Suitable Power Supply for Rackable SE-3016, maybe a Seasonic SS-350TGM

I bought a one of the popular Rackable SE-3016 disk enclosures a couple of months ago, and of course immediately modded the fans: two 120 Scythe Slip Streams (SY1225SL12M) for exhaust in the back and some no name 40mm in the PSU. Unfortunately not long after that, maybe a week, the enclosure started to be unstable; the PSU was dying.

I like to think the PSU was on it's way out before the fan swap, but I had tampered with it so I got in touch with the ebay seller and ordered a new PSU. The Rackables power supply AHF5DC45W is an unusual form factor. It's a modular PSU with 40 x 15mm PWM fan at one end, and exhaust at a 90° angle just past the modular connectors.



The stock fan is pretty loud even at lower PWM duty cycles and has an annoying tenancy to frequently change speed. So I swapped it again, this time with a more trustworthy San Ace 40mm fan (109P0412M701) running 6500 RPM @ 24 DBA. The new San Ace is also kind of loud.

At this point I'm afraid to use a slower fan. I've seen that people have had success with 40mm Noctua fans, but the static pressure is a feeble 17.45 Pa compared to the stock Delta's 114.34 Pa, or my San Ace's 53 Pa. So I think an entirely different PSU is in order.

I think a Seasonic SS-350TGM should do the trick.

Slightly lower power 350W vs 476W but it should still be enough for 16 SATA drives spinning up. With the modular jack it should just be a matter of moving some connector pins rather than the splicing a non-modular PSU would require. Most importantly for me it's 80mm fan should be bearable especially since the unit is an efficient 80+ gold with a better layout for airflow.

I'll likely be ordering one of these in the next few days to try out.

Win-Tact used to make at least some of those EPS-1U PSU's for the Rackable systems


I would not change out the unit for that Seasonic unit. And if you need a replacement you can still find some of the Win-Tact units around that might work:

http://www.cwc-group.com/wp507f12.html

Otherwise, it is sort of the nature of the beast.

I'm curious, why do you suggest not swapping the PSU?

My SE-3016's power supply came rated for slightly more amps on the 12v rail, but as was said in the "Interesting Cheap JBODs" thread:

Emtu said:

The specs on the power supply, no funky voltages here all looks pretty standard.

Click to expand...

Do you think the lower 5v rating of the Seasonic at 16A is a concern? I know Hitachi 5 & 7K3000 disk's datasheet give 1.2A on 5v for spinup so 16 disks could pull 19.2A.

unholythree said:

I'm curious, why do you suggest not swapping the PSU?

Click to expand...

Because I have tested both the Seasonic and one of the Win-Tact's OEM units that was used in some of the systems. If I was choosing between the two I have seen for that application based on the test results I would use the OEM unit that was designed for the system rather than trying to alter the Seasonic to work on top of the that. I can only go based off of the units I have seen but the OEM one I have tested was a better product.

You can, of course, do what you want and you have obscured enough of your unit information that I am not sure who the OEM is on yours so I can not say 100% in your case but, by the same token, I would certainly not recommend a swap with as little data as I have to go on about what you are holding.

I've decided to stick with (and further mod) the Win-Tact/Rackable PSU for now.


I have a 3" hole saw from another project so cut and mounted a quieter, or at least lower pitched 80mm fan to the top.


From top to bottom:
-SE-3016 PSU with 2500 RPM 22 dBA 80x25mm San Ace (9S0812M4011)

-Bad SE-3016 PSU, the same model as above

-9500 RPM 36.5 dBA 40x15mm Delta PWM (AFB0412VHB), 6500 RPM 24 dBA (high pitched) 40x15mm San Ace (109P0412M701), some no name 40x10 fan I got with a northbridge heatsink.

I guess I'll see if this holds up, 33 hours of uptime so far...

Hi unholythree,

I'm in a similar boat. I just got the same SGI unit, and the fans are very loud.

So far I swapped the two 80mm for two quiet units.

However, like you, I have found the culprit to be the PSU's 40MM fan.

I ordered a Noctua 40 A4X20 40mm fan, and have it standing by. However, I realized the SGI's included 40mm fan has a strange pin connector.

Can I simply splice over the existing Noctua fan pins to the old fan's connector? If so are the pinouts as they should be expected?

Any idea if this is doable?

Thanks!

P.S. sorry for necrobumping