Just a quick question about my PowerMac G4.

[Joshh1]

Hi guys, I just have a question regarding PSU's

I just got a PowerMac G4 Digital Audio (533mhz)

I've put a 2nd hard drive in for storage, I've also purchased a ATi Radeon 9800 which I was recommended on here, I wanted to just make sure that my PSU will hold up with the 4 drives (CD R/w, ZIP, 2 HD's) and now the radeon.


Sorry for the stupid question, just wanted to make sure.


Thanks!

 

[G5power]

I don't think that two hard drives, the optical drive and zip drive are going to be to much for the G4 DA.

However if you are concerned with the new video card, you can always unplug the power to the zip drive. (That is assuming that like most people you no longer use the zip drive).

If you haven't recently checked, you might make sure that the fans and vents on the power supply are free of dust bunnies that would limit the air flow.

 

[Joshh1]

Yeah I don't use the Zip Drive, so I might just do that. If I run into any problems.

PSU fan is all clean and fine.

Thanks.

 

[zmttoxics]

Shouldn't be an issue. Your average harddrive uses around 3watts plus or minus a few. The cdrom and zip drive will use almost nothing unless under use and again, not much. Ram uses around 1.5 watts a stick. Your cpu however uses around 65 watts (I couldn't find the exact ratings, based that off of the mobile g4s).

Video cards however will use 60 watts and up (some way way up ). The 9800 (depending on the version) may require an external power connector, and could use up to 80 watts (I think - for the pro version anyways).

I did a quick search, and the lowest power supply I saw specked for a G4 was 200 watts. So if you do the math, thats 65 + 80 + 10 (all of your drives assuming load) + 3 (ram), which is about 158 watts. You are almost pushing it, but it should be fine, and remember, thats full load worst case scenario.

Good luck on the upgrade!

 

[Joshh1]

I didn't get the pro, at least I don't think, and It does require power..
Thanks for the information, if I have too, I'll just unplug the zip drive.

Thanks you

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Nottaproblemo

In my QS, I have 4 HD's (2 of which are Raptor 10k's), DVD-RW, Zip, Radeon 9800Pro (requires extra power) 3 pci cards, 1.5GB ram, 2 extra fans, AND a 1.6ghz upgrade card that also requires extra juice......been runnin just fine for several years now

and BTW, according to MacTracker, the DA's had 338w psu's, it was the Gigabits that came with 200w's.........

 

[Joshh1]

Awesome!

I'm just planning on a few other upgrades..Dvd- R/w, a USB 2.0 PCI card and and 2 sticks or ram leaving me at about 1.5 GB's which doesn't seem like it will take to much more power from me.

This is my main computer as of now, Until I can get a notebook.. (School) so I just wanted to make sure It's gonna be alright.

Thanks guys, you've been a ton of help!