Power Requirements

[_WW_]

I know I saw a post in here that linked to a site to help you figure your power requirements but I'll be danged if I can find it now.

Currently I have a Vantec 400w Ion running these components:
ASUS P4PE mobo
3-40Gb HDDs (in IDE, one of them on the onboard controller)
1-DVD ROM
1-CD-RW
1-Floppy
3-90mm fans
1-120mm fan
1-80mm fan
56K modem
Leadtek GF4 ti4400
plus the usual USB printer, onboard soundcard, and a joystick.

What I'm going to add to this is another optical drive (DVD burner), another 40Gb HDD, and a PCI-IDE controller to hook them to. I'm thinking I may have to get an additional PSU to power some of this stuff. I've got a few old ones (200w?) lying around and I'm hoping I can hotwire one of these in. But I'd like to do some calculations and see what should be hooked up where.

Any ideas?


....WW (4.0)

 

[Crashman]

A good 400W power supply could power all that with the new stuff, a marginal power supply might, a poor one wouldn't. I'm not sure about the quality of Vantec power supplies, but I'd try it. You won't damage anything (except maybe the power supply), you're most likely to see system crashes from voltage drops if you have any problem.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[_WW_]

Thanks Crash, Guess I'll give it a try and see what happens. I also have a spare Allied 450w that I quit using so the wife could hear the vacuum cleaner...definitly don't want to go back to that one..heh heh..

Here's a link to the Vantec
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/power_supplies-12.html" target="_new">http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/power_supplies-12.html</A>

....WW (4.0)

 

[Coyote]

Here's your link to the PSU calculator <A HREF="http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/" target="_new">http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/</A>

<A HREF="http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/" target="_new">http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/</A>

Barton 2500+
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
9600 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Coyote on 03/31/04 12:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[_WW_]

Thanks for the link! It suggests I need 440w...I assume this would be if every device was running at once which should seldom if ever be the case, so maybe I'll be ok with just the 400w

Thanks again guys!

....WW (4.0)

 

[etp777]

If it says 440,and you get a quality 400, you should be fine. Good 400 will actually put out more at max, and as you said, unlikely to bepulling full draw from everything at the same time. I know it says 396 for my setup, but my Antec 350 runs it just fine, with voltages rock on, so not even getting close to maxing it out yet.

 

[_WW_]

Yeah...that's what it says at the site, they are figuring everything at max load.

Just in case I did some snooping around and came up with this little how-to:
<A HREF="http://www.gideontech.com/guides/psu_powerup/" target="_new">http://www.gideontech.com/guides/psu_powerup/</A>

I'm thinking a guy could also tap into those same to wires leading to the present PSU and get them both to power up from the mobo.

With this monster Chenbro case I'm using and a slight bit of modding, I actually have room to mount another PSU if I ever need it.

But if it ain't broke I won't fix it..heh heh..

....WW (4.0)