power supply query

[Dilbert Firestorm]

I'm looking at antec true550 as a replacement psu. what are the other good
alternates to antec psu?

don't know if I need that much wattage, but having 4 scsi lvd-160 hard
drives (2 seagate cheetah 18 gigs, Quantum VikingII 4 gig & Atlas 9 gig)
and 2 scsi-2 hard drives (Quantum Empire 2 gig & Toshiba 877meg) and 2
other scsi-2 devices, Plextor 6plx cd rom & Archive Python 2 gig tape
drive. adding to the mix, I recently brought a dvd writer which I was
unable to install when the pc died. I also have plans to get a large ide
or sata drive (prolly western digital) to serve as back up disk for the 4
of 5 hard drives I've mentioned. I'm using one of the older hard drives as
operating system swap disk. plus, I'm planning on adding more 2 80mm fans
and 1 92mm to the system case

I think it probably makes sense to go higher from 420 watt to 550 watt.

 

[Gary C]

I think it probably makes sense to go higher from 420 watt to 550 watt.

See, maybe.
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

 

[Dilbert Firestorm]

See, maybe.
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

thanx for the link on the watt calculator.

what's the rule of the thumb on the PSU wattage?

lets say the system puts out the 440 watts, do you get 450 watt or do you
go higher than that?

 

[Gary C]

thanx for the link on the watt calculator.

what's the rule of the thumb on the PSU wattage?

lets say the system puts out the 440 watts, do you get 450 watt or do you
go higher than that?

Like your vehicle, best to have extra power on hand in case your mother in
law,
or an added addition to your case, comes along.

 

[signmeuptoo]

Dilbert, PC Power and Cooling is the best that there is, but they cost a
lot of money.

Here is one dealer that sells them:

http://xoxide.com/pcpowercooling.html

They have the cleanest signal of any supply made.

 

[MAd MAx]

Not obviously !
First, open the disk specs,
Look at the surge currents when the disks start to spin.
Look then at the max steady state currents.
Make a complete budget of these currents. Consider as well the MoBo and
other peripherals. Apply a factor of at least 1.5.
This will give the min current the PSU shall deliver in all cases. All PSUs
aren't equally balanced between 3.3, 5 & 12 Volts. Between different brands
and/or models, the delivered current are often different for the same
voltages.

Second, the SCSI BIOSes can be configurated to delay some SCSI disks in
order all the peak current don't appear on the same time.
Worth to do it. Call the BIOS setup by hitting Ctrl-A after POST (Adaptec
cards, dunno for other brands).

By the way, You'd better to buy a reasonably large SATA disk (120 GB),
trashing the low sized SCSIs. You'll save lotta losses (lower heating and
narrow cables improving the cooling). You'll gain in reliability and
response time, you'll save lotta bucks with a human sized PSU and you'll
have a larger capacity !
The result is that you spend the same amount of money and you'll drive a BMW
instead of a vintage car with a new engine pulling a caravan !

Have fun.