and then induce current in another set of
windings. A certain amount of power is required to saturate the windings and generate the magnetic
field, even though no work is being done. A power transformer that is not connected to anything is a
perfect example of a pure inductive load. An apparent power draw exists to generate the fields, but no
working power exists because no actual work is being done.

When the transformer is connected to a load, it uses both working power and reactive power. In other
words, power is consumed to do work (for example, if the transformer is powering a light bulb), and
apparent power is used to maintain the electromagnetic field in the transformer windings. In an AC
circuit, these loads can become out of sync or phase, meaning they don’t peak at the same time, which
can generate harmonic distortions back down the power line.

PFC usually involves adding capacitance to the circuit to maintain the inductive load without drawing
additional power from the line. This makes the working power and apparent power the same, which
results in a power factor of one. It usually isn’t just as simple as adding some capacitors to a circuit,
although that can be done and is called passive power factor correction. Active power factor correction
involves a more intelligent circuit designed to match the resistive and inductive loads so the electrical
outlet sees them as the same.

A power supply with active power factor correction draws low distortion current from the AC source and
has a power factor rating of 0.9 or greater. A nonpower factor-corrected supply draws highly distorted
current and is sometimes referred to as a nonlinear load. The power factor of a noncorrected supply is
typically 0.6–0.8. Therefore, only 60% of the apparent power consumed is actually doing real work!

Having a power supply with active PFC might or might not lower your electric bill (it depends on how
your power is measured), but it definitely reduces the load on the building wiring. With PFC, all the
power going into the supply is converted into actual work, and the wiring is less overworked. For
example, if you ran a number of computers on a single breaker-controlled circuit and found that you
were blowing the breaker periodically, you could switch to systems with active PFC power supplies and
reduce the load on the wiring by up to 40%, meaning you would be less likely to blow the breaker.

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