400W PS Enough? DAW Specs posted...

G

gsrouse

New member
Hello,

I am about to order parts for my first DAW build. At the last minute I decided on a different case (Enermax ICS-443B 4U Rackmount) and I am now picking out a power supply for it. I was looking at either the Zalman 400W PS or an Enermax 470W Noisetaker. The Zalman is of course cheaper and should be more quiet, but Im not sure if 400W would be enough, so I was hoping you all could help.
Here is what I will be powering:

Asus P4P800-E Deluxe MB
Pentium 4 2.8C CPU
1G Corsair DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 7000 Video Card

1X - 80GB HDD
2X - 120GB SATA HDD in a RAID 0 format
1X External FW HDD

1 CD-RW
1 DVD-RW/CD-RW Combo
1 Floppy Drive

----------

I also use a USB MIDI Controller and a Tascam US428 USB Daw Controller and my 1820M audio interface uses one PCI card with the breakout box.
So looking at these specs, can anybody tell me if a 400W PSU is enough? I definitly want some headroom to work with if I add anything in the future.


-Scott
 
Should be fine. A lot of these macho power supplies were intended to support servers with boatloads of co-processors boards. 400 watt should be only mild overkill in a DAW.
 
That's a stonking machine, very similar to the machine I built recently. You won't be disappointed. 400W is heaps.

Good idea having the external FW disk for backup. If either drive fries in your Raid array you lose the lot.

I've found my SATA drives perform fine in a non-Raid setup, but the constraint is cpu. I've got a 2.8C as well & it maxs out at around 20 plugins
 
Other people are telling me 400W would be enough but I had gone to the online power calculator (http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/) and it was showing I needed more than 400W which caused my hesitation. The figure it gives is for all devices running at peak utilization, but I do want to be sure Im safe because I will be using this DAW at remote gigs. Random reboots during a performance would obviously be very bad. Ahh what to do :)

Bulls Hit, Im very happy to hear that you are having success with a similar build! Would you mind posting your specs? You sound confident with a 400W as well. Do you also believe it will leave me ample headroom for future upgrades?

Thanks for your replies!
Scott
 
Sure, here you go
Asus P4P800
P4 2.8c
1Gb Hynix D43 PC3200 ram
2 x 120GB sata Seagate Barracudas
ATI Radeon 9600 128MB 8xAGP
Lite0n dvd +/-R/RW
350W ps
AOC 17" LCD
M-Audio Delta 44

Edit: I come in at 345 W on that calculator. On your setup, with the 3 hard drives plus the firewire plus the extra CD, you'll need more, but I can't see you requiring more than 400W. You won't be using all that at the same time
 
Im now convinced a 470W will be overkill. Thank you all for your input!

BullsHit - Is that strictly an audio computer? It seems like a hefty video card for DAW work. Am I way off on that?


-Scott
 
Yep it's my DAB (digital audio baby), although my son has loaded Warcraft & other stuff on there.

Actually one thing about that video card I just remembered - it's a Gigabyte card and the setup disk had a sticker on it saying that it wouldn't work if the Intel Application Accelleration had been installed and to uninstall that prior to loading the video drivers. It didn't make any difference to me as I hadn't installed IAA - it's one of the utilities that came on the Asus setup disk. Not 100% sure on this but it may be needed for Raid...maybe just check that out before you get the ATI card. Other people have recommended Matrox over ATI - a lot pricier though
 
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