The Logic Off Topic list

Andy Hardwake wrote:
> 
> 
> "Murray McDowall" <murraymc@... 
> <mailto:murraymc%40melbpc.org.au>> wrote:
> 
>  > One issue with running many drives is that it can overtax your power
>  > supply. At idle, a drive may only draw about 8 or 10 watts but on spinup
>  > the current drawn can be up 2.5x the rate when at operating speed. 4
>  > drives can be a problem even with a 500 W power supply. An Antec
>  > Neopower 480 I have will not drive 4 Seagate Barracudas for example (on
>  > PC). There is a case therefore for keeping the drive count down. Two x
>  > 250 isn't necessarily a better idea than 1 x 500 or 1x 1000.
> 
> I've been using 4 internal drives in both my G4 and my brand new Mac Pro 
> and never seen any issues, maybe because Mac gives a drive some 5 or 6 
> seconds to spin up before it starts another one... Thanks for the 
> headsup anyway.

Yep - staggered startup for drives is the obvious fix for this issue but 
not all machines do it.