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Is my system underpowered?

V

vetteguy

Diamond Member
I've asked a could of power-related questions lately, but this is an after-the-fact one. In my new server, I have a 350W redundant power supply. I thought it would be enough, but it's been acting really strangely so I wonder if it might be under powered. It has an Athlon 1.4GHz, hardware RAID card, 6 80GB Western Digital SEs, a 40GB 7200 RPM Maxtor, a CD-ROM, AGP video and network. Also, each of th3 6 WD's are in a Vantec hot-swap bay with LCD display. Lately the RAID controller randomly loses contact with drives, the LCD panels flicker whenever there is any kind of access, etc. Could these be symptoms of a grossly-underpowered system? I don't want to starve my server of power, but putting a normal PSU into the case will require some finesse. Thanks!
 
um, i have a 300 watter, and it only has 4 basic device plugs (not including mobo and floppy)

so, one for cd burner
one for dvd
one for HD
one for vidcard.


thats all of em, folks.


its great stable, and i don't know how to calculate whether the supply is adequet, but in your case it seems like the prime suspect. when i hear of people running more than 2 HD's i usually hear 400-450 watters.
 
Could also be a cheap powersupply. What brand is it? Maybe try a good name brand ps? Those do sound like a kind of power issue. Like when a car's battery is not charged by the alternator you see that also. I would try a difffrent ps and see what happens.
 
Originally posted by: LordMorpheus
um, i have a 300 watter, and it only has 4 basic device plugs (not including mobo and floppy)

so, one for cd burner
one for dvd
one for HD
one for vidcard.


thats all of em, folks.


its great stable, and i don't know how to calculate whether the supply is adequet, but in your case it seems like the prime suspect. when i hear of people running more than 2 HD's i usually hear 400-450 watters.
Click to expand...


I don't think the last sentence is really true, since I have an Antec 300W PS, with 1 cdrw, 1 dvdrom, 4 hard drives (40, 40, 60, 20), a total of 15 fans (mostly 80mm, 3 are smaller) 1 CCFL, 1 Neon Light, AthlonXP 1800 overclocked to XP 2000 speed. And I think I'm almost pushing it. I haven't really had any problems, just a couple times where I think power was slim on the molex cables since I split them so much, so I just used a different plug from a diff. line, and that seemed to solve the problem.

I don't know about yuor problem, but you surely don't need 400 wats for 2 hard drives, especially if you get a good named PS.
 
Well like I mentioned this has a redunant power supply (this is exactly what it looks like, although it doesn't specifically say Enermax on the PSU, but rather the brand name of the case manufacturer). I am going to try a 420W one I have laying around tomorrow to see if it exhibits the same symptoms.
 
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