Help with system build...

[jetsaredim]

I need the help and advice of this forum for my recent system build.

 

About 2 months ago I bought a new set of components for a new file server build. (I already had a big case and three LED fans for cooling)

 

I did research and considered each component. I used online PSU calculators and every one I used came up with a minimum of 350W - so I figured 400W was fine. I built the system no problems - not even one issue during initial build. I setup Ubuntu 9.10 with the 5x 750G drives in a RAID 5 setup (w/ 1 as spare) and the 500G drive as the OS drive (installed from USB so no need for CD/DVD).

 

Anyway, about a month goes by and one of my kids was walking by and thought it would be cool to push the reset button on the system. I have yet to get the system back working. The symptoms I am getting lead me to believe that there is a short on the mobo. I tried RMA'ing via ASUS, but they tested the board and said there's no problems. I just got it back and here's it what happened...

 

I have the case setup with all of the power lines hooked up to the drives but the SATA cables are not hooked up to the mobo. I have the mobo outside the case on a wooden bench (ie non-conductive).

 

- I hook up the mobo with just CPU+HSF - and it works.

- then add the memory - still works

- then add the 500G hdd - still works - can boot to OS and run some updates

- then add the 5 other hdd - no workie!

- then I go back to just the 500G hdd and still no workie!!

 

I called ASUS again and they said that the issue is with the PSU. This seems odd to me since I always have all 6 hdd connected to power. THeir answer to that was that since they weren't connected via SATA they weren't pulling all the power they needed and once all of them are connected it's overloading the PSU. I'm still a bit skeptical as it was working just fine for all that time. The problem is that I haven't done any system builds for over 3-4 years so don't have any other PSU to connect that has SATA or ATX+12.

 

So, the question after all that is - is my PSU appropriately sized for the application? Are there any symptoms that I should be checking for that would indicate it is either the mobo or PSU?

[RAM GUY]

I would first recommend that you try testing the hard drives one at a time on the same sata data and power cables, to make sure that you don't have a single HDD that may be causing the problem. It sounds like there may be an individual HDD or SATA data cable that could be causing a ground or a short. From your description it looks like the CX400 should have enough power. Let us know your results!