Powersupply with decent 5v rail?

Looking for a powersupply for my file server, should be able to support ~30 HDD's.

Whats up with all the powersupplies these days having absolute crap 5v rails? Seasonics 1KW PSU has 25A on the 5v rail.. Corsair aren't much better at 30 A and the list goes on...

A new 2tb HDD draws 1.2A on 5v on startup and up to 2A on 12v on startup. This particular model doesn't have maximum power usage during full load specified in the datasheet, only idle usage.

So I'm assuming worst case scenario is 36A on 5v and 60A on 12v. The 12v is no problem, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of PSU's that can provide that on 5v with some safety margins?

And yes, I use staggered spinup, but I don't feel comfortable with a PSU with weak 5v rail.
This machine has already burned up 3 Tagan PSU's ranging from 480 to 580W with 30-35A on 5v, and thats with only 20 older disk drives...

The trouble is big PC PSUs are mostly aimed at running large "gamer rigs". A modern gamer rig draws almost all it's power on 12V.

Typical PSUs simply aren't designed for the very specialized usage you have in mind. Consider a second power supply? Run a secondary 5V source in parallel?

Yeah... so I've noticed.

Limited space in the case (Norco 4224).. so no room for second PSU unless i attach it to the outside of the case, lol.

External 5v source? Would that be safe?

What about dedicated server PSUs? Any recommendations there? Although they sound like banshees from hell...

get a couple of these to offset the load some?

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0332938

might not be the best solution, but at least it would be cheap(er) and quiet

as said, the ones your looking at arent made for file servers.

i think either dual PSU or a redundant PSU for a server, you def need to be looking into server PSU's, not desktop PSU's.

35Amps

http://www.athenapower.us/products/power_supply/ap_rrp4atx65.html

50Amps around $500.

http://www.tt-server.com/Product.aspx?S=83&ID=35#Tab1

Others http://www.tt-server.com/Category.aspx?S=6

Holy crap, those server PSU's are expensive

The external 12v/5v thing looks like it'd work.. just have to find it somewhere around Europe, at least I know that they exist now (never seen one here), thanks for the help =)

I have one I used on an old drive testing station. Used it when testing drives, Or when I would grab data from dead drives I just pulled out of the freezer. I seem to remember having 3 drives plugged into it at one time without issue.

Faldaani, use staggered startup. Any good controller card will support that.

Calculate your power requirement with the drives already spinning all seeking, then without the drives and you have your power capacity to use for the drives. Then use 90% of the remaining 5V and 12V amperage to start as many drives as you can. Five or so seconds later, start more. Repeat until all your drives are powered.

This is how big-ass file servers do it. Rather than have a 5 kW PSU just for five seconds draw, they use a 500W PSU and stagger the startup.

Yeah, I have them on 1.2 sec staggered spinup.

But as I said, "full load" power usage isnt specified in the HD datasheets, and the server has blown 3 PSU's so far due to them running very close or above max capacity

As for the external things... anyone have a specification on them? Need one to power at least 4 drives.

Guess I need some kind of relay circuit or something to turn those things off when the computer shuts down too, urgh.

You can get big 5V PSUs.

http://uk.farnell.com/xp-power/jpm160ps05/psu-160w-5v-32a/dp/1109849

5V output with a nominal rating of 32A but provided you keep the thing cool and run it off 240V you can go up to 40A.

The tricky bits would be finding somewhere to mount it (not sure how big the spaces inside that case are), arranging the wiring and setting up a relay to switch it on.

That could work... the AC connection is a bit dangerous though.. totally exposed screws

The other external thing only has 2A on 5v and 12v (either combined or separate, don't know), which isn't enough..

If you stagger it got such a power supply. Sent you a PM.