Replacement power supply for XPS8700

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crombie

crombie

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  • #1
    When it rains it pours. The power supply in my Dell that is only used as a Plex server started sounding like a car stuck in the snow. Luckily my old gaming rig was just sitting there with a spare supply.

    The original has these specs:

    20240208_175443.jpg

    The Seasonic replacement has these:

    Screenshot_20240208_175933_Chrome.jpg

    The discussion on the Dell forum is all about the 5V/3.3V have to be equal to or greater than the OEM. Except even new power supplies do not come close to these watts or amps.

    The supply is already installed and seems to be running fine. This machine no longer sees heavy use. The 12V is also lower and watts overall are, as well.

    I am just wondering if I should be looking to replace the power supply, is there likely to be issues with power, and do the 3.3/5V amps/watts being lower matter? And is it an issue that newer power supplies only have one 12V rail?
     
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    spiralscratch

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  • #2
    I don't see any issue. The replacement PSU is close enough, and I doubt you're pushing the limits of either PSU anyways. My only real concern would have been the Dell using non-ATX wiring from the PSU to the mainboard.

    The noise coming from the OEM PSU is almost certainly just a failing fan, and that's usually easily replaceable should you desire.
     
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    crombie

    crombie

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  • #3
    spiralscratch said:
    I don't see any issue. The replacement PSU is close enough, and I doubt you're pushing the limits of either PSU anyways.
    Click to expand...
    Sounds good! All I know is according to the Dell forum posts you HAD to have the exact 5V/3.3V amp/watts or your computer would be in trouble.

    spiralscratch said:
    My only real concern would have been the Dell using non-ATX wiring from the PSU to the mainboard
    Click to expand...
    Yes, that was mine, but at least the forums answered that it was a standard ATX connector and PSU size. I did remove the nVidia GPU and went to onboard graphics since it is a headless server anyways. That will also reduce the power requirements.

    spiralscratch said:
    The noise coming from the OEM PSU is almost certainly just a failing fan, and that's usually easily replaceable should you desire.
    Click to expand...
    This is my plan, my main worry for the time being was how much the fan was struggling, and when it isn't it is much quieter than my older Seasonic.
     
    malor

    malor

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  • #4
    It would be best to replace the supply with something that's as large or larger on all rails. The reason is because you don't know where the loads actually are on that machine. Particularly with NAS boxes, like a Plexbox, there can be a lot of load on 5V for the drives, even if the main system doesn't use much on that rail.

    The motherboard itself and the (former) NVidia card would pull mostly from 12V. By yanking the graphic card, you'll have reduced 12V load enough that everything should be fine on that score. But 5V is an unknown quantity.

    I had to do some digging, but here's one that should work:

    Are you a human?

    www.newegg.com www.newegg.com

    This is ridiculous overkill on 12V, just absolutely silly, but it's got the amps you need on 5V and 3.3V.

    (edit: the Dell supply is a tri-rail 12V, with 18/16/8A, respectively. The linked replacement is a single-rail 12V with 83 amps, or just short of twice as much total 12V power. That's way more 12V than you need, but all the other supplies I looked at were inadequate on 5V and 3.3V, typically 20A on 5V and less on 3.3. )
     
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    crombie

    crombie

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  • #6
    malor said:
    Particularly with NAS boxes, like a Plexbox, there can be a lot of load on 5V for the drives, even if the main system doesn't use much on that rail.
    Click to expand...
    The primary drive for the NAS is an SSD hard drive, and it doesn't have to transcode. It also only sees use about four hours a week. Hopefully there isn't an issue.

    dbwillis said:
    Cant you just replace the fan? (unless the PSU was having issues, but making noises sounds like the fan bearing is toast)
    Click to expand...
    I actually do plan to crack it open at some point. I agree it is just the fan, and replacement should be easy. At this point the only loss if the PSU somehow takes the machine out is time reburning DVDs. All remaining data is already backed up to my new rig.
     
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