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powering a 10 CD copy tower

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Thunderchild

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I'm refurbishing a 10 CD copy tower, I've discovered that it can actually host 12 writers and would like to add another two in the process of replacing the existing drives. the power supply is PC sized etc but only provides 12 (20 A) and 5 (18 A) volts with a total output of 320 W

each drive of which there are 11 at present uses 1.5 A of 5 and 12 volts and I'll assume that the controller board also uses 1.5 A

will this power supply be able to manage another 2 CD writers ? at present the voltage is fairly steady at 11.94-12.02 so I'm assuming that if I get another 2 drives and thats too much I'll get either bigger fluctuations of voltage or it will just go into overload protection

if I'd need to replace the power unit to increase its capacity where can I get a power unit from ? unfortunately most PC power supplies are a rip off as no matter how much power they provide thay all put out 20 A at 12 volts, I'm still trying to figure this out as I remember that in the latest update of PSU specs it was realized that most of the PC ran off the 12 volts as CPU's now have onboard SMPS on the motherbaord that run from the 12 V rather than 5 V as before
 
knock knock..

Surely you do know the possibilities of your PSU (320W). Just fit the extra drives and try it, then - fit a bigger ATX supply if required. They're cheap and will fit in..

Regards,
xanadunow
 
well I'm thinking that it will not take another 2 drives as its been worked out pretty precisely. I suppose another power unit is the best idea the problem is finding some dumbo that will actually make a PSU that supplies a bit more than 20 amps at 12 volts, there are power units ranging from 300-500 W that have 20 amps on the 12 volts, the extra power is always stupidly put on the 3.3 and 5 volt rails, so I'm thinking of either adding a second power unit and pliting the drives or using one power unit for the 5 volts and one for 12 volts but then I still have to find a unit that will provide 21+ amps at 12 volts
 
Happy

I am happy with your judgement Thunderchild - you are right.

Regards, xanadunow
 
i have seen a lot of pc power supply that outputs more than 25 amp at 12 volt
check enermax power supply, a lot of them have 30+A at 12 volt
 
Following your last disclosure; being still right (you), my understanding is that, the "label" on the cd writer does state the "worst case". In "real life" it is inconceivable to occure at the same time from all units you do try to power..

Regards,
xanadunow
 
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Following your last disclosure; being still right (you), my understanding is that, the "label" on the cd writer does state the "worst case". In "real life" it is inconceivable to occure at the same time from all units you do try to power..

Regards,
xanadunow

well I hope so I have kept an eye at spinups and thats going to be a worst case scenario, I think it will be fine as I was measuring a new drive versus one of the old ones so I'm looking at what I'm getting not what I'm replacing. I think drives no longer have huge spinup loads as they kick off more slowly and don't peak as much

@ carmusic: it would need to be a cheap supply, what I am also saying is that once cpu's were powered from the 3.3 or 5 volts, then as they got more powerful and it was realized that it would be a good idea to use the 12 volts instead so as to have to carry leass amps to the motherboard. in view of this its not that amusing to see a PSU rated at 300 W with 20 A on the 12 V and a 500 " unit with still 20 A on the 12 V as the extra amperage is put onto the 3.3 and 5 volt rails. thats stupid because processor power consumption is pretty much froze at around 60-80 watts and will not increase the only time it hit 100+ watts was went intel were desperate to out match AMD with their opteron cpu's and they went into scatty mode. likewise for ram and chipsets, what does increase possibly is VGA card which again are starting to take power @ 12 volts and there are people (like me) with several hard disks and again we need 12 volts as much as 5 volts. it don't make sense
 
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Pretty good

You're doing pretty good there Thunderchild; should you run into a trouble with these drives, you could consider switching from SMPT supply onto the traditional one. They are less power effective but reliable and can withstand more - as needed. Nah, you do have it under controll..

Regards,
xanadunow
 
well yes I thought of that at the end of the day I'd need just 5 A @ 12 V to run the 12 V of the 2 eaxtra drives and let the SMPS run the rest, but I think it will cope as at the end of the day this machine was built with 12 writers in mind and it makes sense to use just one model of PSU but like i said I think modern drives are less demanding and control over situations that would cause a spike in consumption
 
photos

I have been wandering in the decission to drop my SLR against my digi 10megapixel (interpolated) Megxon.. I do feel that "to capture the moment" is more important than the technology is.. what is your advice?

Regards,
xanadunow
 
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what exactly do you mean by digi ?, an slr will always give the best quality and but for its bulkiness is as easy to use as a digi infact in difficult situations in which a digi can't cope but you know what your doing its faster to take over the camera yourself in semiautomatic or manual rather than try and get a digi to figure itself out. of course if you problem is size and weight well then perhaps use bot and take the digi when you are not able to lug around an SLR at the end of the day whatever satisfies you
 
Quantum Leap

I do find your statement of the "digi" needing the time to figure itself out as very valid. The "RAW" in digital photography is and will be very expensiwe for a few more years at least - not that it is not present, but because it is so - expensive and a "quantum leap" to all of us but the most wealthy.

Mentioning "interpolated" - I did know the meaning.

You have said pretty much what I did expect to hear and I can only appologise for stepping in with a question not very relevant to your original thread; I felt I could because the original problem did sound, like - it has found it's solution.

Once again, I do value your opinion and do Thank you very much - again.

Regards,
xanadunow
 
theres nothing exspensive in RAW, RAW is not about expense but putting in more time to produce the final image and many a time I have turned a crap shot into a good one simply because the camera did not know how to process that image itself, a lot of people do not realize just how much cameras process the raw information to get a jpg file and if the camera gets it wrong you've lost that second chance. my first camera a Fuji S6500 could do raw if your after something more than a compact chances are you will have the RAW ability on it as manufacturers are becoming more aware that people like to have the option and its not really that much of an extra anyhow as you getting an unprocessed image rather than one thats beed altered according to what someone else and not you thinks is right and then 90 % of valuable image info is dumped as a JPG has a fraction of what the original RAW file had
 
Raw

is to me the ability to capture all there is within the capability of my hardware. For some reason I do feel, you do not see - that it was my understanding.

If analog SLRs do offer the best, which I think they still do, I do not hold a different view from yours.

The RAW statement in the "digi" was only my way to say; that technology does already exist - but is to expensive to an average fellow to capture the "RAW" of the analog SLR.

Regards,
xanadunow
 
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well digital raw is pretty much what film is in a film camera, if your using a film slr and are happy with the results then do use it, film is still a good competitor to digital
 
I

am quite happy with this understanding, thank you Thunderchild

Regards,
xanadunow
 
I started with a film slr, but at the time i was living in Italy and couldn't get lenses and the one I had was bad so to get a better lens I got a digicam which had most DSLR features apart from the Superior quality, having figured out what I wanted and how i wanted to do it I choose a DSLR
 
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