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[divideByZero]

I have an old computer that ive turned into a home server. So far in 2 weeks its killed 2 power supplies. The first one popped b/c the video card was bad. I just came downstairs and noticed the smell of ozone, sure enough it popped sometime this morning. Is 300w not enough? Its an

abit at7-max2
Athlon XP 2100+
1GB pc 2700 ddr
MSI geforce mx4000
1x 80gb hdd
2x 60gb hdd
2x 120gb hdd

are the 5 hdds too much, and overloading it?

[ClearCaseMan]

you would need to sit down and do the math on that setup. but keep one thing in mind the hotter the more power it pulls, so if you are close to your max power output and the drives are hot they pull more power. I have been able to see a big difference in performance on systems where the drives are all bunched together and are really hot opposed to seerating the drives and having good air flow across them.

[Hak Foo]

Is it a decent 300?

[urgannagru]

HDDs do take up a bit of juice. Bad guess math in my head with rounding would put that setup at around 320W, so if the PSU wasn't very good then maybe.

The easiest way to find out would be to take out a couple of drives and see if it helps. That or underclock the system so it uses less power.

[divideByZero]

the psu was an older sparkle 300 (fortron source). I oppened it up and it was charred pretty bad and one of the ic was blistered and cracked by the burned area.

[CptCafne]

HDDs do take up a bit of juice. Bad guess math in my head with rounding would put that setup at around 320W, so if the PSU wasn't very good then maybe.

The easiest way to find out would be to take out a couple of drives and see if it helps. That or underclock the system so it uses less power.

Actually, a PS calculator I use gives that setup a value of 253W, if that helps.  And that was with  2 80mm and 2 120mm fans thrown in to the mix.  Unfortunately, it couldn't tell me the amperage on the 12 and 5 volt rails, which might be another issue you are looking at.

[blafrisch]

It could be one of your components malfunctioning.  My brother's video card blew 12v rails on two PSUs before he figured out it was his card that was the problem.  Luckily the rest of the PSU wasn't dead, but just much more limited in usability.

[MaxamusCrasious]

Actually, a PS calculator I use gives that setup a value of 253W, if that helps.  And that was with  2 80mm and 2 120mm fans thrown in to the mix.  Unfortunately, it couldn't tell me the amperage on the 12 and 5 volt rails, which might be another issue you are looking at.

Don't forget about spin-up demands. Generally when that many hard drives are in a server or external raid the spin up times are staggered by a second or so to prevent the psu from self destructing

[divideByZero]

Don't forget about spin-up demands. Generally when that many hard drives are in a server or external raid the spin up times are staggered by a second or so to prevent the psu from self destructing

I think thats what killed it, since it was comming out of s3 sleep. I can imagine that 5 hard drives all spinning up at the same time would be pretty hard on the system.  The problem is i dont know it the board is dead or what the problem is, I put in another psu and it doesent want to start; well it kindof did but it turned off right away, and then some lights started to flicker.  Stupidass home server, building the fake mac wasnt even this frustrating.

I dont know what im going to do, Ive got a metric assload of ide hdds and another board to hook them all to if this board is dead, but maybe ill just have a massive sale on this stuff.

[MaxamusCrasious]

Sounds like there might be a short somewhere. Between the mobo and case maybe?

You could always use two psu's, one for the HDD's and one for the rest of the system. Just splice the Green wire on the 2nd psu to the Main one along with a ground wire.