How to determine the compatibility of an upgraded power supply unit for my Aspire TC-780-ACK15?

DMDJ
DMDJ Member Posts: 3 New User
edited March 1 in 2019 Archives
My power supply unit at 300 watts does not seem adequate for what I am doing with about 30,000 photos and external HD's with about 12 TB's of data.  I would like to upgrade the power supply unit to around 650 watts but have no way of knowing if it will fit the case.  Should I remove the old unit and measure before ordering?  Also, are the connections universal?  Has anyone out there upgraded their power supply units?  I would appreciate any pointers you may have in this area.  Many thanks!

DMDJ

Best Answers

  • MaClane
    MaClane ACE Posts: 35,598 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Good evening DMDJ !

    What is the problem your system has presented?
    Any slowness?
    For your information, your problem is not PSU.
    It would only require the exchange if you installed other hardware that needed more power performance.
    Any higher power PSU in the ATX standard would fit your equipment.


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    If my answer was helpful, leave a Like, flag as Fixed and click Promote!
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  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,013 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    As McLane said, you are unlikely to need a bigger PSU in your environment. The only additional load you describe is the external drives, and they have a power budget defined by the USB port which is already taken into account. Typically what drive the need for a bigger PSU is a graphics card, especially one with it's own power plug direct to the PSU. Sometime filling all memory slots uses a bit more power, but that's almost never the case with typical desktop systems. I have a server with 12 memory slots (two processors, six slots each) and when I fully populated it (I did 96GB of memory, the max would have been 192GB) I had to also upgrade the power supplies. That's pretty rare in the home network world though. :)

    If you are seeing performance issues I'd look first at the external drives. USB is often a big bottleneck for data movement...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

Answers

  • MaClane
    MaClane ACE Posts: 35,598 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Good evening DMDJ !

    What is the problem your system has presented?
    Any slowness?
    For your information, your problem is not PSU.
    It would only require the exchange if you installed other hardware that needed more power performance.
    Any higher power PSU in the ATX standard would fit your equipment.


    Se minha resposta foi útil, deixe um Curtir, marque como Solucionado e clique em Promover!
    Caso contrario, fico a disposição para tentarmos sanar suas duvidas e resolver seus problemas!
    Atenciosamente:  J. MaClane™

    If my answer was helpful, leave a Like, flag as Fixed and click Promote!
    Otherwise, I am willing to try to heal your doubts and solve your problems!
    Sincerely, J. MaClane ™

    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German Community, I will be using Google Translate!
              
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,013 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    As McLane said, you are unlikely to need a bigger PSU in your environment. The only additional load you describe is the external drives, and they have a power budget defined by the USB port which is already taken into account. Typically what drive the need for a bigger PSU is a graphics card, especially one with it's own power plug direct to the PSU. Sometime filling all memory slots uses a bit more power, but that's almost never the case with typical desktop systems. I have a server with 12 memory slots (two processors, six slots each) and when I fully populated it (I did 96GB of memory, the max would have been 192GB) I had to also upgrade the power supplies. That's pretty rare in the home network world though. :)

    If you are seeing performance issues I'd look first at the external drives. USB is often a big bottleneck for data movement...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • DMDJ
    DMDJ Member Posts: 3 New User
    I thank McClane and billsey for their help.  My PC has been shutting down on me so I thought I needed a PSU.  I was also having monitor problems so I disconnected all external drives and the flickering I was experiencing stopped.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,013 Trailblazer
    Try a powered USB 3.0 hub and put the drives on it. That offloads the power to the hub power supply and aggregates the data transfer through just one pipe.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • DMDJ
    DMDJ Member Posts: 3 New User
    Thanks for your help.  I already have a 3.0 powered hub but continue to have problems.  I have gotten a pop-up message about a shortage of memory so I will upgrade my memory first.  Does that sound like a reasonable thing to do?  I. Really appreciate your help!

    DMDJ

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,013 Trailblazer
    How much memory do you have? If you fire up Task Manager and go to the performance tab, how much are you using? Sometimes those pop up messages MS generates can be a bit cryptic. :)
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

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