How Much Power for Serial ATA HD

[LesC]

I am putting together a new system (ABIT IS7 / P4 2.80 DDR Hyper threading CPU / OCZ DDR PC-3500 EL ram - 2x256MB). Am installing a 80G 7200 Seagate Serial ATA drive - Cuda ST380013AS and am having two problems:

1. BIOS frequently looses the SATA HD during post.
2. When it gets past the post, the system frequently dies during Win2K startup. A lot of SATA HD disk activity.

I suspect the issue is an undersized power supply. Its an Allied Power ATX350P4 which is rated at 330W, 350W max.

Question - Does this sound like an under sized power supply? If so, how much wattage is safe to make sure this problem is resolved? (My other thought is that there is an issue wiwth the HD but once I get past the above two problems it seems to work flawlessly.)

Appreciate any comments or leads.

Les

 

[lhgpoobaa]

it might be... but it also could be a slightly touchy drive or loose cables.

The normal way of testing for a substandard PSU is to download a program like Motherboard Monitor and watch the 12v/5v voltages for fluctuation and dips.
these whould allways be within +/- 5%.
Also, is your psu putting out alot of heat? IF so it could also be near its limit, leading to odd behavior at startup when the PSU load peaks.

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