# 1000 watt PSU & Car audio.



## Decryptor009 (Jun 6, 2020)

So i already know how to do this, i will cut to the chase.

1KW PSU should be good for a safe 800-900 watts  for sound right?

It is an old Silverstone Strider ST1000-P i will use that can deliver 1100watts maximum.

I am not sure if PSU wattage and amperage directly = audio amperage and wattage, but music will never always use close to the maximum even at full volume.



Am i doing this part right?


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## delshay (Jun 6, 2020)

Yes you can use a car amp with a PC PSU. I did this many years ago with Amiga 1200. I used a Pioneer 35w per channel at that time, with I think a 300 PSU if I remember correctly.

EDIT: I forgot that I did a second mod with a car amp. This was a Clarion car stereo, but I removed the amp along with controls & fitted it directly inside the PSU itself. Work great until I overloaded the PSU with too my devices, ie one PSU powered everything..  PSU fan kept the amp cool. This amp was 25w per channel.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 6, 2020)

delshay said:


> Yes you can use a car amp with a PC PSU. I did this many years ago with Amiga 1200. I used a Pioneer 35w per channel at that time, with I think a 300 PSU if I remember correctly.
> 
> EDIT: I forgot that I did a second mod with a car amp. This was a Clarion car stereo, but I removed the amp along with controls & fitted it directly inside the PSU itself. Work great until I overloaded the PSU with too my devices, ie one PSU powered everything..  PSU fan kept the amp cool. This amp was 25w per channel.



Awesome, i have ordered a used car headunit for use at home, i want a CD player but they are stupidly expensive as an add on for my home receiver, so i thought... why not make use of that 1KW PSU sitting around.

I have ordered a pair of FLI FU5 5.25" 2-way 40w RMS speakers. )I shall create some boxes for them.
And ordered a JVC KD-R521 which does 50W X4, plenty of power straight from the head unit it's self for the speakers.

Total cost... £47.99 And wires come with the speakers.

Later i am going to add the Alpine SWE 815 subwoofer, 100W power, 8 inches and highly efficent, very loud for it's power handling and size, i checked out a lot of videos on it.


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## delshay (Jun 6, 2020)

I had to be careful with the first mod thou. Let's say the computer crashes, there's no way to control the volume on the first mod as that was a true power amp & output would be at max volume. So if you are using a car power amp you need something in-line to control the volume just in-case the computer crashes with an output. I did not have this in the first mod, volume was control by software in desktop. Both mods I did were low wattage output so it did not matter that much. But a much more powerful amp may possibly make more of a racket if there is a crash with audio output.

The speakers I used were B&W LM1. I still have them here & you can't blow them up, "Impossible" as the crossover has built-in protection.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Jun 6, 2020)

I used a Pioneer 50x4 car receiver and a 500w amp...Windows Xp...been a long time
Pretty as long as you got 40amps on a 12v line you should never have an problems.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 10, 2020)

Well these are the goods so far.


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## delshay (Jun 10, 2020)

If all go's well you may want to consider making the amp sit permanently inside the PC case for a neater finish.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 10, 2020)

Luckily my PSU is single rail so i can bunch up all grounds and positives together, however for now i am only using the ATX 24 pin header, current will  not be an issue yet with just the stereo and 2 speakers.

It of course needs a nice clean out, the fan also needs replacing because it sounds rough. (10 year old unit)


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## delshay (Jun 10, 2020)

Err why are you taking the PSU apart. You don't need to do that unless you are just cleaning it. Clean all the dust out & put the 24 pins wires all back to normal. You do not need to connect the amp here. Use the CPU or GFX output from the PSU to power the amp. You can even use the molex cable, grab 12v from there.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 10, 2020)

delshay said:


> Err why are you taking the PSU apart. You don't need to do that unless you are just cleaning it. Clean all the dust out & put the 24 pins wires all back to normal. You do not need to connect the amp here. Use the CPU or GFX output from the PSU to power the amp. You can even use the molex cable, grab 12v from there.


