How can I power my 6-pin PCI Express card without using an ATX power supply?

Question

One of my older computers has a 365-watt power supply that, for various reasons, cannot be replaced with a new power supply. I would like to upgrade the graphics card in that computer, but all the acceptable cards I can find demand the extra 6-pin PCI Express power connector. After using a few power supply calculators, I've come to the conclusion that the additional 6-pin power connector would push my little power supply over the edge (not to mention my PSU lacks a 6-pin connector anyway).

So, would it be possible to create my own 6-pin PCIe connector that plugs into a regular wall outlet? I assume it would be possible with some horrid freakshow of power adapters tangled together, but I don't know where to start.

Some Wikipedia background info about the power connector I'm referring to:

PCI Express cards are allowed a maximum power consumption of 25W (×1: 10W for power-up). Low profile cards are limited to 10W (×16 to 25W). PCI Express Graphics 1.0 (PEG) cards may increase power (from slot) to 75W after configuration (3.3V/3A + 12V/5.5A). PCI Express 2.1 increased the power output from an x16 slot to 150W so that some high-performance graphics cards can be run from the slot power alone. Optional connectors add 75W (6-pin) or 150W (8-pin) power for up to 300W total.

Answer 1

So far the three answers are: Yes, No, and Maybe. I feel like I need to chime in here and give a more pragmatic answer. But before I do that, let me give you my credentials so you know who this is coming from.

I design PCB's for a living. Large and complex PCB's. Recently I have designed a custom motherboard based on an Intel CPU as well as several PCI Express boards. One of those PCI Express boards is powered by a supply that is separate from the ATX supply that powers the motherboard. These are embedded systems, which means that I can get away with things that you couldn't in a standard PC.

On to my answer:

Don't do it! If you value your sanity, don't bother trying. It might work, but probably not. The problem is, if it doesn't work then what are you going to do? Do you have the tools and knowledge to debug it? I'm guessing that you do not have a PCI Bus Analyzer or a copy of the PCI Express specification so the answer to that would be no.

Some of the things that might not work correctly:

Some PCIe cards might connect the +12v from the MoBo to the +12v from the PCIe Power connector. This is fine if both come from the same power supply, but not if there is a second supply. In my opinion, this is a bad design but that doesn't matter. You should check the card before trying anything.

There are tight specs for the time from when the power supply comes up until the PCIe card has to respond to PCIe activity from the motherboard. If the two power supplies take different amounts of time to come up then this spec could be violated.

Feeding a PCIe card with 100-200 watts of power is still non-trivial. The supplies themselves are expensive, too. It turns out that the cheapest power supplies available for this are ATX supplies!

There could be some power sequencing issues, where certain PCIe signals come up before the receiver is ready. Although unlikely, this could result in a damaged motherboard and/or PCIe card. If something is damaged, it is likely due to a bad design-- but bad design are out there.

In my opinion, you will be time, headache, and possibly money ahead to replace your current PC and simply get a new one that can handle the PCIe card you want to use. Otherwise, you would likely spend a lot of money on a new PCIe card and a power supply to power it only to end up with something that doesn't actually work. Or worse, you might damage your current PC.

Answer 2

Have you considered plugging your system into a "Power Mate" or "Kill-a-Watt" or something similar to see how much power (in watts) is actually consumed? Every time I've plugged a computer into such a device, it's always shown far less power consumed than anyone around here expected.

If I were in your place, I would start with running stress test software to put the system under a high load to see how the system currently works. During the test I'd check that the voltage droop and see how much power I'm really using using a "Power Mate" or "Kill-a-Watt" or something similar. Then I'd try the simplest thing that could possibly work : A simple adapter to Y off from some 12 V and GND connector already on your power supply to a 6-pin PCI Express power adapter. The 6-pin PCI Express power connector only has 12 V and GND signals on it (a) . Such a Y adapter is much simpler than trying to synchronize two power supplies. Then I'd run the test again to see if the voltage droop is within specs, the power drawn is within spects, and maybe I've lucked out and Mr. Murphy didn't show up today.

If, hypothetically, you actually do have so much stuff crammed into your machine that your current power supply can't handle a full-load stress test, I'd still try to get away with just one power supply. Completely disconnect the original power supply, and power everything off a new power supply. Leave the old power supply in place if it's too much hassle to pull out. Then you have just one switch to turn on everything and you don't have to deal with synchronization.

Answer 3

I don't see why not. You can build a +12V PSU and wire it to a 6-pin PCIe connector (the yellow wires coming out of a standard connector are +12V, and the black are COM).

Keep in mind ATX specifications (namely, +12V should have +-5% tolerance, max of 120mV p-p ripple, etc), which can be found here: http://www.formfactors.org/developer%5Cspecs%5CPSU_DG_rev_1_1.pdf. Also keep in mind PCIe specifications, and how much current you'll need your supply to deliver (6.25A for a 6-pin connector, 12.5 for 8-pin connector).

You should be able to purchase connectors and pins online if you do some searching (I can't think of any distributors off the top of my head).

Answer 4

Don't do it. May chips have voltage sequencing requirements. If you use an external adapter you can't be sure the voltage will come on at the same time as the ATX PCIe power connector.

However if you insist, @Shamtam has a good suggestion above.

Answer 5

Okay so here is a better solution. DISCONNECT the internal power supply entirely and run a bigger power supply external. So you'll need to also think about ventilation - but that's a usual suspect and easy fix. So just get your 600 watter or whatever, and your extended tangle of wires, and you're good to go. Because there is no possibility of voltage drop or timing issues or any of that, given that it's not running from 100 feet away. And in this case the Buss is being powered by the same PS.

Time to go find some other experimenters to see how it went.