external PSU for +5V

[da9000]

For what JimS said, I recommend something like these:

1)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NVSPATA/

2)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1871517&Sku=M501-1188&SRCCODE=NEXTAG&CMP=EMC-NEXTAG

Only one word of warning: I just fixed one of my adapters' PSU (this was a ByteCC product, which I don't recommend because I had troubles with the cables... and now the PSU). The capacitors leaked and I've used it sparingly. These "Made in China" PSU's are enclosed without any breathing space and they can get rather warm, so these capacitors leaked to death, bulged and all that. PSU failed one day. Anyways, now I've replaced them ($1.80 or so for 4 caps from Jameco), and made some holes in the unit so that it breathes. I assume all others are also without holes, so if you leave it on over-night etc, then it will fail sooner rather than later.

If you want to be more daring and experimental, there are many "mini" PSUs offered by Jameco (as well as other companies):

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&categoryId=4540

as well as:

http://www.google.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=BohNYxBKqRf6wJpzwQtPzzdgBzcDMBp2g27QCrfXoPuDrJQgAEAEYAVDQja-XBmC7vq6D0AqYAedzoAGLo7b_A8gBAYACAQ&adurl=http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/c.ACCT127230/sc.8/category.13/.f


Good luck and I believe you do indeed the 12Volts.

[da9000]

To power the actual machine, I don't think so. Most of those don't have enough power coming out of them. But to power HDDs and floppies, yeah, I don't see why not. It looks almost identical to the ByteCC one I've got. So just make sure you poke somem holes in it :-)