Is 200W enough?

[gplanet]

Is 200W enough for a Duron, PCI video card, and four big hard drives?

 

[anthrax]

probably no...

 

[gplanet]

right now i have a 120-130W PS that runs two hard drives, a CD-RW (scsi), duron, 3 PCI cards, and AGP card....so maybe 200W is fine?

 

[splice]

200W is most likely going to be ok. I have 150W running a 60GB WD HDD, Duron 600, Asus KM133 Motherboard, DVD Drive, Floppy, NIC, and 2 60MM fans

 

[Mark R]

It should be fine (providing that the PSU is of adequate quality).

I've had no problems running a 1000 MHz Athlon, with Geforce 2 and several HDDs with a 200 W supply - however, the same system wouldn't even power up with a "300W" supply.

 

[ILikeSprite]

200W?? I wouldn't think so. I fried a PSU by running too much stuff on it. So I ended up replacing it with a 400W.

 

[Ausm]

200Watts is a little on the meager side IMHO


Ausm

 

[hopeless879]

Its cheap enough to upgrade to a decent 300-420w psu, dont skimp on power, not a good thing

 

[Boobers]

Any company that would even make a 200W PSU is cutting corners and the PSU is probably crap. Here's a tip: If a PSU has the words "High Quality" printed on it, it is CRAP.

Look at the specs on the PSU. Add together the wattages for the 3.3v & 5v feeds. They should add up to at least 140 watts. Any less and I'd throw it in the trash.

 

[gplanet]

it's a 200W power supply in a Chenbro 1U rackmount server chassis

the PS is a Delta or Zippy

 

[IaPuP]

The trick that used to cause AMD systems to malfunction due to insufficient power is actually the maximum current supply of the +5V or +3.3V rail on the PSU, not the wattage.

You will burn it out if you pull too much wattage and 4 drives may be pushing it a bit, but it will *probably* work fine.

I would wager to say that a 1U server PS would be of a much higher quality than the typical "emachines special" that people end up burning out by plugging in one too many drives.

Check the +3.3v and +5v rails to be sure you can get 12A and 25A respectively. I think that's what I remember hearing as good specs for a stable system.

Eric

 

[Boobers]

Remember... Wattage = Voltage X Amperage

So... 3.3v X 12A = 39.6 Watts

Edit: 5.0v X 25A = 125 Watts
(My bad, it was very early in the morning when I posted that, sorry. )

That adds up to 165 Watts... That's about right.

I wouldn't believe what you read on the side of a cheap PSU anyway. The best way to find out is to plug it in and see what happens. But, I'd beg, borrow or steal a better PSU first...

 

[JohnnyPC]

Sure

 

[Mark R]

Minor correction:

So... 3.3v X 12A = 39.6 Watts
5.0 V X 25 A = 125 Watts

Total 3.3 + 5V = 165 W