Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > General Storage > Do I have enough power for internal HDD and stuff...

Do I have enough power for internal HDD and stuff...

Forum Storage : General Storage - Do I have enough power for internal HDD and stuff...

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knottshawk   08-21-2008 at 04:28:30 AM

My computer: HP a1750e with Athlon 64 x2 3800, 160gb HDD, 2GB ram, 8500GT GPU. Details here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] ct=3369460

My questions:

1) If I need to add storage space, can my current power supply handle another internal HDD? I've already added the GPU so I'm concerned about adding anything else. (the stock power supply is 300 watt)

2) What type of internal HDD would I need? I see a couple of types of SATA drives... how do I know which I'd need?

3) Is there anything I need to know about installing an internal HDD? Or do I just plug it in and boot up?

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br3nd064   08-21-2008 at 07:12:27 PM
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1) IMO, that's pushing it if you add another hard drive. I would look into upgrading it. 400 - 450 watts would be nice.

2) It has support for sata drives (up to 1.5GB/s). What size were you looking for?

3) If it's just going to be a storage drive, then yes, you can usually just plug it in and boot up.

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br3nd064

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knottshawk   08-21-2008 at 08:57:48 PM
- 0 +

I just want like a 500GB HDD.... what type of SATA do i need? Is it the 1.5gb? Or 3 gb?

How do I know what power supply I need? Are they generic? (Sorry... I'm a noob)

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br3nd064   08-21-2008 at 09:37:02 PM
- 0 +

Honestly, you will not see any performance hit if you go with 1.5GB/s vs 3GB/s. Hard drives are not able to transfer data at either of those speeds, so it doesn't matter.

Check out this site for a general idea of what type of power supply you need: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

If you find one that you like at an affordable price, post a link to it here and we should be able to tell you if it's a reliable brand that will work with your computer.

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br3nd064

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knottshawk   08-21-2008 at 09:44:25 PM
- 0 +

Well, the 1.5gb HDD's look to be harder to find and WAY more expensive... so can I use a 3.0GB with my system even though my primary HDD is 1.5gb?

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br3nd064   08-21-2008 at 10:23:28 PM
- 0 +

Yes. Most sata 3gb/s hard drives come with a jumper on them to force them to operate at 1.5gb/s speeds. Unless you remove this jumper, you won't have any problems connecting one to your motherboard.

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br3nd064

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knottshawk   08-21-2008 at 10:33:25 PM
- 0 +

Cool... thanks!

Now I just gotta figure out the whole power supply issue!

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