RAID probs: Power problem?

Locust76

So, my computer has a bunch of shit in it: dual-core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, 5 hard drives, an 8800GTX and two DVD burners. I've been having problems with the onboard RAID (Nvidia nforce 590) for the longest time. I've updated drivers, deleted RAIDs, recreated them, synced them, reconstructed them, all kinds of shit, to absolutely no avail. As of today I was still having RAID problems. This time, it got so bad that I'd delete the RAID and recreate it, and as soon as I'd initialize the disk in the disk manager, I'd start getting that dreaded "RAID Access failure" message for my striping raid (my games drive, nothing important on it). So, I decided enough was enough and I downloaded the drive testing program from the drives manufacturer, ran all the extended tests and found absolutely no problems whatsoever.

I've been having crazy ass problems and instabilities with my computers for years now. I just chalked it up to an evil aura that I had which caused other people's computers to work flawlessly and my computers to shit all over me. But then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit me: The one single component that had remained constant over the last 4 years or so was this piddly little UPS that I had my computer and an LCD monitor plugged into. I wondered: is this thing even giving out enough juice for my rig? So, I looked at the label, and sure as shit, it's rated for 480w output and my computer has a 600w PSU. So I plugged my computer straight into the surge protector (haven't had a power outage here in Germany for the 6 years I've been here), and now my computer seems to be OK. I've rebuilt my striping RAID and formatted it the slow way with no problems (last time it got to 50% and started with the RAID Access errors) and now I'm copying my games back onto the drive and I have yet to see an error.

Now, I took out all the SATA cables and re-ran them, making things a little neater, and took a vaccuum to the inside of my computer, but I didn't do anything really major that would make it suddenly stop fucking up on me.

TL;DR

My question is this: Could an Uninterruptable Power Supply rated at 480w output have been causing my computer's (600w PSU) RAID access problems this whole time?

vonPoonBurGer

Locust76 wrote: »

My question is this: Could an Uninterruptable Power Supply rated at 480w output have been causing my computer's (600w PSU) RAID access problems this whole time?

If your total draw was going over, or even peaking anywhere near, 480W then I'd say yes, absolutely. Most UPS's do some kind of basic sag/surge conditioning, I wouldn't be surprised if the UPS was doing weird things to the power at high loads. That would make it hard for your PSU to provide stable power on all rails, and that would definitely lead to system instability. I mocked up your system in this power supply calculator (had to guess at a few things, e.g. how many PCI cards, etc.), and I actually got a result of 481W, which is kinda funny. Anyway, your system sounds like it might be capable of drawing more juice than that UPS can support. Time for a new UPS, or maybe just a surge protector.

Locust76

Wow, that's a kick-ass tool! I put in more accurate figures and came up with 514w. If power was my problem, then it's probably that 34w overage that caused problems. I still have to do more testing, though, and I'll probably hit up the local store and get a bigger PSU.