thx guys - was hoping to learn how much my PC draws as configured from the factory - either by Dell or from someone "in the know" because I may not need to upgrade my PSU Turns out I'm going to keep the 305W PSU for now and see what happens. Thanks for all the feedback - now if I can only figure out how to set up RAID1
Amazon has <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VVVNNQ?ie=UTF8&tag=source141-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000VVVNNQ">PC Power and Cooling S75CF Silencer 750W Quad Power Supply</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=source141-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000VVVNNQ" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> on sale right now. This power supply should be enough for your needs, and if you were ever to upgrade to a more wattage monster of a computer this will still be able to handle it.
I got a 500W PSU last night for $35 at Micro Center. All set now. THX... on to trying to set up RAID1 now
you might want to be careful with switching a dell power supply away from a dell motherboard. at one point in time it wasn't a standard connection and mixing it up would fry either the motherboard or the power supply. i'm not sure if things have changed recently, but you should double check.
Tums, still trying to figure that out. this is a dual purpose station so fiancee & i have photos, music & other non-replacable files that we don't want to lose. Our plan is to run RAID 1 on the machine (two HDD's that mirror eachother) and then run an external backup that incrementally backs up. All HDD's are 1TB so parts needed are 2x 1TB internal HDD and 1x external HDD. It is my understanding that the PC/Motherboard is "RAID Enabled" according to Dell so I should not need any special adapters or controllers. I was hoping someone here might have some experience though auspiv - thank you. Realized that my 305W power supply will be enough for now to run RAID1 & the one Matrox quad-card. If/when I eventually upgrade to a 6-display setup and run dual Matrox quad-cards then I will need to upgrade the power supply. Nice thing about that is if I'm going to be pulling data down into 6 screens i'll need to upgrade the CPU as well so PSU will be least of my problems. I do appreciate everyone's help. If anyone has pointers on how to configure RAID on a RAID enabled (dell) motherboard please let me know... If you are near Boston I could pay you in Beer???
Do you know your Dell has a RAID controller? I'm not sure all of them do. However, if you mount a 2nd hard drive and RAID is enabled in your BIOS, an information screen will appear during boot with an option to run a utility to make your HDDs RAID volumes.
Gnome, Not 100% whether I can run it on the Dell BIOS/MB or if I need an outside RAID controller. I have not turned on the PC yet so I don't know. Still have many questions on how to set up as well as have to load software, etc. I have 5 SATA ports on the MB and a second bay for a HDD. Also, the Dell tech on the phone when I bought the PC told me that the machine is RAID capable through the bios - but i'm not sure if that's a factory activated option or something I might be able to just turn on in the setup menu? I have two HDD's - can I load up the OS and build the PC on the primary drive, then when everything is loaded & installed add the second HDD and enable RAID or should I enable RAID from the beginning?
Sounds like you just have to make sure RAID is enabled in the BIOS and the SATA port for the 2nd hard drive is turned on. I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's easier to load one hard drive then activate RAID... the RAID controller will catch you up to where you need to be depending upon which RAID you're using. I don't use RAID myself... seems more hassle and risk than benefit...