[mythtv-users] Backend hardware advice - Power usage - RESULTS

[David Rees]

On 8/4/06, dave johnson <DJ4904 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately, a 330w drive will not cut it on spin up (I tried)...
> the first few times it attempted to work, and the drives began making
>  horrible noises, or simply would continue to spin up and down in
> various chaotic rates.  This was with an Enermax 350.  The reason for
>  2 power supplies ?  They were free, and it worked.  A friend has a
> Raidmax 650 that I am going to try sometime and see if it 1) has
> enough juice to run the whole wad, and 2) consumes any less power.

Use the Kill-a-Watt to see how much power your system pulls on
startup, then you'll probably want to add 50w for some headroom. You
probably need at least a 400w PSU with all those drives.

I don't know anything about the Raidmax PSUs, but unless it says it's
80+ certifified, it's efficiency will likely be in the 50-70% range
and not save you much if any power over the dual 250 PSU setup you
have now. But at least it can't hurt to try. :) I'm a big fan of
Seasonic PSUs. They are quiet, efficient and powerful.

> Since I have to build a system at work for a drive duplicating
> station, I think I am going to pick up one of the $150 complete Goede
>  systems from Fry's they keep advertizing and see how it fares in my
> "filer"... it may be worth the lower power consumption.  If it
> doesn't work well in the filer, or does reduce power consumption a
> whole lot... off to work it goes :)

I was tempted to use a Geode in my Myth system, but ended up with a
Sempron 3000. It pulls 74w idle w/CnQ on with a GeForce FX 5200
(~10w), 2 PVR250s (~12-13w/ea) and a Seagate 7200.9 250gb drive (~7w)
so that puts the bare system at appx 30-35w.

I would like to get the system down to 50w idle, does anyone know of a
decent VGA -> RCA or S-Video converter that would let me use the
onboard video?

Anyone measure the power draw of the newer PVR150s or PVR500?

-Dave