Multi-PSU?

O

oraldlight

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
490
I've got a ghetto file server and the drive count is worrying me. Currently at 6 drives on a 650watt PSU. Am wanting to put another 4+drives in there, but power connections are sparse. I know the 4+6 pin trick to power on a PSU, but was wondering what would happen if I put another PSU in parallel to the existing one, for the 4+ drives I want to add?

$300+for a 1000watt seems a bit much, so why no t add a quality 450watt and tie it into the power-on circuit?

Am I asking for trouble? What's a better way to power a large quantity of HD's?
 
What 650W PSU do you have? I've seen quality 750W PSUs power 21 drives. So 10 drives for a quality 650W PSU should be easy.
 
Corsiar.

The idea of adding splitters makes me cringe. Perhaps I should do the math and see what teh startup wattage could be and factor in 10-20% for safety (like when the power company fails to deliver the full 110vac.
 
oraldlight said:
Corsiar.

The idea of adding splitters makes me cringe. Perhaps I should do the math and see what teh startup wattage could be and factor in 10-20% for safety (like when the power company fails to deliver the full 110vac.
Click to expand...

So you have the Corsair 650TX? Then don't worry about power usage at all. Power splitters are a-OK to use. Like I said earlier, I've seen 750W PSUs, one of them the Corsair 750TX, power 21 hard drives just fine. So 10 hard drives is not bad at all.
 
Yeah. Don't worry about those 10 drives. It's minor as far as putting a load on the PSU. HDD doesn't really stress 5V and 12V rails. Just use the Y splitter molex adapters to connect additional drives.
 
oraldlight said:
... What's a better way to power a large quantity of HD's?
Click to expand...

In serial mode, or cascade... however you wanna call it. Though, thats not really an option, is it? :p

Anyhow, IIRC, a HDD would need at most, around 30W at startup, and would continue to use 10W during normal operation. This all really depends on the drive, but using those numbers for planning, you'll be fine. You can double check the specs of your drives at the manufacturer's websites. Don't forget to take into account all your other core parts. ;)

For 10 drives, a 650W is more than capable.
 
all you have to do is buy a relay (12volt) then take a y molex cable and take the 12 volt connector and connect it to a1 and a2. then take the normally open and connect one end to the one side of the spare power supplys connector that you would normaaly connect the paper clip to. Then take the other side of the normally open and connect it to the other side where you put the other end of the paper clip. when your main power supply comes on the relay switches and turns on the other power supply. the other power supply shuts off when the main one does. Do it all the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top