Cheap PSU = ok for just hdd's?

R

russ2400

n00b
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
6
I'm thinking of making an external case for just hard drives, well and maybe a couple fans. The ONLY thing to be hooked up to the psu would be the hard drives. I'm not really wanting to know about how to do this, It's pretty straight forward and I've read about jump-starting the psu without a motherboard.

Mainly what I'm wanting to know is how a cheap (enlight) psu would do running 24/7 with only hard drives. And let's say this psu dies, what kind of data loss, if any, am I looking at? I only ask because I have been told there could be some type of "surge" back to the hard drives frying my many many gigabytes of media.

Thanks.
 
I think you'd be cross loading the PSU quite a bit, that may cause some stability and longevity problems.
 
It will work fine if you observe necessary precautions.

As a hard drive powers up, it uses a lot more power than when it is running.
This can lead to requiring a much larger PSU than is needed to keep them running.
Although thats not a bad thing, it can be excessive.

Alternatively you can stagger the power up of each drive so they dont all consume max power at the same time.

If you can find the power specs of 12V for the drives you are using that will help.
To be absolutely safe, allow 25W per hard drive to power up and 10W per drive to run them.
You will likely be safe setting aside 7W per drive and 15W power up but there ARE SOME drives which use more, so you'd best check.

Ideally, choose a PSU that is in its mid operating range or a bit less as it will be running near its peak efficiency and producing less heat per watt.
Dont push a PSU to its limit as it will deteriorate quite quickly and they can go bang when pushed too hard.

Heat kills PSUs, make sure both the hard drives and PSU have a good supply of cold air.
 
Can you provide us with the UL number underneath that mirrored UL logo? Better yet, at least a model number of the PSU? IIRC, there were some Enlight PSUs were made by Delta and Delta = not so good power supplies.

Anyway, a poorly/cheaply made PSU can kill all your hard drives when it dies. How the PSUs die depend on a number of conditions such as operating temperatures, what kind of load those power supplies can reliably handle, how long can it run at certain temperatures and load, age, dust, etc, etc.

Frankly, if you do proceed with this project and depending on the power supply you have, I do recommend getting a new power supply. The Antec Earthwatts is a pretty good choice if it's only hard drives you're hooking up to it:
Antec Earthwatts EA380 380W PSU - $35

How will you be connecting the hard drives to the PC? Oh and you might want to check out this link since it's similar to what you're planning to do:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1204115
 
Danny- I will check and get the model number tonight when I get home.

For $35 I don't mind doing that if that hard drive is better than the cheap enlight. As for connecting to the pc it will be using either esata or just plain sata. The only other option is forgetting this whole idea and just going with like 4-5 esata cases, just seems like it would get expensive fast that way.


Danny Bui said:
Can you provide us with the UL number underneath that mirrored UL logo? Better yet, at least a model number of the PSU? IIRC, there were some Enlight PSUs were made by Delta and Delta = not so good power supplies.

Anyway, a poorly/cheaply made PSU can kill all your hard drives when it dies. How the PSUs die depend on a number of conditions such as operating temperatures, what kind of load those power supplies can reliably handle, how long can it run at certain temperatures and load, age, dust, etc, etc.

Frankly, if you do proceed with this project and depending on the power supply you have, I do recommend getting a new power supply. The Antec Earthwatts is a pretty good choice if it's only hard drives you're hooking up to it:
Antec Earthwatts EA380 380W PSU - $35

How will you be connecting the hard drives to the PC? Oh and you might want to check out this link since it's similar to what you're planning to do:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1204115
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top