7volt trick damaged Enermax Modu 82+ 625Watt

jordi.c · Post by **jordi.c** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:05 pm

Hey SPCR's

My computer was freezing last weeks.

This same freezing problem was here before, but solved by buying another PSU, i.e Enermax Modu 82+.

Now I have the same freeze problem after 6 months, I was reading what could be the problem. Now I have read tons of articles about the 7volt trick I'm using for my Nexus 80mm fans.

I have some of these voltmodded fans on the same molex cable as VGA card and HDD (3 way splitter). Another 7v 80mm fan is on the same cable as another HDD.

Now I have detached all my 8 harddrives to see if the system still freezes. For last 2 days I have been lucky!

My question is did I kill my other Nexus 400Watt and now my Enermax Modu 82+ b/c this stupid voltmod

?

Regards,
Jordi
The Netherlands.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:20 pm

Seems highly unlikely. The greater the current draw on the 12V and 5V lines from other components, the lower the likelihood of damage with the 7V trick. You mention 8 HHDs -- this could be an issue depending on which models they are, how often you boot your system, and what other components are drawing power.

Why?

In idle, most HDDs won;t pull more than 8~10W. In seek/wrute, maybe max 15W. But at startup, they can hit 30W. 8x30 = 240W. Plus what else?

Also, capacitors decline in capacity over time, which means the maximum power delivery capacity of a PSU declines over time. I could see how the 400W Nexus could have become weak enough so it would not boot with 8 HDDs after some years of service.

But if your 625W Enermax is showing the same symptom, might be something else. It should have plenty of power to cope with those 8 drives + lots of other demanding hardware.

jordi.c · Post by **jordi.c** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:13 pm

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comprehensive answer!

I'm thinking now about the PCI SATA Card or one of those 8 harddrives being dodgy.

Rest of setup is not very power hungry sources;
P4 3.2ghz
ATI X850XT PE
2x1024MB
2x DVD-RW
and some PCI cards.

Offtopic: I can buy 10x Nexus 120mm fans for only 30 euro's. I'm really thinking off buying it and building it in my upcoming Core i5 system

and let them run @7volt. According to the benchmark they are inaudible than

. So I think this is not a bad purchase?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:33 pm

How about connecting the fans in pairs, serial, and get 6 V.

Mr Evil · Post by **Mr Evil** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:01 pm

jordi.c wrote:...I'm thinking now about the PCI SATA Card or one of those 8 harddrives being dodgy...

I had a problem once with a cheap PCI SATA card; it intermittently caused the system to lock up when particular parts of the hard drive were read. I replaced the card and the problem went away.

jordi.c · Post by **jordi.c** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:26 am

@Mats, can you explain howto connect in serial?

@Mr Evil, this is also a cheapy made in HongKong card from Ebay ($20). Still no lockups we will see. Never thought this could be the reason, thanks for your troubleshooting.