PSU suggestions? just general wattage question

[Lithium381]

I'm running a Soyo Dragon+ w/ AMD 1700+ CPU. Radeon 9600. I've got two CD drives, and four HD's, my PSU's been acting a little strange, and i'm not sure if it's cause i'm straining it. What wattage should i be feeding this system?

 

[furballi]

Connect only one hard drive to the PSU. Remove all other devices from the motherboard and recheck for stability.

 

[Lithium381]

Originally posted by: furballi
Connect only one hard drive to the PSU. Remove all other devices from the motherboard and recheck for stability.

the problem is i used to run them all fine.....now two of my HD's wont even power up but the drives work i know because if i swtich which drives are plugged in

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Lithium381

Originally posted by: furballi
Connect only one hard drive to the PSU. Remove all other devices from the motherboard and recheck for stability.

the problem is i used to run them all fine.....now two of my HD's wont even power up but the drives work i know because if i swtich which drives are plugged in

PSU could be dieing then... I would recommend a good 300-350 watt Forton or Seasonic.

 

[Zepper]

With four hard drives you are going to need at least 8 Amps of +12 just to start them up (look in their spec sheets for "Startup Current" value and total them up - then add a 10% margin for safety). Make sure you NEVER leave any disks in your optical drives or they will suck +12 at startup too. You could rig a way to stagger the startup of some of the HDs so they wouldn't present such a load at startup - or perhaps the load has taken its toll on your current PSU.
. If that's the case, look for a 350 to 400W PSU with at least 20A (24 or 25 would be better) on the +12 (single rail is most flexible). OR once you get them started up, you could just never shut your system totally down until something dies... 😉

.bh.