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.

---

Is this any good for my needs?

 

[kony]

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:21:50 +0100, Franklin
<no_thanks@mail.com> wrote:

On 12 Oct 2004, kony wrote:

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).


Kony, aren't the power requirements (current at certain voltages) of
a mobo fairly fixed? You seem to suggest it is not so.

No, the voltage may be constant but just like with a CPU,
higher frequency causes higher current.

I had always thought that if I a mobo based on chipset X with a given
Athlon processor (say a T'bred B) then the current at various
voltages required to run this by most mobos on the market is pretty
much the same.

I don't understand what you're trying to say.

Is there a significant variation in voltages/current required?

Is any such variation mainly due to the design of the mobo? Or is it
mainly due to the choice of components (chipset and processor)?

Any/all of these can vary current. One board may default
memory to different voltage, another may be running at
higher FSB speed, then the obvious things like chipset or
processor count too... these differences could offset each
other or add up to a signficant difference in some cases.
Even so, the difference between one motherboard and another
will often be much less than the difference between one CPU
or another (if large enough frequency or voltage, core
change), or comparing a budget video card to a high-end
model, or number of hard drives.

 

[Chip]

"Michael Brown" <see@signature.below> wrote in message
news:WdHcd.202$HD2.83790@news.xtra.co.nz...

JW wrote:

Watson A.Name wrote :

CBFalconer wrote:

5 Va.c. _________\|____ 1 k ohm ___________________ 5 V out
/| | |
diode | |
1000 uF 5V zener
|________|
|
gnd

should provide 5v regulated with a 600 or more peak power output
rating. Depends only on the quality of the capacitor. Maybe I
should go into business.

600 or more _what_?

I'm assuming he meant watts, but...

Where do you get 5VAC?

More importantly, if he did mean watts, I'd like to see how it'll get
through that 1k resistor

Err, I think he was making a joke The above circuit would indeed supply
600W of power at something around 5V for a very brief period of time if
the
capacitor was up to it. Assuming we're talking ATX tolerances (5% on 5V
IIRC), the supply voltage would be allowed to drop to 4.75V before it
became
out of spec. If the "power supply" was allowed to be on for a while before
any load was applied (ie: it charges up the capacitor) then a 1000uF
capacitor should be able to hold it within spec at a 600W load for about
2uS. The resistor and power source don't have a big impact while the load
is
applied precicely for the reason you noted: the resistor limits to
satisfying a ~6mW load at best.

I think its a 10% spec on the 5V line, so you'd be OK for around 5 uS ;-)
LOL

 

[Michael Brown]

JW wrote:

Watson A.Name wrote :

CBFalconer wrote:

5 Va.c. _________\|____ 1 k ohm ___________________ 5 V out
/| | |
diode | |
1000 uF 5V zener
|________|
|
gnd

should provide 5v regulated with a 600 or more peak power output
rating. Depends only on the quality of the capacitor. Maybe I
should go into business.

600 or more _what_?

I'm assuming he meant watts, but...

Where do you get 5VAC?

More importantly, if he did mean watts, I'd like to see how it'll get
through that 1k resistor

Err, I think he was making a joke The above circuit would indeed supply
600W of power at something around 5V for a very brief period of time if the
capacitor was up to it. Assuming we're talking ATX tolerances (5% on 5V
IIRC), the supply voltage would be allowed to drop to 4.75V before it became
out of spec. If the "power supply" was allowed to be on for a while before
any load was applied (ie: it charges up the capacitor) then a 1000uF
capacitor should be able to hold it within spec at a 600W load for about
2uS. The resistor and power source don't have a big impact while the load is
applied precicely for the reason you noted: the resistor limits to
satisfying a ~6mW load at best.

--
Michael Brown
www.emboss.co.nz : OOS/RSI software and more
Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz - My inbox is always open