Hacker News Reader

I just recently made a nice little 3.3V, 5V, and 12V power supply for my electronics bench using the power supply from an old server.

Saved me from buying one and kept the power supply from ending up getting throwed out.

"Win-win", as my annoying ex-boss would say.

View on HN

That's exactly what I did for my first benchtop supply. Being a student, 'free' was a pretty good deal. Used it regularly for a good many years until one project I had drew so much current it really accentuated the voltage ripple.

Be careful though, ATX power supplies don't have a crucial feature that bench supplies do: setable current limits. They will pump out as much power as they can to maintain the output voltages until they saturates.

Which can result from releasing some magic smoke if you are lucky, to a call with your insurance company.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com