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View Full Version : Harddrive limitations: consequences?

.:ZRDwD:.
11-07-2004, 09:35 PM
ey folks. I have an issue here and am hoping I can get as many reponses as possible before November 13th. Here are some critical stats before I tell you the issue:

Intel Mobo D850GB P4 1.9GHz
1024MB Rambus RAM PC 800
Radeon 7200 vid card
Fortissimo II snd card
14-55-80-200GB 7200RPM HDs
*one set connected directly to mobo, the other set connected via SCSI controller*
CD Rom 52X
DVD Burner 8X
400W Aluminum PS(or 450, can't read it without yanking it)

I'm hoping that's sufficient for the internals.

Issue: I have just come back from buying a 200GB external for my backups, and a 250GB internal for dirt cheap. I want to take advantage of this sale and buy 3 more 250s. With the info I have given, WHAT WILL HAPPEN, if anything, if I load a terabyte into this system and replace the four internals I already have in there? I do not wish to box the TB and network it to comp in use. I wasn't sure if these drives will become processor and power hungry. Cooling it down is not a prob, but I don't want to overexhert critical parts to the point where the system is running at a slow pace. Currently, I'm getting that when playing audio or video (choppy or electronically stuttering).
I'll be placing XP Pro on two drives: one for main boot, internet access, and downloads--and the other boot drive will be access to my editing "toys", without internet access, and the unnecessary elements (ie: messengers, games, etc) disabeled via Registry so I have very very little running in the background so I can have as much processor space for the creations of what I will be doing (no more than two applications running at a time, such as Photoshop and AfterEffects or Poser and Pinnacle Liquid to name a few). The two slaves will be portfolio storage. The 200 external I'll backup key folders and/or drives.

Free imaginary ice cream of your choice for helping me out here! :applause:
Thanks in advance!

*note* I read a post by Ice Czar about Power Supplies that was quite technical and hard to comprehend. So, I visited some links he had. It seems that I may have a power supply issue if I do place the drives on here. This will mean that I am having to tear apart my system and find out every little spec on them to make sure my power supply can handle it. This also means I'm going to have to do it before placing the new 250 in here.

Good lord... is this what I do when I don't sleep for more than 48 hours?
.:ZRDwD:.
11-08-2004, 02:53 PM
I give credit where credit's due.
Here's the link to Ice Czar's sticky post about hard drives and power limitations with links that helped me out tremedously:

http://cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=126579
lots
11-09-2004, 02:13 PM
I run 5 hard drives in my system. On a 350 watt PSU.

Everything's fine on my end ;P
.:ZRDwD:.
11-09-2004, 06:00 PM
What sizes do you have?

I could add another SCSI, but I want to free up a PCI slot for a USB2 card. The external HDD I got is running pathetically slow on the 1.1 line. I believe I'm just going to go ahead and throw the 250 inside and hold in the vomit. So, then I'll have the 55>200 and the 80>250. I'll keep the 14 on the sideline. But, it sure would be nice to have 4-250s. But, I can live with what I have on hand. It won't take any time for me to fill the large drives, perhaps a little over 8 months. Just gotta burn alot disks for finished projects, is all.
lots
11-09-2004, 07:09 PM
What does hard drive size have to do with how much wattage they need? :P Nothing really.

But here are my hard drive sizes anyway:

60 GB @ 7200 rpm
80 GB @ 7200 rpm
100 GB @ 7200 rpm
100 GB @ 7200 rpm
200 GB @ 7200 rpm

and 2 CD drives
Thorlyn
11-09-2004, 07:23 PM
I have a Dual Xeon 2.4 with 5 HDD's (1x80gb + 4x200gb) Geforce4 Ti4200, CDROM, DVD burner, 4 pci cards, and 12 fans.

All running off a 380w power supply, works fine. two of the hard drives are sitting in a loose cage since there really isnt enough internal room for all that but it has worked great for almost a year and a half.

You really dont need as much wattage as you would think. I would only recomend getting over 400 if you have one of the newer power hungry video cards. even then I dont think you would need it but I acknowlage that you might.
.:ZRDwD:.
11-09-2004, 07:58 PM
Lots:
It's not the wattage that concerns me. It's the Power Supply's handling of DC output Voltage & Max Load, and Line & Load Regulations. I've been getting hold of Maxtor for more drive specs for their Ultra class for such information, but to no avail. I assumed that the larger the drive gets (and what ever little changes occur to such, as RPM) the more power it'll eat up, DC wise, not necessarily watts. But, if Thorlyn has a nice monster as he had mentioned, I shouldn't really have a problem. But, always safe than sorry, you know? I don't even know what the other specs for his 380W are. It may be close to mine on the wattage-end, but his DC handling may be phenomenally better than my 400W.
lots
11-09-2004, 10:45 PM
Lots:
It's not the wattage that concerns me. It's the Power Supply's handling of DC output Voltage & Max Load, and Line & Load Regulations. I've been getting hold of Maxtor for more drive specs for their Ultra class for such information, but to no avail. I assumed that the larger the drive gets (and what ever little changes occur to such, as RPM) the more power it'll eat up, DC wise, not necessarily watts. But, if Thorlyn has a nice monster as he had mentioned, I shouldn't really have a problem. But, always safe than sorry, you know? I don't even know what the other specs for his 380W are. It may be close to mine on the wattage-end, but his DC handling may be phenomenally better than my 400W.
Well, again hard drive size has little to do with how much wattage, voltage, or current is needed to spin the caviar and run the read/write heads. Remember that voltage = current x resistance, and watts = voltage^2/resistance, so, watts does have something to do with it. I do understand what you're getting at though. You are trying to say that you're concerned that the load on the "rails" will be too much, which at that point maybe you should look at the spec for your PSU. But this has more to do with quantity of drives rather than the ammount of data they can hold ;)
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