What PSU rating for Athlon 2400 with 6 HDDs?

[Franklin]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

 

[Gareth Tuckwell]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

I can't comment on the power requirements, but I can say the power supply I
have is excellent. Its the Nexus NX 3000 (300W)and it really is quiet! If I
stop the other 2 fans in the system, I can only just hear it in a quiet
room! This power supply has a normal sized (80mm or 92mm?) fan and it is
quiet, so the big 120mm fan should be practically silent.

As for voltage regulation. I can't say if it is good or not (anyone
comment?), but I get the following readouts in my hardware monitor:
3.3v actually reads 3.312 or 3.328
5v actually reads 4.945
12v actually reads 12.096
-12v actually reads -12.196
-5v actually reads -5.005
5vsb actually reads 5.072 (don't know what vsb is!)

 

[Gareth Tuckwell]

I can't comment on the power requirements, but I can say the power supply
I have is excellent. Its the Nexus NX 3000 (300W)and it really is quiet!
If I stop the other 2 fans in the system, I can only just hear it in a
quiet room! This power supply has a normal sized (80mm or 92mm?) fan and
it is quiet, so the big 120mm fan should be practically silent.

As for voltage regulation. I can't say if it is good or not (anyone
comment?), but I get the following readouts in my hardware monitor:
3.3v actually reads 3.312 or 3.328
5v actually reads 4.945
12v actually reads 12.096
-12v actually reads -12.196
-5v actually reads -5.005
5vsb actually reads 5.072 (don't know what vsb is!)

I should add that my NX 3000 (300w) power used to run this system without
any problems:
Athlon 2400+ (normal voltage and clocking)
2GB (3 modules) SDRAM
3 IDE hard disk drives
1 IDE DVD drive
1 SCSI cd writer
Radeon 8500 AGP card
1 wireless PCI
1 network PCI
1 sound card PCI
9 fans!! (of various sizes)

 

[kony]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

Nexus relabels Sparkle PSU. If you can find a Sparkle (or
Fortron) 350W for lower price it would be better value.

350W is enough for your system but if motherboard uses 12V
for CPU (one sign of that would be that the board uses the
"Intel" P4 4-pin 12V connector in addition to the ATX 20 pin
connector) then it would provide more margin to choose 400W
or higher (Nexus/Sparkle/Fortron will still be a good choice
in 400W or higher).

 

[VWWall]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

The six hard drives will draw about 2 A each on startup. When running
this will drop considerably. You could monitor the +12V rail during
startup, but a normal voltmeter will not respond rapidly enough. A
digital voltmeter needs about a second to compare the voltage under test
to its internal standard and produce a reading. The 16 A rating should
be ample, if it's a true rating and you don't add other things requiring
+12 V.

If it boots OK, and everything works, the supply should be fine.

Virg Wall

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

With 6 drives I'd go with a larger power supply, get at least a 450W
supply or even larger. An Antec 550W supply is only $108. You don't want
to waste your time hunting down system glitches because you saved 30 bucks
on a power supply.

 

[Don Burnette]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

You really can't have too much, but you can have too little.

When it comes to power supplies, I would just get a good name - like Antec
True Power, around 430 watt to be safe.

 

[rstlne]

You really can't have too much, but you can have too little.

When it comes to power supplies, I would just get a good name - like Antec
True Power, around 430 watt to be safe.

Heh..
I dunno
Climb a highline pole and put a 5v light across the 15kv lines ;P

 

[Tom MacIntyre]

Heh..
I dunno
Climb a highline pole and put a 5v light across the 15kv lines ;P

That's too much voltage. The extra power is a secondary result, of
course.

Tom

 

[Hamman]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

Go for a cheap Sparkle / Fortron branded PSU of the region 350-450w.
My sparkle 300w has been heavily loaded over the last 3 years and still runs
cool + quiet.