Because i have my own methodology.

To power it is very simple, plus the unit needs a dusting out.. chock full of dust.

This PSU is going to be dedicated to audio, no longer PC's.

It is fully modular, it would be a waste of EPS 24 pin to connect the GPU cables and use the EPS 24 pin too because you need the EPS to turn the PSU on, which is the green wire which you can connect to the head unit's blue remote connection to turn it on.


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## delshay (Jun 10, 2020)

Decryptor009 said:


> Because i have my own methodology.
> 
> To power it is very simple, plus the unit needs a dusting out.. chock full of dust.
> 
> ...



Using the 24 pin header make it more fiddley to connect. The whole point of both my modding is one switch turns on everything. So in the end you may want to integrated it into your main rig, this is what I did.

& I did use both modification with a subwoofer & it sounded awesome.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 10, 2020)

delshay said:


> Using the 24 pin header make it more fiddley to connect. The whole point of both my modding is one switch turns on everything. So in the end you may want to integrated it into your main rig, this is what I did.
> 
> & I did use both modification with a subwoofer & it sounded awesome.


I will be isolating this as a sound system, creating an  enclosure for it all, the sub will connect via an out connector from the enclosure.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 10, 2020)

delshay said:


> Err why are you taking the PSU apart. You don't need to do that unless you are just cleaning it. Clean all the dust out & put the 24 pins wires all back to normal. You do not need to connect the amp here. Use the CPU or GFX output from the PSU to power the amp. You can even use the molex cable, grab 12v from there.


Because one or two wires carrying all the current is bad juju. Pigtail all the yellow 12v's and black grounds. No potential fire hazard or melted wires.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 10, 2020)




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## delshay (Jun 11, 2020)

JrRacinFan said:


> Because one or two wires carrying all the current is bad juju. Pigtail all the yellow 12v's and black grounds. No potential fire hazard or melted wires.



Incorrect. Do not tamper with 24 pin plug. You need that for the motherboard if connected, & it is already limited. ie, do not take away what is already limited.

You can get more than enough from the CPU or PCI-e output from the PSU which has four positive & negative & if you want more, just grab another 8 pin socket if you want to connect a very high wattage amplifier.

EDIT: The pioneer amp is still connected here & I'm sure it's using molex, one positive & one negative, but it maybe using two molex, can't remember & I don't have access to check. I have not turned this on in years but it should still be working. It's connected to an old Antec 400w PSU.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 11, 2020)

delshay said:


> Incorrect. Do not tamper with 24 pin plug. You need that for the motherboard if connected, & it is already limited. ie, do not take away what is already limited.
> 
> You can get more than enough from the CPU or PCI-e output from the PSU which has four positive & negative & if you want more, just grab another 8 pin socket if you want to connect a very high wattage amplifier.
> 
> EDIT: The pioneer amp is still connected here & I'm sure it's using molex, one positive & one negative, but it maybe using two molex, can't remember & I don't have access to check. I have not turned this on in years but it should still be working. It's connected to an old Antec 400w PSU.



The amperage isnt the question its the current rating for the wires themselves that I am questioning. Also, why not use a case that can utilize dual psu IF trying to combine the two and have a dedicated PSU for the sound system?


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 11, 2020)

JrRacinFan said:


> Because one or two wires carrying all the current is bad juju. Pigtail all the yellow 12v's and black grounds. No potential fire hazard or melted wires.


You understood it perfectly, thank you.



delshay said:


> Incorrect. Do not tamper with 24 pin plug. *You need that for the motherboard if connected*, & it is already limited. ie, do not take away what is already limited.
> 
> You can get more than enough from the CPU or PCI-e output from the PSU which has four positive & negative & if you want more, just grab another 8 pin socket if you want to connect a very high wattage amplifier.
> 
> EDIT: The pioneer amp is still connected here & I'm sure it's using molex, one positive & one negative, but it maybe using two molex, can't remember & I don't have access to check. I have not turned this on in years but it should still be working. It's connected to an old Antec 400w PSU.




