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I have joined 4 CD writers and 3 SATA HArd drives with 400W power suppy.

Is there any limit on number of devices i can use with power supply

IF i join all devices then after window starts then i get blue screen and window re start again If i remove two CD drives then it starts ok

My Hard drives are very hot as well if i touch them. IS that normal or i am with drawing more power

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3 Answers

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Honestly, odds are you are over-working your Power Supply, you can add a secondary power supply, they do make them for supporting Power Hungry video cards especially. If I had to guess you are also in a case without enough ventilation for your needs. I'd suggest getting a FULL ATX case, and at least a 650W PSU. You can do this for well under $200 at newegg. Also, it's best to give yourself about 25% headroom on your PSU, as running full bore will likely cause similar issues. The most I would suggest running on a 400W PSU is 6 drives, and that's ONLY IF you are running onboard video, and a reasonably light CPU and Chipset.

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Are all power suppliers standard , i mean can i just remove old one and put new one there – Mirage Jan 18 '10 at 0:29
Yah, I would just recommend buying a bigger quality power supply. Most computers use standard ATX power supplies. However, if you have a pre built dell/hp/etc, it might use a non-standard one. Is your computer a custom built or pre-built? – Troggy♦ Jan 18 '10 at 0:46
My computer was custom build quad core,Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX2. I am also thinking of getting Thermaltel Armor+ case shopper.cnet.com/cases/thermaltake-armor-vh6000bws-full/… So that i can attach 7 cd writers .Will that work with current MB and cpu – Mirage Jan 18 '10 at 1:20
@Mirage - Well, as far as current MB and CPU, should be fine, you may need an additional SATA controller for the extra drives, and you will probably need a larger power supply, if you aren't running at least a 700W unit. – tracker1 Feb 16 '10 at 21:22
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There is a limit - each item you connect will have its own power needs. However, the amount required (particularly for processors and graphics cards) will vary very widely depending on what you have, so there's no easy way of saying how much you need without much more specifics on the hardware involved. From personal experience, 400W is more than enough for most home users who only have one or two hard disks and CD drives. But a top graphics card or processor will devour that easily - many graphics cards recommend a minimum of 450W power supply on the PC. And the some quad-core intel chips can devour 300W by themselves at maximum load. A hard disk might take 15W, a CD drive possibly 25W. So already you've committed yourself to 145W without looking at the two most hungry components. Ditch at least 2 of the CD drives - 4 writers is excessive and I doubt will give you any boost over 2 because of other system bottlenecks.

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Is there any way to suppy external power supply to those CD writers rather than chnaging power supply in the system. I really need all those writers – Mirage Jan 17 '10 at 23:07
I guess if you had a spare power supply lying around you could leave it outside the case and plug the CD writers into it with a bit of effort. I can't imagine why you need four writers plugged in at once, though. – CodeByMoonlight Jan 17 '10 at 23:38
I tried using spare power supply but i think then i needed to attach wire to some sprae motherboard as well . PS does not give power to CDs attaches untless mother board wires are also attached I need to burn many dcs at once so i need them – Mirage Jan 17 '10 at 23:53
Well, the CD writers would still need to be connected to the original motherboard but I'd be surprised if the secondary power supply needed to be. But if that doesn't work you're limited to either a new power supply or less writers. – CodeByMoonlight Jan 18 '10 at 0:13
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The number of hard drives and CD writers that you can add really depends on what other components you have in your computer.

Of course, there is a limit on how many components will run off of a power supply. 400W is very standard and only really designed to cope with a couple of hard drives and a couple of opticals drives at best, if that.

You could use a free online tool such as this power supply calculator at newegg to get a rough estimation of how much power your computer would be drawing with everything plugged in. I would then advise that you replace your PSU (power supply unit) with a higher rated wattage. Of course, this tool is one of many and I would look around first before committing to buying anything.

Hard drives do tend to get very hot, to the point that they burn your fingers - this is pretty normal. Apart from the fact they are busy working away which heats them up, it is also due to lack of ventilation within the computer case as the case fans are not always right next to the hard drives to adequately cool them down.

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