Will my power supply support a 3rd HD?

[ShadowX114]

Hi all,

I was given an IDE 120GB hard drive. I want to make sure that my power supply will handle it before I put it in.
My power supply supports 420W. I already have two SATA HDs; a 160GB and a 200GB. A DVD burner, a not-functioning floppy disk, video card, motherboard (sound card built in)

so is it safe to add the new HD or should I make it an external one (I have the necessary cables and power adapter to make it an external and connect with the PC through USB).

Thank you

[fritzi93]

The only question mark, to my mind, is the video card. Mine, for example, requires a molex power connection and the minimum recommended PSU is 420 watts.

So what's the power consumption of the video card?

[EDIT] Out of curiosity, I looked it up using your information and this calculator:

http://www.journeysystems.com/?powercalc

Apparently, your minimum with the hardware you have (including video card) would be about 253 watts, according to the calculator. Add another 2 for each fan, 5 watts or so for each USB device, plus a margin. You should be okay.

[redwudz]

I'm presently running two video servers with nine 320GB hard drives each, along with a DVD drive and about six 80mm fans. But the video card is minimal. I run both servers with 500W power supplies. Checking with a wattmeter, the hard drives don't use that much power. The PCs draw about 140W most of the time. One of my other PCs with three hard drives uses 130W. The spin up for the hard drives draws about 300 - 350 watts momentarily. The systems both run fine and the PS's run fairly cool. You should be OK with your existing PS, assuming it's correctly rated and a good quality unit. I ran one of the servers with a 400W Seasonic PS for a while and no problems either. I just wanted a little more reserve, so I upgraded to a 500W Thermaltake PS.

The easy way to check a PS is to see how much heat it's putting out. If it's putting out hot air like a hair blow dryer, you may want to think about a upgrade.

[bevills1]

That PSU should be more than enough in my experience. I've been running 2 IDE drives, 2 optical drives and an external USB hard drive for a couple of years on a 250 watt PSU with zero problems.

[ShadowX114]

I just checked the model of my video card, it is ASUS A955. According to the calculator, it uses 40W.
My RAM is a one stick 512MB; it's either DDR or DDR2 but I chose DDR because it has a higher watts (10W).
I also added 2 USB external devices, as I sometimes connect my ipod and digital camera at the same time. So in total I will probably use 261W out of 420W. so you guys are right, I should be fine. Thank you
but is it enough to have 159W as spare? It looks little to me. Is it possible for it to overheat??

[edDV]

I just checked the model of my video card, it is ASUS A955. According to the calculator, it uses 40W.
My RAM is a one stick 512MB; it's either DDR or DDR2 but I chose DDR because it has a higher watts (10W).
I also added 2 USB external devices, as I sometimes connect my ipod and digital camera at the same time. So in total I will probably use 261W out of 420W. so you guys are right, I should be fine. Thank you
but is it enough to have 159W as spare? It looks little to me. Is it possible for it to overheat??

Hard drives have peak load during turn-on when they are spinning up. This mostly affects 12VDC. Some better disk controllers stagger spin-up to reduce peak amp demand.

Case cooling is another issue. Additional drives sometimes block air flow in compact cases. A "push" fan may need to be added. Most tower designs allow for 4+ drives.

[redwudz]

What brand is your power supply? Many of the cheaper ones just seem to just make up their wattage ratings. A quality PS will likely be underrated. And the total wattage doesn't mean much as it's the wattage of all the different PS rails combined.

You can still be drawing too much power on one rail, while the others are hardly being used. There is commonly a +5, +12 and +3 VDC rail. There may also be more than one of each. Then there are usually some -5 and -12 VDC rails. As I mentioned before, check the heat coming out of the PS. That's the easy way to tell how hard it's working. Cheap ones also run hotter with a shorter lifespan. If your PS fails it can take the motherboard, the CPU, just about everything with it.

Another place to look is your BIOS, if it reports voltages. There's usually a hardware monitor page present. Check the voltages and see if they are changing or fairly steady and within specifications. You can also use a aftermarket program to check voltages while the PS is under a load. Poor voltage regulation is a sign that the PS has a problem.

But a quality 420W PS is more than capable of serving your needs, even if you add a couple of more drives. Hard drives use very little power while running, SATA types less, compared to other devices. DVD burners use a bit more, especially when burning. Video cards seem to use the most, after the motherboard and the CPU. Basically any computer part that runs hot is using quite a bit of power.

