Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

orange wrote:
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).


Of course, but naturally you must turn the monitor and
keyboard upside down too.

And it will run a bit slower, because some of the electricity
will dribble out of the holes. Makes the Chinese people
a bit angry.

Ken

Yes they can....the electrons won't fall out


"orange" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

electronic components heat up. if you place PCB upside down heat will
go into the base of resistors and transistors, etc.. so I wanted to
know if that would be a problem.. a simple 'yes' or 'no' would do.

On 30 Jul 2005 16:48:42 -0700, "orange" wrote:

electronic components heat up. if you place PCB upside down heat will
go into the base of resistors and transistors, etc.. so I wanted to
know if that would be a problem.. a simple 'yes' or 'no' would do.

There is not an absolute answer. Some (most? all?) ATX supplies won't
care; I'd guess that most (all?) that are cooled with a fan would be the
"don't care" type. If the power supply did have restrictions on its
orientation, the manual should so state.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

Just make sure that there is a lot of air from the fan to blow through it.
Technically it is best to run it in the position where the heat will rise
off of the circuit boards, and not back to the circuit boards.

--

JANA
_____


"orange" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

On 30 Jul 2005 16:03:48 -0700, "orange" put finger
to keyboard and composed:

Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

I understand your concern. I have a 350W Antec whose normal mounting
arrangement has the PCB upside down. In addition to the obvious
heating issues, there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case which
blows additional heat from the nearby CPU through the PSU and out via
the exhaust fan. Not an advisable setup IMHO.


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On 30 Jul 2005 16:03:48 -0700, "orange" put finger
to keyboard and composed:

Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

I understand your concern. I have a 350W Antec whose normal mounting
arrangement has the PCB upside down. In addition to the obvious
heating issues, there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case which
blows additional heat from the nearby CPU through the PSU and out via
the exhaust fan. Not an advisable setup IMHO.


- Franc Zabkar

The power supply fan is part of the case cooling system; it's not just
to cool the PS (if it were, the intake would be outside the case).

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

On 30 Jul 2005 16:48:42 -0700, "orange" wrote:

electronic components heat up. if you place PCB upside down heat will
go into the base of resistors and transistors, etc.. so I wanted to
know if that would be a problem.. a simple 'yes' or 'no' would do.


In that case, upside down would be better since the PCB is mounted on
the top of most ATX power supplies.
Andy Cuffe

-- Use this address until 12/31/2005

-- Use this address after 12/31/2005

"orange" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).


You'll be fine either way, some PC's mount the supply upside down anyway.
The cooling is all done by the fan so convection is not an issue.

orange wrote:
electronic components heat up. if you place PCB upside down heat will
go into the base of resistors and transistors, etc.. so I wanted to
know if that would be a problem.. a simple 'yes' or 'no' would do.

Most of the thermal energy genereated by losses in a component will sink
in a pcb. Due to conduction in the leads.
And most powersupplies are cooled with a fan so there should be a problem.

--
# A brain storm to one person could be a slight draft to the other one.
# Cees Keyer, Amsterdam school of technology (change -at- in @ in E)
# dept. Electronic Engineering, Weesperzijde 190, 1097DZ Amsterdam, NL
# pe1jmj-at-amsat.org Voice: (+31)20-5951639, Fax: (+31)20-5951420

In article .com, "orange" wrote:
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).



As others have said, electrically there's no problem. Thermally
it should be OK, just make sure of where all the venting is and
that it won't be blocked - this is probably fine since you'll have
the PC board on the top, against the case, and there's likely
no airflow intended under the board in any case.

My concern, though, is mechanical. My experience with ATX
supplies is that the build quality is unbelievably cheap (not as in
inexpensive, but as in junk). In my wife's office I've had to replace
*every one* of the original supplies in her six ATX machines.

