server power supply question

[ChocoboFarm]

I'm working on upgrading my computer, and I am having a bit of a problem with the power supply side. I have a 460w Enermax 24-pin power supply, and it is too small right now. I'm working on finding a case with the capability of holding two power supplies, when I realized that I won't have a way of turning on the second power supply, as they are both ATX power supplies. I want to put 8 more hard drives in my system, as well as another 3GB RAM.
Here are my current stats:
SuperMicro X5DAE mobo
dual Xeon 2.66GHz w/ HT (4 logical processors)
1GB Corsair PC2100 DDR
(3) Western Digital 200GB hd's
(2) Western Digital 120GB hd's
Promise SX6000 RAID controller
PNY Quadro 900 XGL
Audigy 2 PCI
Lite-On CD-RW

And this is nearly maxing out my current power supply... Please, if you have any questions or recommendations, please let me know. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Dwayne Sander, IC2 (SW)

 

[Boonesmi]

how do you know its "nearly maxing out my current power supply"?
i would think the enermax 460w would be able to handle that setup without any problem


but if you need more powersupply then look at the 600w enermax

 

[ChocoboFarm]

When I plug another device (ie cell phone charger) into the same power strip or wall outlet circuit, it will drop a few of the hard drives... I've calculated my power usage, and my peak is at 490 watts, mostly being taken from the hard drives and processors.
Respectfully,
Dwayne Sander, IC2 (SW)

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: ChocoboFarm
When I plug another device (ie cell phone charger) into the same power strip or wall outlet circuit, it will drop a few of the hard drives... I've calculated my power usage, and my peak is at 490 watts, mostly being taken from the hard drives and processors.
Respectfully,
Dwayne Sander, IC2 (SW)

what you are describing doesn't sound powersupply related.. sounds like not enough juice is even getting to the powersupply from the wall outlet when you plug in other devices (meaning devices not attached to the powersupply)

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: ChocoboFarm
When I plug another device (ie cell phone charger) into the same power strip or wall outlet circuit, it will drop a few of the hard drives... I've calculated my power usage, and my peak is at 490 watts, mostly being taken from the hard drives and processors.
Respectfully,
Dwayne Sander, IC2 (SW)

That's either a problem with your power strip or your electrical outlet not your power supply. When your plugging the charger into the power strip it's drawing more power through the strip and it's causing your PSU to not get all the power it needs.

That power supply is more than enough for that system. For example at work we have a file server with 2 redundant power supplies of 500w each. This server is dual 1Ghz Xeons, 3GB RAM, and 12 10k RPM SCSI drives, SCSI RAID controller, 12 fans, and 3 NICs. The server is designed to run on just a single 500w power supply. So if our server can get by with 500w there's no reason your PC with 8 drives can't get by with 460w.

If you really want to add 8 drives to the system get an external SCSI cage and a SCSI card.

 

[ChocoboFarm]

Awesome. And I would go SCSI, but the size to dollar ratio is too much for me. I'm more concerned about space than speed (to a point), so I wouldn't be using SCSI to it's full potential for what I'm doing. Thank you very much for your inputs...
Respectfully,
Dwayne Sander, IC2 (SW)