PSU vs. 2nd power source?

[Xylo]

I'm currently ordering the parts for a water-cooled system I'm going to be putting together. While I'm not planning on having a peltier from the start, I'm thinking of later adding one if everything goes well.

Now, looking around, I see a lot about how much power that peltiers need. It appears that some folks say you can just get a "very big" PSU and run it off that in addition to the system...others seem to say that some sort of secondary independent power source is required.

So, what are folks thoughts? And if a "large" PSU is a possibility, just how large (600W?)? I would prefer to buy it now in advance, rather than buy a new PSU later on (or a 2nd power source), and I calculated that my system so far is only going to be using around 400W so far...?

Thanks!
Xylo

[jman1310]

piggyback a 2nd PSU off the the 1st (there are 3 or 4 good ways to do this on the net)
buy cheap and quiet, no need for a very expensive PSU for the pelt - it doesn't need the stable voltages that your MB & CPU like
a smaller high quality unit (i like the antec trupower 430 or 380) and a cheap big unit will likely be more affordable, expandable, and less likely to cause issues w/ your MB lilke low voltages
it might be worthwhile to recheck the sources you used to determine the wattage needs of your system - it's fairly difficult to use 400 watts
CPU - max ~100w, GPU - max ~100w, not much else in a system that uses huge amounts of power
also consider that a high quality PSU should be designed to provide 1.5 times rated power for brief periods of time
as far as how large a PSU for the pelt - well that will be determined by what wattage the pelt is designed for - this is a good reason to buy 2 power supplies

[JSimmons]

Go here:

http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11336

[jman1310]

thanks JSimmons