High power usage, 600 Watts enough?

[fatjapp]

Well to cut a long story short, I need a power supply.
I Running a Tyan thunder 2500, with a dual P3 500mhz. I have a 400 watt, Vamaquest power supply. The board ran fine until I start building up my Hard drive array. I have been adding more hard drives to the array when I full up the existing ones. They are all Weston digital Caviar 160gb, and I have 5 at the moment. (and a small 80 GB for the operating system). There is also a DLT drive running in the system, but no optical or floppy drives.
The 3.3v rail has died on the existing power supply. It is only registering 2volts. Do you think this power supply will be able to cope.

Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701 AX-VE PSU

I have read a lot of good reviews about this power supply, but they rarely add more than a couple of devices to test it. Do you think it will be able to cope and cope with future expansion?

 

[Ice Czar]

http://takaman.jp/D/?M=PdbHTcHBdHhgXKhHJZAZa0CMZ&english
no video card assume onboard


of course that board is listed with 2x20 pin main mobo connectors
and the Enermax is a 24 pin you have a dual lead adapter?

problem is that about half the +12V amps youd get with that supply arent available for drives since its an ATX12V v2.0 supply
only 18A on the +12V2 rail would be usable the rest on +12V1 would be for a CPU that isnt using that rail at all on that board

Id recommend you look at getting say a OCZ Powerstream instead
(other than the 600 watt which is also a v2.0)

1. its a single +12V rail ATX12V v1.3 supply thus all the amps in any given wattage class would be available for drives
starting at 30A and up, youd be good for say 12 Drives + (figure roughly 2A per drive for spinup, dropping to about a quarter of that for run time)
many controller cards offer a delayed spinup as well, so you could possibly push that even more
fans also share the +12V so that eats into it as well

2. it has a 20 pin connector (w\ a 4 pin addon in the event you need it for an EPS12V board some time in the future)
obviously you need to use the dual adapter

3. has adjustable external pots, with a multimeter you can then adjust the rails for the added resistance adding an adapter generally causes, so you can optimize the voltage for each rail

4. its rated at 40C so effectively all the amps listed are likely available for your probable operating temperature (wherreas many other supplies would need to be derated)

5. even the 420W has enough amps on the +3.3V \ +5V rail

6. they exceed spec for load regulation

7. all the ATX12V v1.3 Powerstreams cost less than the Enermax

http://www.newegg.com/app/searchPro...1&DEPA=1&bop=and&description=ocz&InnerCata=58

 

[fatjapp]

Thanks for the advice, I didn't realize there was such a difference between the ATX power supplies.

I ended up buying two of the OCZ Powerstream 420watts, I'm planning to use one as a redundant power supply. It worked out at a similar price to the Enermax max one, so I'm happy.

 

[Ice Czar]

when you say redundant
specifically what do you mean?

 

[Bullitt]

he has it in his closet if the other one fails


<best guess>

 

[Ice Czar]

where it not for that second mobo connector
Id have read it that way too

if on the other hand its redundant as in dual PSU
Id have some additional advice

(at the bottom of the "notch")

 

[fatjapp]

You can plug two power supplies into the motherboard at the same time. If you turn off one of the supplies then the motherboard still remains powered up (although the drives and stuff still turn off).

I was just going to plug both of them in and I haven't decided how to wire up the drives yet.