Retro Rig PSU

[MBtomsCiry]

I am building a system based around an old Dell Precision 450. It has two P4 based Prestonia Xeon processors in SMP running at 3.066 Ghz with HT. I have inserted an old AGP Nvidia 6800GS. Since the system lacks on board sound, I am also installing an obsolete Creative Labs Creative SB Live! sound card. I would also like to run a 40GB and a 75GB 5400rpm IDE drive, as well as two CD-R/W drives (also IDE). Audio output will be supplied by leftover USB headphones. The system also has a floppy drive that it came with. I have not yet removed it to examine it and so cannot provide an exact type.

My question is this - is the 360W power supply that the computer came with sufficient to run the system described above?

As this project is purely for my own amusement and is constructed entirely out of parts I have lying around, I am unwilling to spend any real money on this system. I do, however, have an old 450 W power supply that I have wired to turn on without being connected to a MOBO. I could use this to power some components. I understand the graphics card is likely to be the biggest power hog (besides the space heaters they call P4 Xeons). Having said that, if more power is required, which components would be best to run off a separate PSU? Please understand that I would prefer that it be secondary components if possible (Secondary HDD, CD-R/Ws, etc).

This computer has a very uniquely shaped PSU, so simply upgrading or replacing the primary PSU is NOT AN OPTION. If a secondary PSU is used, it will reside outside of the case so additional heat will not be a concern. Please undertand that I am fully aware of the limitations of this system; it is a for fun project only.

Thanks very much for your help and sorry for the novel-length post!

Ciry

 

[Outlander_04]

it has two physical processors on an ATX or BTX board? Or a single dual core XEON that hyperthreads? .
I suspect the later.

If its a single processor then I think you have a chance to run it on the internal psu . Overclocking would not be wise though .

Have fun setting up the IDE cables . Masters at the end , slaves in the middle

 

[MBtomsCiry]

It has two physical processors in SMP (symetric multiprocessing) with four logical cores visible to the OS as a result of HT. The board itself does not permit a reasonable overclock, which is not a problem considering the heat those old P4s put out is a major drawback to OCing. Each Prestonia core is a single core processor. There is no such thing as a dual core Prestonia to my knowledge. Sorry if I was unclear.

All components are hooked up correctly. I have made quite a few retro systems in the past. Besides, who can forget how to hook up those ungainly things that never quite look nice no matter how hard you try? (IDE Cables) I am proficient in standard builds, but this is only my second SMP build and my first using the P4 based Xeon space heater.

I am really concerned with the difficulties of supplying power to such a system, given Dell's unusual power supply shape for this system does not permit me to upgrade the PSU with spare parts.

Sorry if my previous post was unclear, and thanks very much for the reply! Any advice you could give me on powering this abomination would be much appreciated

 

[Outlander_04]

Your POST was clear , but I just didnt know the hardware well enough .

When you get to Intels dual core prescotts they still had TDP's of around 125 watts [ from memory ] . The power usage was high relative to the amount of actual processing done , but the thermal envelopes not too dissimilar to a quadcore Core 2 duo .
I think you wont run it on the internal psu . The graphics card will push you over the rated wattage .
I have never set up a comp with two psu's , but if I was setting this up Id run the mb/processors from the internal psu , and the graphics and everything else from the external psu .
but I have no idea how you boot it . Probably haiving the hard rives and graphics powered on first and then boot?