Building a server, but can't find a PSU

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Gambit

Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2002
Messages
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I'm looking at building a home server... fileserving, mythtv backend type stuff; problem is, I can't find a PSU that'll do everything I want to. First, quick specs on the server

Lian-Li case (12 internal 3.5" drives, ~5-6 external 5.25")
HDD: 2x 120GB for OS (RAID-1), ~10x 1TB drives for storage (either RAID-5 or (more likely) RAID-6)
OD: 2 DVD-RW (for ripping CD's to)
PCI: Hauppage PVR-500
PCIe: Video, Areca RAID
Mobo: DFI Lanparty
CPU: Opteron 170
Mem: 2x 1GB

From what I understand, I'll need around a ~900-950 watt PSU to power this thing. The problem is that I have 12 drives budgeted, the most I could find on a PSU was 10 sata power, most having 6, maybe 8.

I suppose I could just use less SATA drives, but I think that's a poor compromise. Granted, I may only start out with 8 drives total (2 system, 6 storage) or perhaps even less, but at some point, I'll need more power. Anyone have any ideas how to handle this?
 
I am looking at having another large storage machine myself, but with a few different parts. This is this PSU I am looking at with a few power splitters to go from Molex to SATA power.

What makes you think you need that much power? I have an AM2 3600x2, 2GB of memory, ATi x600, 11 drives, and a couple of PCI cards. I use about 220W!
 
you won't use anywhere near that amount of power, my filserver (see sig) has 16 drives and it runs on corsair 620hx. You can also call corsair and buy some more sata power cables (the psu is modular) they have cables with 3x sata power and i think you can connect 5 of them.
 
protias said:
What makes you think you need that much power? I have an AM2 3600x2, 2GB of memory, ATi x600, 11 drives, and a couple of PCI cards. I use about 220W!
Click to expand...

The power calcs I've used have all said that... even the one that sabregen suggested. Good to know I won't need that much power... was kinda worried about it being a power hog, even with the GP drives.
 
Gambit said:
The power calcs I've used have all said that... even the one that sabregen suggested. Good to know I won't need that much power... was kinda worried about it being a power hog, even with the GP drives.
Click to expand...

Your average hard drive uses 10-15W of power, in my experience.

Depending on your video card, your system would probably not break 400W of power usage.
 
careful, do not underestimate the spin up current draw. But still, yeah.

I have not bought any 1T drives since, er never, but all my other drive purchases still have both the molex and the SATA power connector for SATA drives.


Be sure to use enterprise class drives with extended error timout reporting designed for raid use.

You do realize the NSA will bug your house, car, telecom and pets when they find out your are running that? 10T :eek:
 
BillParrish said:
careful, do not underestimate the spin up current draw. But still, yeah.
Click to expand...

Spin-up can usually be staggered on any decent RAID controller, I seem to remember it being around 2-3A each (~30W), even with 12 drives it would only be 360W if they all spun up at once, right?
 
yep. exactly bang on (for 7200 rmps, I image the 10K+ might be a bit more but nothing dramatic. Its not a big deal, just wanted to mention it because I think it is what killed me on my old marginal 420W supply, with a 4 drive raid 5 and 2 others, when I added the seventh drive, I suddenly had random boot issues. After it would boot it was ok. Drove me batty for couple of days till I realized I had just added a drive a few days earlier. This situation I am sure would not exist with the system the OP is considering, but my Craptacular ICH8R does not (well I have not found it anyway) allow staggerd spin up. Of course slapping in a high quality power supply, procured at a very reasonable cost, branded by a well know memory supplier whose trade name begins with C, solved all the issues and life is again good.

I would imagine an 800w supply would still be overkill if it was beefy on the +12, but decided I did not have enough experience with that strange of a setup to say anything, (oops I just did), Anything along the lines of the OPs that I mess with is commercial and I would be looking for a 600W redundant, as a very rough first guess, but would not bite until after I looked up the actual manuf specs on current draw for each item. I have a supermico dual xenon with an 8 drive SCSI array in service I procured as a Pre-built system and the system intergrator recommended a 500W redundant supply that has run for 2+ years now. Bah running off at the keyboard again.
 
I have a rather similar setup that would be a little more power hungry than your's. I have 2 processors instead of one. I also have 12 drives and an Areca RAID card. I could run it from a 400w FSP PSU with staggered spin-up (which the card supports), but instead I chose a 600w Silverstone one as I decided that a modular PSU would be far more convenient in a massive Lian-Li case. As for not having enough SATA connectors, I some adapters from FrozenCPU that make things rather neat...you can see them on the left side of my server: http://stfcc.org/bluefox/server.jpg
 
just to add a little finilization to it,

last year at computex... now I forget who it was but someone was running 20 drives off a single 750W PSU....

now who was it?!?
 
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