Staggered spin-up vs beefy PSU??

[bregga]

Hi everyone,

First post on the forum!

Looking to build a large media server - initially with 8-10 SATA 500GB drives, and later add up to another 10 drives.

I plan to do software raid 5 with hot spare using Linux (Fedora?) and EVMS.

(If interested you'll find my shopping list at the end of this post)

With such a large number of drives power will be an issue.

If I understand correctly I either have to make sure my SATA controllers will support staggered /delayed spin-up, since the drain at startup will be massive (with eventually 20 drives, that is).

OR, I have to get a PSU that will be able to cope with this setup.

Do you know of any controllers that supports staggered spin-up? (8-port PCI-X is what I've be looking for - but maybe I should broaden my search...) I initially looked at Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 (http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AoC-SAT2-MV8.cfm) but from what I've been able to find, it doesn't support this. The Promise SATAII150 SX8 (http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=125) supposedly does, but I've read a lot of negative opinions about Promise.....

Can you give me a good choose for a PSU for my setup or should I go for dual PSU?
I've seen there is 1KW PSU from PC P&C, but it is kindof expensive...

Any ideas, tips or tricks you wish to share, will be greatly appreciated! :)



Shopping list v 0.1

Coolermaster Stacker (T01 or 810 using one or two PSU?) (http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product_list&p_class=614)


Asus P5WDG2-WS Mobo (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631&p=3)


Intel Celeron D 346 3ghz

Icy Dock / Cremax MB-454SPF 5-in-3 (http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/backplanes.php?we_objectID=4252) (4 of them)


Seagate NL35 or 7200.9 SATA 500GB (8-10 of these)

PSU???

SATA Controllers??

[bregga]

A little more research and googleing gave me a good alternative for the "beefy PSU" alternative.

Zippy PSL-6850P (http://www.zippy.com.tw/P_product_detail.asp?lv_rfnbr=2&pp_rfnbr=1340&pcp_rfnbr=20&pp_name=Gaming?PSL-6850P(G1)&pcp_name=gaming%20power&pcpw_rfnbr=6&pp_code=Gaming?PSL-6850P(G1)) giving 60A :eek: on a single rail should be sufficient even for 20+ drives, right?

Any good alternatives? Would I be better of going for a dual PSU setup?

[protias]

i know a few people here have said that psu is pretty darn good. personally, i would recommend PC P&C 1kW (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817703003). gotta love the triple 12v lines.

[bregga]

i know a few people here have said that psu is pretty darn good. personally, i would recommend PC P&C 1kW. gotta love the triple 12v lines.

Ahh, well - here my lacking knowledge shines through.... What are the advantages to having 2, 3 or even 4 rails, as apposed to a single rail?

If there are 4 rails at 15A each, is that the same as one rail at 60A? :confused:

Sorry, if this is a really stupid question. Just point me in the right direction....

[protias]

power supplies are not my fortay, but as far as i am aware, more rails allows for more overclocking as well as better stability in the system. i think that is right, but im not 100% sure.

[TeeJayHoward]

Asking around in the PSU forum would produce better results. Here's my take on rails, though:

Multiple rails allows a guarenteed number of amps for individual devices. Say you have a split-rail PSU - 2 12V rails, one at 18A, and one at 15A. The 18A could go directly to your motherboard, and provide it with a guarenteed 18A at all times. The 15A could go to power your drives, video cards, etc. The benefit here is that, when overclocking, your board may require a bit more juice - Something that would normally be taken from the drives, leading to corruption or failure. With the split rails, that's not possible.

This is how I understand it, and would love to be "shown the light" if it's incorrect.

[unhappy_mage]

power supplies are not my forte
FTFY ;)

Drives only take 25W max, mostly on the 12V rail, at startup. Thus, even for 20 drives, you only need 500W for that, or about 25A. The Supermicro doesn't *appear* to support staggered spin-up; it spins all 4 disks I've got on it up at once. However, this may be deceptive; I don't know whether it would spin up every disk or 8 at once if I had more than one controller. Perhaps Ockie will stop by; he built a very similar machine, Galaxy 3.0, using the Supermicro controllers.

The 1KW is overkill, and a bad choice for this. Using it on a Celeron system would lead to woefully bad imbalance on the consumption of power on the three rails, which is bad for the power supply. I'm using the Enermax 651GP-VE (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103437) for a similar (but smaller) system, and it works fine. Only 36A@12V, though, so you might want to consider something larger - that Zippy looks nice, but it's $350ish. Two of the Enermax supplies might be better, but you'll have to find a way to connect them (the CM case may come with the connector you'll need, I forget).

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Have an Enermax that's been running 10 drives with simultaneous spin-up for the last 2 years just fine (EG465P, IINM).
Probably helps that it only has a P3 650 and a TNT 1 :D

[computerpro3]

I've run 11 hard drives including 4 raptor 150's along with an fx-60 @ 3.0ghz/4GB RAM/2x SLI 7800gtx 512mb overclocked, touch screen LCD, mutliple fans, and a dfi expert off a pcp&c 510SLI. It should handle 20+ hard drives with ease.

My current psu, Zippy 700w which I have done minor mods to, will run even more drives.