But to the point, power supplies have heavy stuff like heatsinks and
transformers mounted in various ways to the PCB. Bolted stuff is
OK, soldered is problematic. There's vibration from the cooling fan,
plus high-frequency stuff from electrostrictive effects. I'd be worried
about long-term fatigue of solder joints when the vibration is combined
with gravity's unrelenting tug.

I've never seen one fail when installed upside-down, nor have I installed
one this way, this is more a theoretical concern than anything else.
Given the choice, I'd install it with the PCB on the bottom assuming
the orientation of the PC's case allows this.

Steve

Stephan Goldstein wrote:
snip
Given the choice, I'd install it with the PCB on the bottom assuming
the orientation of the PC's case allows this.


In most cases, that would mean mounting it either upside-down or on
its side, since the boards are typically not on the bottom of the power
supply.

Steve


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minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

Hi!

I've never had a problem turning a computer power supply upside down...the
units I've used are often free of a case and put in any direction that will
fit. Fan cooled units should not be bothered by direction or orientation of
mounting. Just don't block the fan or inlet vents.

Convection cooled units may be a bit more sensitive to orientation and
mounting direction...the wrong way could put the heat on the circuit board
and components. Depending upon how hot the supply runs this may or may not
be an issue. Of course you could always add a fan to these units.

William

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 05:20:14 GMT, CJT put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On 30 Jul 2005 16:03:48 -0700, "orange" put finger
to keyboard and composed:

Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).

I understand your concern. I have a 350W Antec whose normal mounting
arrangement has the PCB upside down. In addition to the obvious
heating issues, there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case which
blows additional heat from the nearby CPU through the PSU and out via
the exhaust fan. Not an advisable setup IMHO.


- Franc Zabkar

The power supply fan is part of the case cooling system; it's not just
to cool the PS (if it were, the intake would be outside the case).

A typical ATX case cooling system has case fans. These fans should
exhaust waste heat from the CPU, not the PSU.


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 05:20:14 GMT, CJT put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On 30 Jul 2005 16:03:48 -0700, "orange" put finger
to keyboard and composed:

Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).
I understand your concern. I have a 350W Antec whose normal mounting
arrangement has the PCB upside down. In addition to the obvious
heating issues, there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case which
blows additional heat from the nearby CPU through the PSU and out via
the exhaust fan. Not an advisable setup IMHO.


- Franc Zabkar
The power supply fan is part of the case cooling system; it's not just
to cool the PS (if it were, the intake would be outside the case).

A typical ATX case cooling system has case fans. These fans should
exhaust waste heat from the CPU, not the PSU.


- Franc Zabkar

They both do.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:03:16 GMT, CJT put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 05:20:14 GMT, CJT put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Franc Zabkar wrote:
On 30 Jul 2005 16:03:48 -0700, "orange" put finger
to keyboard and composed:

Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).
I understand your concern. I have a 350W Antec whose normal mounting
arrangement has the PCB upside down. In addition to the obvious
heating issues, there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case which
blows additional heat from the nearby CPU through the PSU and out via
the exhaust fan. Not an advisable setup IMHO.


- Franc Zabkar
The power supply fan is part of the case cooling system; it's not just
to cool the PS (if it were, the intake would be outside the case).

A typical ATX case cooling system has case fans. These fans should
exhaust waste heat from the CPU, not the PSU.


- Franc Zabkar

They both do.

Just to be sure we are talking about the same thing, when I wrote that
"there is an intake fan at the bottom of the case" I meant that the
Antec *PSU* has a second fan at the bottom of the *PSU* case. My
Athlon XP 2500 CPU sits within about 5cm of this fan, and directly
below it.


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Well, sort of - but you have to vacuum them up from the bottom of the
case every couple of months or so - otherwise you get a huge build up of
voltage that can zap your fingers

David

Jonathan wrote:

Yes they can....the electrons won't fall out

"orange" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can ATX power supply work when mounted upside down? Its 300W
(Chaintech) but with small load (Amiga 2000).