Hello. I hope someone can help me. I have a 400w AOpen power supply in my desktop but already have 4 internal HDs, a 6600 GeForce graphics card, P4 3ghz CPU, 1 DVD-RW and 4 sticks of ram (total of 3GB) in my desktop. Is it pushing it to install a 5th internal HDD in there or is 400w enough? If so, what spec PSU do you recommend? 550w? Cheers.
AOpen PSUs are poor quality and are prone to going up in flames. As a safety precaution above all else, go for a Corsair VX 450W. Adding extra hard disks is the most common cause of induced Power supply failure.
protip: many ppl on this forum are corsair fanboys. pc power and cooling, antec, thermatalke, xclio and many other brands are very high quality at a signifigantly lower price.
Thank you for the helpful replies. So, even with 'only' 4 HDDs I should replace the PSU it seems. I got it in November 2005.
yes, replace it with one of the brands faqman recommended. a quality unit will be able to provide stable power to all components. like sammorris said, poor quality units can go up into flames. if a poor quality unit gives out, it can take out the whole system with it.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine this will figure out if u need to replace it im just putting it out there that there are other good brand than corsair
There are other good brands, but as it happens the VX 450W is probably the best value of all the decent quality units. Oh and XClio power supplies? Not high quality at all. Some Thermaltakes are good, and all of Antec and PCP&C units are good but Xclio are a pretty shoddy company.
Thanks guys. Have ordered an Antec EarthWatts 500w PSU, as some of the other btands mentioned are notas easily available here in Japan. Should keep me going if and when I put a 5th HD inside.
Earthwatts units are alright. I'm not sure I'd want to draw 500W from one, but you're only really drawing 200-300 with your PC I'd expect. (But for the record this does not mean you can get away with a 400W AOpen, there's more to Power supplies than their wattage)
Your PC probably only uses 200W or so when you're gaming, but when you power up a hard disk, for the first few seconds it uses much more power than it does when running (in the same sense as a fluorescent light) so you need a PSU that can withstand the surge. A PC with 4 drives in it will surge around 350W when first powered on - that's a bit close to the bone for a 400W AOpen, especially since they usually go bang after only 200 watts anyway.
No problem. If you're not gaming your PC will use even less, probably around 130-140W, but the surge you get when powering on the PC still applies, obviously.
