1300 watt PSU not enough?

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Marc Ledoux

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Sep 11, 2014
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Hi. I just sent back a fried 1300 watt power supply (EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2). When I tried to start the computer with 11 HDD (20 Tb), the PSU just died. Nothing happened, no beep, no video signal. Actually, the only working thing was the CPU fan. The rest has no electricity.
I have the PSU checked by a technician and he confirmed the death of the 225$ unit.
I have to said that the PSU worked well with only 2 HDD and a DVD writer connected. I run it for 3-4 days before I tried to start the 10 HDDs.
My question: Is it possible that a 1300 watt PSU is not enough to power ten HDD?
I asked the question to EVGA and they answered that the PSU is probably defective. It should power 10 HDDs. But I don't feel like order the same PSU.
Somebody has an idea?
Marc
 
Solution
Dark Lord of Tech
I have 2 - of these and SEASONIC can't touch the quality and performance.

Super Flower is the best in the PSU business.

Below is the jonnyguru review of the 850.


Performance (40% of the final score) - we're down to scoring time again. And, as with all other recent units from EVGA and Super Flower, this one will be a breeze to score. Pass for Gold, both cold and hot, means no points removed from a perfect score. Amazing ripple suppression the likes of which has only been seen a handful of times on this site means no points removed there. And finally, yes, this unit did manage to hold onto an average of 1.2% regulation in the hot box so no points come off there, either. This guy's getting a 10.

Functionality (20% of the final...
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Hard drives draw significant current as they start up, and they all start up at the same time when you power on the PC.
The Seagate Barracuda data sheet shows startup current of 2A to 2.5A depending on the drive. Some drives may be higher. 2.5A * 12V = 30W.

I would budget 40W per hard drive on startup, plus 100W for everything else.
Once the system is up and running, budget 10W per hard drive plus TDP for graphics and CPU and 30W for other components.
Pick the higher of these two values as your starting point and divide by 0.8 if you want a heavily loaded PSU (up to 80% load) or 0.7 for a safer margin (up to 70% load).

That brings me to 771W for 11 hard drives based on the start up current with the safer margin and this would be enough to cover a 140W CPU and a 250W graphics card once the system is running. I'm not sure of your other components, but they are likely lower power than this. A quality 850W supply should be plenty for your system.

The EVGA Supernova G2 is supposed to be a very good supply. I guess you just got a defective unit.
For that sort of money you could get a Seasonic X-850.
 
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The Supernova G2 supplies are great quality. The one the OP had was probably just a defective unit.
I don't know about better than Seasonic though. The X series are possibly the best supplies on the market. The only criticism of them I have ever seen is the price.
A 1300W supply was already overkill for this system though and he doesn't need to pay over $300 for a power supply for this system.
The Seasonic X-850 is less than half the price of the EVGA Supernova G2 1600. Rated capacity is more than enough and and quality is at least as good.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-x850
 
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I have 2 - of these and SEASONIC can't touch the quality and performance.

Super Flower is the best in the PSU business.

Below is the jonnyguru review of the 850.


Performance (40% of the final score) - we're down to scoring time again. And, as with all other recent units from EVGA and Super Flower, this one will be a breeze to score. Pass for Gold, both cold and hot, means no points removed from a perfect score. Amazing ripple suppression the likes of which has only been seen a handful of times on this site means no points removed there. And finally, yes, this unit did manage to hold onto an average of 1.2% regulation in the hot box so no points come off there, either. This guy's getting a 10.

Functionality (20% of the final score) - full modularity. Lots of cables. Good cable lengths. Plenty of connectors. Switchable semi-fanless mode. Lots of goodies in the box. Nice size 16 gauge line cord. I really can't think of anything to complain about here, either. 10.

Value (20% of the final score) - $119.99 is the asking price of these at NCCIX right about now. It shares this price with the Silverstone ST85F-GS. Now, about the only thing that unit has on this one is its much shallower depth. Other competition? What other competition? Coolmax? More money, if you can believe that. Corsair HX850? More money. Corsair RM850? More money. Themaltake Toughpower Grand? More money. Seasonic X-850 KM3? Way more money. EVGA has this category locked right down. 10.

Build Quality (20% of the final score) - I'm going to remove a point for the fan control wiring and be done with it on this one. Soldering is good enough to pass with no deductions, the AC line filter is pretty much all there in the end, the component selections are fantastic, and the capacitors are wall to wall Japanese. 9.5.

Summary

Buy one. Do I really need to say anything else at this point? Once again, EVGA has something awesome here the competition can't seem to touch price wise. Performance? There are better units, yes. Not very many, but they exist. The real story here is how EVGA keeps managing to offer this kind of performance and still be more affordable than nearly everything else out there, and they have pretty much found perhaps the only OEM on Earth capable of doing it for them. It's got to be real nice being EVGA right now.

The Good:

outstanding ripple suppression
excellent voltage regulation
fully modular
semi-fanless mode
nice blacked out cabling

The Bad:

nothing at all

The Mediocre:

reviewing awesome units is getting dull... where's that gutless wonder in my pile? Second in line? Well, at least I'm guaranteed something interesting in all the wrong ways in a couple weeks...


 
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Solution
Thanks to all for your answers.
I gave EVGA a second chance. Instead of a refund, I asked for a replacement. I will let you know.
Besides the HDDs (1x1 Tb; 8x2Tb and 1x4Tb, plus a 120Gb SSD), the PSU have to power the motherboard, one video card (Gigabyte Radeon HD R9 270X) and a DVD writer. 1300 watts have to be enough!
Thanks again.
Marc
 
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Thanks to all for your answers.
I gave EVGA a second chance. Instead of a refund, I asked for a replacement. I will let you know.
Besides the HDDs (1x1 Tb; 8x2Tb and 1x4Tb, plus a 120Gb SSD), the PSU have to power the motherboard (Asus Z97 Sabertooth + i7 4790K) one video card (Gigabyte Radeon HD R9 270X) and a DVD writer. 1300 watts have to be enough!
Thanks again.
Marc
 
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Absolutely. 1300W is more than enough and this is a quality supply.
 
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I promised to give news of the evolution of this issue.
I received my new PSU (same brand, same model), I plugged three HDDs at a time until a total of 12 HDDs, by rebooting every time. Since then, I've restarted several times without any problems. The first PSU was definitely defective
 
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