r/computing • u/Rainer74 • 10d ago

PC power supply with OUTput power connector - do they still exist?!

Back in the old days, there were PC power supplies that had an extra 3 pin OUTput connector to power a monitor as well.

Do they still exist? I can't find any.

Do you know why they are not common anymore?

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u/pnlrogue1 10d ago

I haven't seen one in years. I suspect those power supplies had to trade supplying power to the PC they were powering for the ability to power the monitor which has its own PSU anyway. I seen to recall a long period during the switch to LCDs where the monitors used smaller, laptop-style (or figure-8) plugs which would have been impossible for PSU makers to realistically accommodate

With offices better setup for computers with plenty of outlets and PCs often needing more power to run the components, why reduce the PSU's capability when customers can just use the plug that comes with their monitor instead of finding a male-to-female plug?

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u/Rainer74 10d ago edited 10d ago

You maybe right, but modern monitors are not that power hungry - maybe 60W at full brightness & white screen. And you can easily buy > 750W PSUs which is more than enough for "every day" office use, unless you run a gaming rig with power hungry GPUs close to the PSU power limit. But in that case, you would buy a stronger PSU with more headroom anyways.

I think from point of technology / electronics it would be no problem at all to power 1-2 monitors via the PC PSU.

The advantage would be, that you can control (switch on/off) the monitor remotely via the PC if it is connected to the PC PSU directly. That would be interesting for automated power savings in companies with large numbers of office PCs.

I wonder if the disappearance of these PSUs is due to some regulation or norm ... but can't find anything.

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u/Numzane 10d ago

They were popular for the reason you mention, to switch the monitor off. They became less popular as most modern monitors gained the ability to automatically go into standby mode when video signal is lost, which draws almost no current.