Patent Application
20070143634
The present invention relates to a power supply system for personal computers and particularly to a power supply system that increases the power needed by personal computers by adding an extra power supply device.
With rapid advance of multimedia and Internet technologies, the power required by personal computers also increases significantly, especially for CPU, motherboard and graphic adapter card. For users who frequently play online games, the operation power of the personal computer has to be more than 600 W to meet requirements. Once the equipment of the personal computer is upgraded, the original power supply also has to be upgraded. Namely, the original power supply with insufficient power has to be replaced and discarded. However, in terms of the power supply specification, even if the upgraded speed of the personal computer is faster, the power specification and the size and installation location of the power supply on the personal computer are still compatible. To throw away the power supply merely because of insufficient power is a waste of resources. Moreover, recycling of the power supply is quite difficult. It also creates environmental pollution problem.
In industrial computers, using multiple sets of power supply to provide power is a common practice. In practice, the usual approach includes a backup power supply. For instance, for a power supply of 500 W that includes two sets configured in a 1+1 fashion, with the actual power requirement of 500 W, each of the two sets of power supply provides 250 W. As the industrial computer mainly aims to function as a server and must be maintained in an operating condition constantly, if one set of the power supply is damaged, another set has to be enhanced to support the maximum load and still maintain the normal operating condition. But for personal computers, they are not normally being maintained in the operating condition. If multiple sets of power supply are procured, there is no extra space for installation. Moreover, most personal computers have machine stop time longer than operation time. At present the concept of green environmental protection is widely aware, reducing power consumption at machine stop time is an important issue to be addressed. The existing design model of the industrial computer cannot be directly transferred to the personal computer.
The primary object of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid disadvantages. The present invention provides a power supply system that does not have to remove the original main power supply of a personal computer when power requirement is greater than the capacity of original main power supply. A sub-power supply is added and installed on the spare space of the personal computer chassis. Moreover, the starting power of the sub-power supply is provided by the main power supply. Hence when the personal computer is in the machine stop condition, power consumption takes place only in the main power supply. Thereby a green power can be preserved.
In order to achieve the foregoing object, the invention provides at least one sub-power supply located on a chassis of a side panel of a personal computer. The sub-power supply has an input end connecting to city power and an output end to supply DC power. Moreover, the sub-power supply has a sub-power system to transform power to become operation power of the personal computer. The starting power of the sub-power system is driven by at least one output DC power provided by the output end of the main power supply. Hence the sub-power supply can complement the power of the main power supply to provide sufficient power for the personal computer.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Please refer to
The potentials of the DC power 25 and 33 required by the personal computer 40 generally are 5V, 3.3V, 12V and STB5V. The present design specifications of the main power supply 20 generally simultaneously are made to output multiple sets of the first DC power 25 and starting power supply 24 of different potentials. Hence the first sub-power supply 30 can also output multiple sets of the second DC power 33 of different potentials or a single potential. In the event that the first sub-power supply 30 aims to complement the power of the existing main power supply 20, selection of multiple sets of different potentials or single potential for the first sub-power supply 30 depends on the requirements of the additional peripheral devices or upgrade of the personal computer 40. For assembly, the first sub-power supply 30 is installed on a preset chassis insertion slot on a front face panel of the existing personal computer 40. The commonly adopted specification is 5.25 in or 3.5 in. The starting power of the first sub-power supply 30 is provided by the first DC power 25 output from the main power supply 20 or the starting power supply 24 connecting to the first sub-power supply 30. When the personal computer 40 is started, as the first and second input ends 21 and 31 of the main power supply 20 and the first sub-power supply 30 are connected to the city power 10, the main power supply 20 and the first sub-power supply 30 transform the power respectively to DC power 25 and 33, and provide to the personal computer 40.
From the perspective of power supply producers, a new power supply specification can be made based on the invention, namely the main power supply 20 outputs the first DC power 25 of a single potential, while the first sub-power supply 30 can output multiple sets of second DC power 33 at a single potential or different potentials. Therefore it can be adapted to meet different power requirements of varying peripheral devices. It also provides a guarding design to prevent mistaken coupling resulting from same power connector specifications.
Refer to
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
