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watts3000
join:2002-01-21

watts3000

Member

do I need a new power supply

Guys as of right now I have 7 hard drives installed in our file server I will be adding 4 more for a total of 11. Right now I'm running an Antec Earthwatts 380 watt power supply btw the cpu that's installed is a core2duo 1.86 and I have no optical drives installed. So my question is do you all think I can pull 4 more drives on this 380 or is it time to upgrade the power supply?

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Juniper SRX320

sk1939

Premium Member

said by watts3000:

Guys as of right now I have 7 hard drives installed in our file server I will be adding 4 more for a total of 11. Right now I'm running an Antec Earthwatts 380 watt power supply btw the cpu that's installed is a core2duo 1.86 and I have no optical drives installed. So my question is do you all think I can pull 4 more drives on this 380 or is it time to upgrade the power supply?

You would be pushing the power supply, depending on how old it is. I would upgrade to at least a 550W unit of quality just to be sure.
Chrno
join:2003-12-11

Chrno to watts3000

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I have the same configuration for my current file server (same PSU). E6300 + 6 HDDs (1 Raptor for the OS) and my UPS is telling me there's a 96w load. If the PSU isn't that old, it shouldn't have any problems with 4 additional drives (if you don't have an add-on GPU).
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

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The only thing that may be an issue is peak current during spin-up at boot. If you're using a hardware RAID controller and there's an option for staggered spin-up on the controller or drives, I'd use it.

If it's an option (probably the easiest: Windows on an admin account), consider undervolting the CPU. In my experience, Intel set the default voltage on those Core 2 chips to way higher than what most of them need to run stably. I messed with a C2D E4500 in my work PC, which I believe defaulted to 1.325v. I got it down to 1.1875v (lowest I could select in software). 1w drop at idle, 7.4w at moderate load (Folding@Home), 15w at extreme load (Linpack), not to mention lower temperatures.
watts3000
join:2002-01-21

watts3000

Member

Thanks for the info the system currently runs a perc5i raid controller but this box will be a dedicated freenas system so that raid controller will be replace with an IBM M1015. Also I'm running the below video card it did not come with on board video.

»www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeFo ··· rce+6200
Chrno
join:2003-12-11

Chrno

Member

In that case, you may need to upgrade the PSU. Something around 500w with a single rail would be ideal.
Morris0
join:2011-05-14

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»www.extreme.outervision. ··· lite.jsp