[G4] G4 Power Supply

[Harry Freeman]

Greetings Shopdog ( + )!( + )

Luke made a good guess, however I have a 1997 G4, Sawtooth which  
started life as a Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics, 350Mh processor.

Now it is just like yours except that I have a 1.2Gh processor from  
PowerLogix. In addition to the processor up-grade I have 6 Drives.

ATA Buss
	1. Western Digital - WDC WD1200JB-00DUA3 (129Gb)
	2. Maxtor - 6Y120PO (120Gb)
	3. Yamaka DVR-Y08 (CD/DVR)
	4. IOMEGA ZIP 750 (ATAPI)

PIC Buss
	1. ACARD AEC-6280M Hard drive interface
		a. Maxtor 200Gb
		b. Maxtor 300Gb
	2. USB/Firwire interface.

I'm still using the original Power Supply which came with the platform  
when I bought it back in 1997
One thing that you need to do is (using Air Duster or a similar  
product) keep the dust and fuzz out of the power supply and the other  
fans that are internal to the box.


Best regards.

Harry
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On Sep 22, 2008, at 11:47 AM, shopdog at mac.com wrote:

> Luke:
>
> Thank you for the information.  I was afraid that this would be the  
> reality.
>
> I have several external firewire drives, but have several bare  
> drives lying around.  I guess I'd to avoid more clutter, and  
> throwing these into the empty space in the G4 seemed like a decent  
> idea.
>
> This G4 has two more unused power plugs in it.  From what I've read,  
> the system was designed to handle 2 IDE and 2 SCSI drives.
>
> I guess I'm wondering if it will handle 6 IDE drives instead.
>
> I think I can safely add 2 more drives, but perhaps not 4 more.
>
> I'm trying to determine, if I go the ATX route, how high I need to  
> go.  I'm having trouble determining the power draw for most of the  
> components.
>
> I believe my G4 power supply supports 200W.
>
> I'm told by Sonnet that my 1.2GHz CPU upgrade is 40W.
>
> Hitachi (after some time) told me that the hard drives I have use  
> 10W during the activities that use the most wattage.  6 drives is  
> obviously 60W.
>
> I have yet to determine the power consumption for the Zip drive, the  
> Pioneer DVR-105, the motherboard, the fans, etc.
>
> If anyone knows these, that would be great.  I'll keep digging.
>
> I could just go with a 500W power supply-- that should be plenty!
>
> shopdog
>
>
>
> On Sep 22, 2008, at 2:24 PM, Luke Rademacher wrote:
>
>> Most of these older G4 Towers were only specced to handle 2 HD's.  
>> Hence the Power Supply has enough power connectors for the Zip and  
>> Optical and a main Hd and a slave.
>>
>> Beyond adding video card or other card, you are going to drain out  
>> your Power Supply trying to add more internal devices.  You can use  
>> Y adapters but more power drain from your system the less the  
>> performance will be.
>>
>> And no Power supply from a higher end model won't help.  
>> Quicksilvers and MDD PSU's are meant for their respective systems.
>>
>> If you are really gung ho however, You can rig an ATX Power supply  
>> to run your G4 AGP model. There is a page called  
>> www.xlr8yourmac.com there is an older link for converting ATX PSU's  
>> to work on various Mac models. If you are comfortable with a  
>> Soldering Gun then go for it.
>>
>> FWIW, if you want more HD space why not add externally? External  
>> HD's often have their own power and attach via FireWire.
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> Luke Rademacher
>> Liquid Zone Graphics
>> Mac mini 2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, 80GB HD, Combo DVD/CDRW,  
>> Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.4, ext NewerTech miniStack w/ 320GB HD.
>> MDD Dual 1.25Ghz G4, 2GB RAM, 250GB/120GB/80GB HD's, 16x DL DVD±R/ 
>> RW Superdrive, Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.11, Classic Mac OS 9.2.2.
>> Intel Celeron 2GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, Ubuntu Linux 8.04
>> 5.5th gen 80GB Enhanced Video iPod
>> Canon CanoScan 8400F
>> Canon Pixma iP4500
>>
>> On Sep 22, 2008, at 12:46 PM, shopdog at mac.com wrote:
>>
>>> All:
>>>
>>> I have an AGP Graphics machine (model M7824LZ/B).
>>>
>>> It's upgraded with a 1.2GHz Sonnet processor.  It has a Pioneer  
>>> DVR-105 in it, and the original Zip drive.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know how many internal hard drives it will support,  
>>> power-wise?
>>>
>>> It has 4 power ports on the power cable for hard drives, and I'm  
>>> using 2 of those for 2 hard drives on the original IDE bus.
>>>
>>> Will the existing power supply support 4 more IDE drives?  I can  
>>> get them in the chassis using 2 "Dual Drive Bracket"s, one each in  
>>> drive bays 1 and 2, and I can get them to communicate with the  
>>> motherboard via a PCI card (ACARD AEC-6280M) that has 2 IDE ports,  
>>> but the only way to supply power to these four new drives is to  
>>> use Y-adapters off the remaining 2 power ports.
>>>
>>> However, I don't know if the existing power supply will support  
>>> all of this.
>>>
>>> If not, can I use a Quicksilver 344W power supply instead, in this  
>>> machine?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any advice anyone has...
>>>
>>> shopdog