[KBeee]

Of course, a 420w KNOWN NAME £80 power supply might be the exact same "Made in China" £30 model with a different sticker on, and in a nicer box - as I know from personal experience (except the £80 model came with a booklet extolling other items in their range but no instructions specific to the expensive PS I'd just bought, whereas the £30 model had an A5 leaflet explaining the connections!).

[ShadowX114]

Hello, sorry for being absent for a while , I was too busy with my final exam and new job.
ok so basically, knowing the quality/brand of the PS will help you know whether it will support it or not, right? well I opened my pc case, and wrote the PS's manufacturer and model.
It is a RaidMax , ATX12V. Model #: KY-520ATX
I actually googled it and found this site that notes its specific details : http://www2.dealtime.com/xPF-RaidMax-PSU-RAIDMAX-KY-520ATX-420W-RT

As I mentioned before, in worst case, I will make the HD external; it's not worth buying additional stuff (new fan or higher quality PS) for this HD. I simply don't want it to make additional place on my desk, that's all.

Thanks again for sticking by

[ßsimian]

it about a $10.00 power supply. ok, but not a powerhouse. if the video card does not use a plug from the p.s. it will probably run 3 hard drives ok.

[redwudz]

It's a economy PS, but seems more than sufficient for what you are planning. I would monitor the temps from it, though. It that seems all good, no problems.
And thanks for finding that information. It does help to know exactly what you are dealing with.

[kimco52]

Some manufacturers will give the peak power rating because it is a higher number and makes it sound better. What you are really interested in is the RMS Power number.

[ShadowX114]

I will first monitor the temperature of my computer from BIOS, then install the Hd and monitor it again to see the difference.
Thanks again for your help


*EDIT*

ok so I went to BIOS and recorded the following. I still haven't installed the 3rd HD, I want to see the difference before and after the installation. Most of them keep changing from one temperature to another. For example 2, then suddenly 4, then suddenly back to 2 and so forth, never in-between, but I'm sure you already know that

CPU temperature: 42.5 C/108.5 F but also jumps to 43.5 C /110 F
MB temperature: 36 C / 96.5 F
VCore voltage: 1.456V and 1.448V
3.3V voltage 3.344V and 3.360V
5V voltage: 5.134V and 5.160 V
12V voltage: 12.288V

[ShadowX114]

Sorry for re-posting instead of editing my last post. I have a new problem and editing will not give you a notice.
So I installed the HD and the voltage is more or less the same; so this problem has been fixed.

The new problem is that my DVD burner is now slower than before. Before installing the 3rd HD, my dvd burner was the only IDE hardware and it was set as Master. When I first installed the HD, I left it as cable select while the burner was as master. However, at bootup, I kept getting something like "There is no HD set as master, presss F1 to continue". Even though they were both working perfectly fine, I didn't want to press F1 everytime I turned on my pc. Thus, I made the new HD as master (instead of cable select) and made my burner as slave (instead of master). However, the problem is that whatever I'm watching on a dvd is laggy. The same episodes play fine when I copy it to any of my HD but when I watch them directly from the DVD they become laggy. How can I fix the problem?

[Joe The Dude]

I recently had a similar problem.
I wound up getting an IDE to SATA adapter, and using it on my extra IDE Hard Drive, so it could connect to one of the SATA Ports on my motherboard, and no longer share an IDE Cable with my Burner. (This is what I used)

Now, if you don't have any spare SATA Ports on your motherboard, you could get a PCI to IDE card (Example Link) and just connect your spare IDE drive to that. Now, I don't own the card I linked to, but I've heard good thigs about it.

Or, you can get a combo IDE and SATA Card for a PCI Express slot (Example Link).
I own this card, and it works fine in my PC.
Be sure to check your motherboard and make sure you actually have a "PCI Express" slot before buying this card!
A Note for the Non-Techy: "PCI" and "PCI Express" are not the same thing, and they are not interchangeable.

Whatever you decide to do, you should try to buy locally at a place that has a good return policy.
8)

[Nelson37]

Two non-identical devices on the same cable can cause this problem. There are multiple combinations of Master/Slave, and cable select which can be used. Cable select requires, guess what, a Cable Select cable.

As a general rule, the faster device should be Master, BUT, this is not set in stone, try it both ways.

There may not be a workable solution other than removing one device from the cable.

Make sure the drives are both in DMA mode.