Don't need a motherboard connected if you know anything of how PSU's work.

85 amps and a potential to pull 1100 watts is not a good idea with just 1 cable of each.

If i do, i will dedicate PCI-E cable to a more powerful amp just for subwoofer use, but with my decision on the Alpine Sub i don't need to right now.






						ST1000-P
					

The Strider series, as the oldest and most versatile power supply line from SilverStone, has models with myriad of innovative features and rating from 350W all the way up to 1500W.  To build on this impressive lineup, SilverStone engineered a new generation of power supplies that combine more...




					silverstonetek.com
				





Single rail design, i can use any multiple of yellow and black i like, for the head unit i am only using 3 of each, will handle 100 watts fine the headunit consumes and more, probably good for 150w.


You possibly killed your last setup due to distortion and thrashing the PSU and it could not deliver.


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## delshay (Jun 13, 2020)

Decryptor009 said:


> You understood it perfectly, thank you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I kill one of my projects by loading it with to many external devices That's what killed it, it was not the amp mod that killed it. I tried to power everything I had from one PSU but I pushed too far, but you are right. I trashed the PSU because I did not need it, so I overloaded it until it burnt out. This was a excuse for me to remove the internal amp (inside the PSU) to a more powerful PSU.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 14, 2020)

I decided to grab a different subwoofer, i got is used off Ebay.

I will be stripping all carpet from it, sanding the box down and doing my own finish on it, it was worth it for the box alone, a slot port and slot port stuffer, i do want to run a Sub without a port, but this option is the best, especially if i want some lower bass extension. Though i prefer accuracy.

8 inch driver is enough, will deliver low notes whilst remaining accurate, the cone size is good for accuracy rather than pure SPL.
And if the driver packs up or needs replacing i can just replace it easily, the amp i may add some cooling to, i will see how hot it gets.





Another video, i put one of the speakers in a cardboard box just to see how low the bass goes on their own and if i need mid bass woofers, these surprised the hell out of me... they hit pretty damn low for their size.

They won't be going into anything the size of this cardboard box because there is a cut off point at which no sound is made from these speakers and at first i have the bass boosted. I put it to the FLAT EQ and crank it gradually, they get exceptionally loud.

The power handling is not just what gives such loudness, it's the sensitivity & these are 4 OHM speakers too.

Head unit never went to max volume, i only went to 38, max is 50.... the head unit has a MOSFET amp... very powerful and clean sounding.























I have since taken the head unit apart and fixed the massively hot mosfet.

The mosfet had no thermal interface between the chip it's self and the small heatsink, there was also another similar type chip internally which creates much less heat, i applied Arctic Ceramique 2 to both and the temps plummeted a lot.

I have ordered these fans, 1 for the head unit and likely one used on the Sub amp, we shall see how hot that one gets though.






						WINSINN 40mm Fan 24V Hydraulic Bearing Brushless 4010 40x10mm - High Speed (Pack of 5Pcs) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
					

Buy



					www.amazon.co.uk


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 15, 2020)

Here is how i am actively cooling the mosfet.

The metal part at the back of the head unit is a cooling plate dedicated to that mosfet, this got extremely hot.
Today i have applied one of the 40x40mm Winsinn fans from Amazon, small and pretty quiet.

In the video you can mostly hear the PSU fan (needs replacing). But the buzzing noise is my Sony camera.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 16, 2020)

It's getting there, this is tuned from 25-80hz.

You can't really pick up much bass with this mic, but it hit's very low nicely.
Port closed.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 18, 2020)

Audio tests with the speakers in custom thick MDF boxes.

Weeknd & Justin Timberlake... i sing in this, my bad..









Jazz.









Spanish.


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## Decryptor009 (Jun 19, 2020)

Blue Snowball mic getting destroyed by thundering bass (50% volume entire setup)










Painting time for the MDF speaker boxes and de-carpeting the subwoofer time!


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## Recon-UK (Jul 1, 2020)

Boxes made, painted...


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