Hamman

 

[larrymoencurly]

Nexus is made by Fortron-Source, one of the best PSU makers in the
world, but I don't know if the 16A @ +12V is enough for all that
hardware. One person found that his XP1800+ system with five HDs
(RPM unknown) and a couple of CD drives consumed only 160W from the AC
lines, meaning that the computer was taking about 120W. And in 2002
C'T magazine measured several computers equipped with XP2400+ CPUs,
256M DDR, and GeForce3/Ti500 graphics cards and found that it took
about 9A @ +12V, 2-4A @ +5V, and 9-12A @ +3.3V.

 

[Christo]

i know very little about pwer, but from what i know a 350w will be ok, a
decent one though, i have a cheap one and i keep getting IRQL errors, im not
sure if they are related to the PSU or memory, but someone at uni has told
me a 400w PSU is reccomended with all AMD Athlon XP's

 

[Al Smith]

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.

With 6 drives I'd go with a larger power supply, get at least a 450W
supply or even larger. An Antec 550W supply is only $108. You don't want
to waste your time hunting down system glitches because you saved 30 bucks
on a power supply.

You don't want to waste $30 for nothing, either.

 

[Matt]

What rating PSU should I use on a system which has an Athlon 2400+
with a modest graphics card (old GeForce2 MX 32MB) and 768 MB of SD-
RAM. Unusually, it will have *SIX* IDE internal hard drives.

All the rest of the system is pretty normal with no overclocking on
the cpu.

Would a decent 350W PSU be enough? I am thinking of this Nexus PSU.
http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm The specification chart shows
current delivery at min load, normal load, max load:

+3.3V 0.3A 14.0A 21.2/28A
+5V 1.0A 12.7A 30/25.5A
+12V 0.2A 4.5A 16A

(1) +3.3V & +5V total output not exceed 220Watt.
(1a) When +3.3V is loaded to 28A, then the +5V maximum load is 25.5A.
(1b) When +3.3V is loaded to 21.2A, the +5V maximum load is 30A.
(2) +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output not exceed 330Watt.

You have already done about half the work. Now hunt down the specs for
your disk drives, and do the addition problems. See also something like:
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

See the AMD builders' guide, page 7, at:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/SellAMDProducts/0,,30_177_4458_3505^869^4348^1065,00.html

You might also need to know that DC Power = (DC voltage) x (DC current).
Current is the same as amperage.
Eg 12V x 2.5A = 30 Watts.

 

[DaveW]

Hmmm ... I think you should more seriously be thinking about an Antec 550
Watt True Power supply.

 

[none]

Hmmm ... I think you should more seriously be thinking about an Antec 550
Watt True Power supply.

With that many Hd's I'd be thinking about dedicating one good psu to
the motherboard and the optical drives/floppy and using separate
supplies for alll those Hd's.(maybe 2 drives to a psu rated at at
least 350-400 watts.)
Depends on what type of computing you'll doing and how intensive too.

 

[none]

You don't want to waste $30 for nothing, either.

Yes you do. The lowest rated supply I use for Athalon systems is 400
watts, and that is only with one HD.
Anymore and I go with a 500 watt.
Believe me if you really try and do any serious computing loads with
an under rated power supply you're asking for serious migraines.

 

[none]

i know very little about pwer, but from what i know a 350w will be ok, a
decent one though, i have a cheap one and i keep getting IRQL errors, im not
sure if they are related to the PSU or memory, but someone at uni has told
me a 400w PSU is reccomended with all AMD Athlon XP's

Correct. And that is the lowest one should use.
I do video/film editing on Athalons and anything lower than 400 will
give you constant locks and blue screens.
The inrush and overcurrent ratings are critical too.
At least 30 on the 5v and 25 on the 12v is required.
You can NEVER have to much power.
A good trick is to split the load between multiple psu, does require a
bit of moding though.

 

[Matt]

With that many Hd's I'd be thinking about dedicating one good psu to
the motherboard and the optical drives/floppy and using separate
supplies for alll those Hd's.(maybe 2 drives to a psu rated at at
least 350-400 watts.)

That way he could avoid about a half hour's mental work.

Except he would have to figure how to rig a computer using four power
supplies instead of one.

 

[Matt]

Correct. And that is the lowest one should use.

Please provide a pointer to that recommendation on AMD's website.