dual psu for sli rig, anything i should know?

[drunkenmaster]

Just a quick question before i try it, if i do. I've got a couple 520W ocz's, and a thermaltake 680W with 2 pci-e connectors though both are wrong pin out, apparently they are shipping out convertors for people with the older 680W's that are out there.

ANyway, what are the dangers of running dual psu's. I was under the impression you needed to keep a small steady load on all rails or the psu might not work well or burn out. How do you get a load on the 2nd psu's 3.3v line as its only used on main atx connector.
ALso my stacker case that i just got today came with an atx connector to jumpstart the 2nd psu, but its 20pin connectors, i can use adaptors on both psu's but should i be sticking with 24pin really to be safe?

I'm tempted to use the 680W thermaltake and use the normal molex's with adaptors to run the pci-e 6800gt's, and the 520 for mobo power drives and stick the fans on the thermaltake. should that all work fine.

[eva2000]

maybe something like this http://www.coolpc.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=128_14&products_id=630 ?

[STEvil]

I have yet to have a PSU burn out due to no load, but i've got a few that wont turn on unless there is about 1.5-2a worth of current draw on the 5v or 12v rails.

[shadowing]

How does a dual PSU work? Does the leads for the mobo have to be shorted?

[STEvil]

depends how you wire it all up.. theres a couple ways of going about it.

[drunkenmaster]

the cable i got with the coolermaster stacker is a atx extension cable, 20-20 pin with an extra black and green wire coming out of one of the sides and that leads to another 20 pin atx connector with JUST those wires in it which you attach to the 2nd psu. the two cables cause the 2nd psu to start aswell. not to clear i'm afraid.

it occured to me that must be 4pin atx2 connector extension cables, if i use this 20-20 extension , and use a 4 pin extension on the extra 4 pins and run that to the motherboard that might well work, but i'm not sure of the pins will match up and fit in the connectors or not.

EDIT:- Its just occured to me that most psu's, almost all except (mostof) antecs have joint 3.3 and 5v rails. so a load on 5v is fine, sure i remember reading Antec needs all lines loaded. Anyway, going to stick the 680W in and use it for gfx cards, one hdd, a couple fans and maybe the explug connector on the motherboard. see if that gives me all the juice i need.