power supply and second hard drive

[achn2b]

would a 200 watt power supply be enough to handle a second hard drive, in addition to the existing hard drive, dvd-rom and cd-rw, various cards etc? running windows98

[doctorgonzo]

200W is on the low side. I would get at least a quality 300W PSU.

[Cricket]

What are the complete specs of the system? Is it a name brand computer or a home built?

Yeah, 200 watts is pretty low for a modern system (will run a older Pentium system though). You'll want at least a good quality 300 watt PSU.

:) Cricket

[achn2b]

it's a dell XpsT, pentium III 500. 128mb's of ram. yes, it's pretty old, but i really can't afford a new pc at this time. i just want the added hard drive for storage of audio and video/photo files to get me by until i can get a new system.

so can i get by with this, or should i get a new power supply? and what do i need to know to get one that will work in this system, or will pretty much anything work? any recommendations?

[Cricket]

I would install the second hard drive in the system and see how it does. DELL uses high quality power supplies in their computers and it should be able to handle one more hard drive.

:) Cricket

[achn2b]

cool, cause i'm not working right now, and don't really want to have to upgrade everything.

[Beatdis]

Look get the biggest power supply you can afford, then later on you can upgrade your pc without having to worry.
I have a 550 watts q tec power supply and it powers all this.
One phillips Dvd rewriter
One liteon 52 33 52 rewriter
One liteon 40 12 48 rewriter
160 gig maxster
80 gig seagate barracuda
40 gig seagate barracuda
20 gig weastern digital
g force 4 mx
Soundblaster platinum 5.1 with breakout box
audio delta 1010 soundcard
cable card
And it plays with them, i got two sets of 3 hard drive adapters
and two small ones for the floppies.
So loads more rooms for pare drives later on
Darren

[imbest123]

Originally posted by Beatdis
Look get the biggest power supply you can afford, then later on you can upgrade your pc without having to worry.
I have a 550 watts q tec power supply and it powers all this.
One phillips Dvd rewriter
One liteon 52 33 52 rewriter
One liteon 40 12 48 rewriter
160 gig maxster
80 gig seagate barracuda
40 gig seagate barracuda
20 gig weastern digital
g force 4 mx
Soundblaster platinum 5.1 with breakout box
audio delta 1010 soundcard
cable card
And it plays with them, i got two sets of 3 hard drive adapters
and two small ones for the floppies.
So lads more rooms for pare drives later on
Darren
Nononononono. Its not the size of the psu that matters, its the quality. A cheap 550W psu can be outperformed by a good 450W psu. I dont think ull need to, but if you do buy another psu make sure its made by Sparkel, Antec, Enlight, or, my favorite, Enermax.

[morriswindgate]

With the dell PSU you should be OK since the second hard drive will only use power when it is accessed.

Beatdis - Just because the Power supply is a 550Watt does not mean it can handle all of the stuff you have, Watts are power consumed and not the load the PSU will carry. Amperage is the ability to take a load and on many of the lower end High wattage power supplies this will be really low. For instance a Powmax 550 wat unit has an Amp rating on the 12volt bus of 18 amps, a Sparkle OEM unit at the same watt rating has 36 amps available on the 12 volt bus, but it is 36 bucks more. As with everything you get what you pay for and sometimes when you think that you are getting a good deal you end up paying more in the long run.

[achn2b]

did you miss the part where i said i'm out of work? the largest power supply that i can afford is the one that's currently in my dell. that's why i don't want to upgrade it if i don't have to.

[imbest123]

Originally posted by achn2b
did you miss the part where i said i'm out of work? the largest power supply that i can afford is the one that's currently in my dell. that's why i don't want to upgrade it if i don't have to.
Sorry I know you werent going to buy another one but it wa just a suggestion. Your dell psu should be fine.

[oMegaMan]

My machine runs following:

PIII 500,
512 mb SDRAM
2 HDD (80g WD + 120g Seagate),
2 Atapi units (1 cd burner + 1 dvd player)
Voodoo III graphic card
Floppy, cordless mouse

...all depending on a 200 W PSU

[thorlo6]

achn2b please accept this apology as being from most of the PCMechers. Most of the time the guys are real good about being polite, but when you get us started talking about hardware, "Katy Bar the door!" If nobody agrees with me on the apology, then accept it from me. I know what it's like to be out of a job with little to no money coming in. that psu should do the job fine. thorlo6

[achn2b]

no biggie. i took no offense, but since i'm a sarcastic wise-ass, i had to reply. ;)