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Offline ReflexTopic starter

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ATX power supply, What size?
« on: August 21, 2011, 02:44:20 PM »
Hello, I'm experiencing problem with my power supply once again.
It's broken though I changed it only a few mopnths ago, I'm beginning to think that is'a a problem of power consumption.
In you opinion what size should be my next power supply?
this is my configuration:

A) Boards
- Amiga 4000D Motherboard
- CyberstormPPC 060/66mhz - 604e/200 Mhz 128 MB ram
- Mediator 4000D Busboard and bridgeboard
- Picasso IV
- Fastlane Scsi
- Delfina Lite
- Voodoo 3 16 mb PCI
- RTL 8139 Ethernet PCI

B) SCSI Peripherals
- Quantum Atlas 9 8 GB SCSI3
- Fujitsu 68 GB SCSI3
- internal Iomega ZIP 100MB
- Internal Iomega Jaz 2GB
- DVD-Rom Pioneer
- Cd-Burner Yamaha 6x4x24

C) Ide peripheral
- hard Disk Maxtor 3,5" 20 GB
- Compact flash Adapter with 4GB CF (removable)

D) Other
- Original Amiga Floppy Drive
- one 5cm Fan with led

What do you think? How many watts Do I need?
 

Offline dreamcast270mhz

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2011, 03:09:23 PM »
At least 300 Watts
My machines:
PowerMac G4 MDD 1.5ghz 1.25GB 10.5.8 & MOS 2.7
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MacBook Retina 16GB 256GB SSD 10.8
iPad 2
Underground Gamer invites (a classic game site) PM

Need a part for a PC or Mac? PM me, I\'ll let you know if I come across it.

OS X trumps Windows on every level.

MorphOS, OS4 and Classic Amiga systems are the only ones who are real \'Amigas\', not that joke AROS or Amiga Forever.
 

Offline mechy

Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2011, 03:39:24 PM »
Don't go by watts alone, this does not tell much. you need to look at the break down of the power rails.you can usually find the website of the mfg and check there.Specifically +5v,which is where you want as many amps as you can get.You also need to look if this rail is shared with others,this will cut down on the rating. A power supply with "seperate" rails for each voltage(at least +5 and +12) would be better.stay away from the cheaper chinese psu's,most are junk, i think i have been thru most of them and they make it a year or so on the good side,some have filtering so bad they can cause crashes and other odd behavior. I would suggest you check out some of antec's offerings. they seem to make a reasonable psu(although they do have a bottom end line too).  There is no such thing as too many watts though,and basically you can put the biggest rated psu you can afford in it.The A4000 will only take what it needs.  

Mech
 

Offline Piru

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2011, 03:59:34 PM »
Quote from: mechy;655587
There is no such thing as too many watts though,and basically you can put the biggest rated psu you can afford in it.The A4000 will only take what it needs.

That is a misguided advice. PSU energy efficiency is much worse with small loads. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)#Energy_efficiency
 

Offline ReflexTopic starter

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2011, 04:04:38 PM »
well I think that the starting point is the natural consumption of my configuration in order to find the optimal power I need. then I can investigate about the power rails.

As I'm quite ignorant in this subject I think that I have to approach the situation this way.

Ebay links even in private email are welcome :)
 

Offline mechy

Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2011, 04:15:00 PM »
Quote from: Piru;655595
That is a misguided advice. PSU energy efficiency is much worse with small loads. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)#Energy_efficiency

Technically yes but its a bit hard for him or anyone to calculate the exact load(especially breaking it down to what rail draws what)- checking total watts doesn't tell much. Also not all power supplies are inefficient at what you call small loads(how do you know what his exact load is? he doesn't say.). i have a similar setup as he does with csppc and mediator and i can tell you it really taxes the +5 rail.
I seriously doubt most users will take the time to check exact amp draw on +5,+12,-12 etc. I also doubt he is worried about overall power factor and efficiency.If he was he wouldn't be running a old A4000 right?
Feel free to advise him but i suspect you don't have a much better guess than i do with the information provided.

Mech
 

Offline Shoonay

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2011, 04:30:34 PM »
I know you definitely shouldn't use TakeMe: http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic1983518.html

Or any other cheap PSU: http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic1199271.html
 

Offline Piru

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2011, 04:32:33 PM »
Quote from: Reflex;655573
How many watts Do I need?
300W will be more than enough. It's a common mistake to get a PSU with huge wattage when you don't really need it, so try to avoid that.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2011, 04:35:38 PM by Piru »
 

Offline ReflexTopic starter

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2011, 04:01:19 PM »
Quote from: Piru;655600
300W will be more than enough. It's a common mistake to get a PSU with huge wattage when you don't really need it, so try to avoid that.


well the power supply that I have now is 240 watt...
moreover I made a fast simulation on a internet site that provided some kind of evaluation and it told me that my configuration has an estimated consumption of 435 Watt

So I think that I'll go for 600 Watt, taking a cheap power supply for now.
 

Offline Piru

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2011, 04:08:58 PM »
Quote from: Reflex;655723
well the power supply that I have now is 240 watt...
moreover I made a fast simulation on a internet site that provided some kind of evaluation and it told me that my configuration has an estimated consumption of 435 Watt
That's completely off the mark. Which site was it?

Quote
So I think that I'll go for 600 Watt, taking a cheap power supply for now.
Total overkill if you ask me. It'd be much more sensible to get a good quality 300-400W one.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2011, 04:11:08 PM by Piru »
 

Offline mechy

Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2011, 04:15:21 PM »
Quote from: Reflex;655723
well the power supply that I have now is 240 watt...
moreover I made a fast simulation on a internet site that provided some kind of evaluation and it told me that my configuration has an estimated consumption of 435 Watt

So I think that I'll go for 600 Watt, taking a cheap power supply for now.

Well i have to agree with piru this time(did i say that??)that 600w is probably way overkill, for example,i picked up a high quality 380 watt for my 4000 mediator setup which is completely loaded with cards.. spend the money on quality. again wattage doesn't tell the whole story.

mech
 

Offline ReflexTopic starter

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2011, 05:01:44 PM »
Quote from: mechy;655726
Well i have to agree with piru this time(did i say that??)that 600w is probably way overkill, for example,i picked up a high quality 380 watt for my 4000 mediator setup which is completely loaded with cards.. spend the money on quality. again wattage doesn't tell the whole story.

mech


well, now I'll spend some money to send the Motherboard to the Amiga Repair Center to solve some minor issues, I'll buy amigaOS 4.1 and the Radeon 9200 (if someone sells one them send me an email!), so I can't afford 60-100 euros for a quality power supply, I'll buy a powerful one thinking to change it next year.

anyway it was a service like this: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/index.jsp
remember that I have A LOT of 3,5" devices!
 

Offline Piru

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2011, 05:13:42 PM »
Quote from: Reflex;655730
anyway it was a service like this: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/index.jsp
remember that I have A LOT of 3,5" devices!

Not really. I ran 6 3.5" HDDs, ZIP-100 drive and a CD-RW with a 300W PSU.
 

Offline ReflexTopic starter

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2011, 05:16:47 PM »
I made another simulation and it tells me that for a 100% load I need a 667 mhz power supply O____O

Ok I'll go for a 800 Watt power supply :D
 

Offline ReflexTopic starter

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Re: ATX power supply, What size?
« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2011, 05:23:01 PM »
Quote from: Piru;655731
Not really. I ran 6 3.5" HDDs, ZIP-100 drive and a CD-RW with a 300W PSU.


it's quite the same than mine.
But what about Zorro3 and PCI Card?
CSPPC?

I think that the PPC, being a dual CPU board, is very power hungry