6 Hard drives One Sparkle/Fortron 400w = The limit, open to read story

So 18 months ago I set forth to build a monster.

12 months in, it had 8 fans, 6 hard drives (removed cd to save juice) FX5600, 256mb video card, AMD 1900+ and a gig if DDR ram.

It is used as a file/video server.

I start to run out of room and have already yanked any drive under 40 gig and replaced it with 80's So I try to add one more drive and POOF wont boot.

I cut the fans back and it will boot but computer gets flacky. I guess 6 is the max for this FSP400w PSU.

Now my options are add in a 2nd PSU with a remote power trigger. So when the main unit comes on it will fire up the 2nd unit and power up the drives. This would require re-working the back panel of the case. (not a big deal as this is a 30" tall server tower) Or just toss the 400 and buy a bigger PSU.

I can't make up my own mind. The modder in me says to get the saw, the cutters and the soldering iron and get to work. The pocket book says the same.

But the realistic side says, to just sell the fortron for a couple of bucks and buy a decent 520 or larger PSU. This rig needs to run 24/7 to upload and download torrents as well as supply me with my daily fix of TV. (The reason for the good video card is to stream S-Video to my TV, I rarely watch live TV I record or download what I want and watch it when I have time)


So what do you guys think.


"Arsino Hall Moment Here"

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmm!!!

(must be close to 30 to get that last comment)

If you add the second PSU, you will be spending money on that. If you sell the Fortron, the new PSU won't cost that much, so that's what I'd go for.