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sprite · Jun 9, 2006, 08:58 AM

Hi,

I just recently came across an old g4 (450mhz) and was hoping to use it for a file server with raid5. My question, is how many hard drives can I realistically hope to put in this machine? The power supply is only 237watts, which may be an issue. Because of this, I've removed the DVD drive and the zip drive (should save at least some power). Do you think it'll be ok to have 4-5 drives (including the system drive)?

DrBoar · Jun 9, 2006, 09:32 AM

Yes, people have been running up to 6 drives in them, there is a power surge when the disks spin up to speed but then they do not use that much power A Samsung 120 GB drive can max out at 31W at startup but then under use it is less than 10W. So even 5 drives should be OK, unless you want to have 15K Cheeta drivers that probably need a lot to spin up.

sprite · Jun 9, 2006, 10:09 AM

Is there any relationship between the size of the drive and the power it consumes, or is it mostly based upon the rpm's of the drive?

tooki · Jun 9, 2006, 12:22 PM

Essentially no. The RPM and number of platters would make some difference. Just check the drive specs.

tooki

SSharon · Jun 9, 2006, 03:06 PM

Is it worth putting in a low power video card as well? Going from an agp card to a pci based one (if that does actually save power, I'm not sure).

tooki · Jun 9, 2006, 03:39 PM

I wouldn't think so.

tooki

OreoCookie · Jun 9, 2006, 04:02 PM

I don't think so either. Unless you already have upgraded to a really power-hungry graphics card.

spittingangels · Jun 9, 2006, 04:03 PM

I'm running a Sawtooth G4 with 5 hard drives and the optical drive, the video card, an IDE card, SCSI card and a video I/O - and it hums along just fine on the stock power supply. I have upgraded the processor to 1.8Ghz as well. The thing you DO need to worry about is heat, so make sure your fans are doing their jobs, or leave the case open if you have the space to do so.

Oh, and adding those extra drives sure made the whole thing heavier too.

That is what makes these things so nice compared to the G5's; you can have so many drives.

sprite · Jun 10, 2006, 11:17 AM

Where you be the best place to add fans to the case, and how much power do the fans consume?

bowwowman · Jun 10, 2006, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by danderso

Where you be the best place to add fans to the case, and how much power do the fans consume?

some ambitous modders have been known to add fans to the top, bottom and sides of G4 cases.

Also well documented is A) replacement of the stock case fan with one that has a higher cfm and lower noise level, and/or B) the removal of most of the metal fan guards around the PSU intake & exhaust areas.

Just be sure you dont have alot of loose cabling hanging about........

excellent quality fans of the types needed for these mods are readily available at any peecee shop on & offline, and are very reasonably priced ($10-30)

most fans of these type only use a few watts at most

bowwowman · Jun 10, 2006, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by SSharon

Is it worth putting in a low power video card as well? Going from an agp card to a pci based one (if that does actually save power, I'm not sure).

If the machine has one of those super high-power/dual-head/overclocked monsters that have to be connected directly to the PSU, going down to say a Radeon 9200/7000 pci or Rage 128 WOULD yield a significant power savings...

otherwise notta