Thasp Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 My old machine is as follows: Opteron 165 @2.4-2.7 GHz, 1 gig of ddr500, dfi dagf, a disgustingly cheap graphics card, two NICs, an antec tp 2.0 550 PSU with an extra fan on it, about 9-10 fans in the system, and nine hard drives. I noticed after taking 3 HDs out last night to put in the desktop, I can overclock it like I used to. 2.7 GHz used to be something I could do with my eyes closed with one HD and windows. Before, if I wanted 280 FSB, I'd need the ram below stock to do anything.. and it'd still give a segmentation fault 5 seconds into anything important. Now I can run stuff for hours on end with no segmentation fault, with 3 HDs taken out. I'd have to go down to 260 fsb, and ram way below stock, reboot, and slowly make my way up to 270 fsb and a decent ram speed in the 220s or so. One of the HDs was connected to IDE on the board, the other 2 to a PCI express sata card. I don't think it's a coicidence that right after I take 3 HDs out, things begin magically working correctly. This is a budget board. The vdimm in the BIOS says it goes to 3.2, but it always reverts to 0.4v below what you set if you go over 2.9(you can tell when your CH5 DDR will barely POST, and when it says 2.5 when you set 2.9), it has other quirkiness I'd expect from a DFI budget board, so I was thinking perhaps it was a limitation of the board. However, this PSU I have read also has a weak 5v rail, which is what powers the HDs. It's not a question of cooling. I know HDs make extra heat, but these 3 were in the top of the system, there's more than enough fans. The working 280 FSB was in the closet with the door shut, I have tried on cold days taking the side of the case off and putting a house fan on it, to no avail. I wouldn't want to buy a new PSU to fix it because the system is a ridiculous mess right now, it would take at least two hours to put a new PSU in because the heatsink is too large for me to fit all the HDs/wires around. If I sell a spare TT and the antec, I may have enough for something that isn't garbage, but if the board is still going to limit things I'd like to know ahead of time. Thanks in advance. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branjo Posted April 7, 2007 Posted April 7, 2007 Holy crap Thasp, Im surprised it even boots with that much hardware in it. 9 Hard drives and 9 fans!! Just guessing I would lean towards the PSU being over its peak load, but for a 550w that impressive to say the least. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thasp Posted April 7, 2007 Posted April 7, 2007 It's not the greatest 550 either. I'm thinking of getting it a better PSU.. what exactly do I need for something like this? I don't believe calculators, they say my desktop needs 850 or something and it runs on a turbocool 510 overclocked just fine. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branjo Posted April 7, 2007 Posted April 7, 2007 If its the hard drives that draining the PSU, I always thought the 12v was for the Hard drives, didnt know that. but this ePower one has a big 50Amp on the 5v and 2 x 20 Amp 12v Rails for $55 and all the reviews are good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....And&Order=PRICE Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thasp Posted April 8, 2007 Posted April 8, 2007 Yeah, you're right - I'm wrong, I think 12v is for HDs afterall. I guess any PSU will do then that has a good 12v rail. For the system in question, loudness isn't an issue, so paying extra for seasonic/corsair doesn't seem to make sense here, where it would make sense for my desktop. I'll check a few real review sites for something in the 700 range that's of quality, thanks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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