On Aug 2, 2010, at 8:15 PM, Mark Sokolovsky wrote: > it depends on the amount of wattage your Power Supply Unit in your system can > handle. Typical PSU's have a sticker affixed to one of the sides of the PSU > (Normally from a viewable angle) and should tell you what is the maximum > wattage it can handle. It can also tell you how much volts it can handle. > Having 5 2TB HDD's inside a PM G5 is generally normal for the PSU to handle > since the series of Power Macs you own required more power for the system. 5 > Hard drives all being 3.5 inches in size should have a PSU with at least 550W > of power to ensure safety. Anything 200W-550W is unstable with that many > internal devices built in, because you will never be able to tell when the > PSU will not be able to handle that much power being fed to it anymore. For > safety reasons, both of my PM G4 Sawtooth systems have a 1200W PSU from best > buy. Their form factor was ATX, which fit the machine's socket that supplies > power to the main logic board, so I was able to use them. When buying > computer parts like that, watch out for their price tag. My 2 PSU's cost me > $350 together.
I don't know what the wattage of the G5 power supply is, but I'm sure it's more than adequate for what you're doing with it. 1200w power supply in a Sawtooth is like dropping a Lycoming aircraft engine in a Yugo. Not only is it absolutely ridiculous, but it's pointless as well. 350w will drive a Sawtooth with a hefty upgraded dual CPU, every single expansion slot filled, and 4 hard disks without even breaking a sweat. I have 4 hard drives and 4 PCI cards in mine, and it's the stock 220w power supply. Modern hard disks pull about half the current as hard disks just 5 years ago. They generally have a ramped spin-up so they don't shock the system with a sudden power demand, and their seek power consumption is far below less than half again of their startup current. If you don't have a bunch of expansion cards in the machine, then running 5 hard disks should be a piece of cake on the stock power supply. I should also point out that the power socket on a Sawtooth is NOT a standard ATX socket. While it is physically identical, it has a slightly different wiring layout. See the attached link for how to mod a standard ATX power supply to work in a G4 safely and within spec of the original power supply: http://www.outofspec.com/frankenmac/wire.shtml On another subject......you still have like a 36 point "From Mark's G4 Sawtooth" attached to every message you send. Please either get rid of it, or make it a reasonable size!!! -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
