Re: A marginal problem

>> 1) My PSU is 400 Watts.
>>
>> 2) The latest hardware additions have marginal problems. I.e. SEDNA - PCI 
>> Express mSATA III (6G) SSD Adapter with 1 SATA III Port. A) The mSATA III 
>> (6G) SSD is 100% reliable. B) SATA III Port connected to a new SSD is 
>> 100% unreliable.
>>
>> Questions:   1) Could the unreliability be connected to something other 
>> than PSU?
>>                     2) Would a 500W PSU solve the problem, or
>>                     3) Would 600W be a better idea?
>
> A hard drive draws 5W to 12W or so, just a ballpark figure.
>
> A SATA SSD draws 3.5W from the 5V rail.
>
> The SATA controller card, you would allocate 1W for the main chip.
>
> When a controller card has no heatsink on the main chip, the
> main chip is then power constrained and no more than 1 watt or
> 2 watts could be dissipated at a decent range of room temps.
>
> *******
>
> There's nothing wrong with suspecting the 400W supply has a
> defect and must be replaced with another 400W supply. But
> not a lot is to be gained from bumping the power, since
> that just gives more 12V current capability.
>
> Let's draw some pretend Seasonic-brand PSUs...
>
>   3.3V @ 20A  \____ no more than 100W combined \
>    5V  @ 20A  /                                 \___ 460W total max
>   12V  @ 30A        360W                        /
>
>   3.3V @ 20A  \____ no more than 100W combined \
>    5V  @ 20A  /                                 \___ 580W total max
>   12V  @ 40A        480W                        /
>
>   3.3V @ 20A  \____ no more than 100W combined \
>    5V  @ 20A  /                                 \___ 700W total max
>   12V  @ 50A        600W                        /
>
> Every Newegg advert for a PSU, shows a picture of the
> supply label on the side, so you can plot these trends
> for your own self.
>
> The 12V powers a hard drive motor, at maybe 12V @ 0.8A idle spin current.
>
> But we're not particularly gaining on the lower rails,
> because the Seasonics are pretty well all double-conversion
> and use a separate power board for the 3.3V/5V combined supply.
> Any supply with "80+ efficiency" labeling, is double forward
> conversion.
>
> Even if I bought a 1200W modern supply, it would not
> offer enough low-rails power to run my old AthlonXP processor
> and NForce2 chipset. If you need to buy a PSU for an
> antique computer, it's harder to get what you need to
> finish the project.
>
>    Paul

Thanks Paul,

These voltages are from HWMonitor:

Hardware Monitors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware monitor ITE IT87
Voltage 0 1.07 Volts [0x43] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage 1 1.81 Volts [0x71] (DDR)
Voltage 2 2.98 Volts [0xBA] (+3.3V)
Voltage 3 4.70 Volts [0xAF] (+5V)
Voltage 7 12.54 Volts [0xC4] (+12V)
Voltage 8 3.09 Volts [0xC1] (VBAT)

All voltages are below expectations except for DDR (12 GB RAM works good) 
and +12V (there is just one HDD).
Is there an explanation? Is there mitigation?