Computer Help Thread

[jGLZa]

Yay, I have another question:

The Story
PSU's. Often neglected (well by me atleast) until they blow up in your face.
So long story short, I need a new one. It will be for the above mentioned server, so it will have a few HDD's in it (3-4).

The Question
What is a good cover all wattage? Im told HDD's dont really pull much power so Im thinking a 390-400w PSu should be fine.
Also what are good brands for PSU's?

Side-question
Any recommendations for cooling in said server box? I assume multiple HDD's can make it hot.

kay, thanks.

[GrahamZA]

Question: Can you please list your PC's full specs? It's a lot easier to see from that what you'll need.

[jGLZa]

kay, off the top of my head...

P4 2.8 ghz
1.5gb RAM (the one before DDR)
6yr old ATi Radeon graphics card
Seagate 2tb SATA2
Samsung 1tb SATA2
Seagate 500gb SATA2
WD 400gb SATA2
WD 70gb IDE (OS -XP)
Samsung 16x DVD writer which pretends to work when it wants to

Is that enough info?

[GrahamZA]

For power supplies I'd looke at a 450W system. with at least a 28A 12V rail. That'll give you what you need.

Stay away from cheap brands. With a PSU you get what you pay for. I'd recommend CoolerMaster, Antec or Corsair. You'll pay a little more for them, but in the end it'll be worth it.

As for cooling I'm pterry happy with a air-flow set-up ie fans.

[jGLZa]

How about You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

AmacroX

? I can get that for under R500. They have a fancy website

Computer Help Thread

[GrahamZA]

How about You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

AmacroX

? I can get that for under R500. They have a fancy website

Computer Help Thread

The reviews don't seem to be very good :( Sounds like they're PSUs that advertise 450W but can never reach that.

[jGLZa]

Coolermaster it is then. Thanks

Computer Help Thread

[GrahamZA]

Coolermaster it is then. Thanks

Computer Help Thread

Good times! I even know the official supplier for it

[jGLZa]

This is pointless post now as I have already paid for it but how are Gigabyte as a laptop brand?
I know they a decent mobo brand but haven't really heard of them as a laptop maker.

[GrahamZA]

They're pretty good, I haven't heard anything bad though. I just don't know what their support is like.

What specs did you get?

[jGLZa]

I wanted something small and portable but not a netbook. Primarily to watch video on.

So I got a 14" i5 430M, 2Gb RAM, 500GB hdd & a nvidia gfx card. At just under R8000 I thought it was a good deal.
Only drawback is that it doesnt have a VGA port, only HDMI.

[GrahamZA]

You're lucky there - all my MacBook has is a fking mini-DP port 

[jGLZa]

So recently one of my harddrives failed, I think - it stopped working and isn't being detected by the OS.

I'm not to fussed about the actual drive, it was really old. I am however concerned about the close to 1TB worth of data on it... the backups of my last two PC's, all my series and most importantly my anime collection.

So can anybody recommend any good data recovery software? Don't really want to lose this data.
Thanks.

[GrahamZA]

First thing: listen to the drive when it's on. If you hear a clicking sound then the head has gone. Nothing will recover that except for a professional data company. Take it out, shake it, if you hear a clicking, then the same thing.

Try this to see if the PC is seeing it:
Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Computer Management
Storage
Disk Management

See if it is in there.

[Cybernet]

The other thing i do is if the drive is still being picked up by bios. Get your self a linux live cd. Boot it and ...these days linux will auto mount the drive for you and check if it picks up. Then copy ur stuff to ur spare HDD. Otherwise u need professional help.
gl