Power Supply For Fileserver questions/recommendations

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Exocet956

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 25, 2001
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I am building a new fileserver at the end of November and i have some questions on powering this thing.

What is the point of having multiple 12v rails? Does it load balance the load between multiple rails? Is it better to have single large rail vs. lower amperage yet multiple rails? On a multiple rail power supply if the amperage is exceeded on one rail does it pick up the difference off the other rails?

What power supply do you guys recommend for the following setup?
(I believe that these hdds require 1.25-1.5 amps on the 12v rail)

Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200
PCI Video Card
Areca ARC 1230 pci-e X8 12 port raid 6 Controller
12x 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA in RAID6
2x 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA
DVD drive
5x 3in2 SATA Backplanes /w 80mm cooling fans
4x 80mm case fans

I plan on buying everything from newegg so if you have any recommendations could you recommend a power supply form them. I would like to keep the price under 150.
 
It seems a bit odd to use a gamer motherboard for a server, particularly if you're going to put a PCI video card in it.

If it were me, I'd go with PC Power and Cooling.

"Multiple rails" means seperate regulators drive each output. There's no dynamic load balancing; it's up to you to do so by selecting the right peripherals to wire to each connector.
 
i went with that mobo for a few reasons. 1. it has two pci-e x16 slots. for future expandability if i want another raid controller. 2. its a amd mobo. I will not put a prescott in my fileserver. amd cool and quiet all the way. 3. it is the best board i could find that had a. 2 pci-e x8 slots b. enough onboard storage connections. c. onboard raid 5 d. decent price.

on another note, am i insane in hoping i can get a power supply for under $150 that is capable of powering this thing?
 
Well, for the money you spent on all those drives, I think you should consider upping your budget... because I don't think there's many PSUs that can handle such a load upon bootup. Fourteen drives spinning up all at once is murder on a PSU (along with brownouts ;)).
 
I nearing the limit of my budget already so i was hoping to get away with a power supply that does not cost above 150. As for the spin up problem the conrtoller supports staggered spinup so it should not need to spin them all up at startup. im not quite sure if you have to enable it in the contoller or it just does it automatically.
 
Exocet956 said:
Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+
1GB PC3200
PCI Video Card
Areca ARC 1230 pci-e X8 12 port raid 6 Controller
12x 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA in RAID6
2x 250GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA
DVD drive
5x 3in2 SATA Backplanes /w 80mm cooling fans
4x 80mm case fans
Click to expand...

i couldn't find any info on the raid controller, and i'm assuming 2 120mm fans
after a quick look at takaman's calc, i'd suggest something like this fortron

i only put eps12v stuff in servers, as it's usually rated for longer uptimes and is designed for server useage, and based on worst case (all drive on at startup, fans blasting, and proc loaded) you'll need 28 A on the 5v and 33A on the 12v side.
 
Do those drives support the spinup command? The problem with the SATA specs is that so much is optional.

Why do you want onboard RAID 5? It is software, then, and will be quite slow. How many onboard SATA connectors do you need? Your spec says you're using just two -- won't everything else be connected to the controller or PATA?
 
So am i better off with single high amperage rails or multiple lower amperage rails? I do believe the drives support the staggered spinup command. I have a file server now that has 7 hdds 4 of which are maxline III ide drives. i was having some stability problems after i first added the maxline. i replaced the 300w powermax with a antec truepower 500 and the problems went away. i believe it has 30-35 amps on the 12v rail.
 
the PC Power & Cooling I'm getting rid of can handle that, no problem.


It's ran 2 Opteron 254's, a 7800GTX, and a dozen drives.

PC Power & Cooling 510-CL1. A modified SLI, but is basically an ASL w/ custom lengths and ends (due to the 8 pin 12V)

I'm selling it for $180....it's only seen a month of up time, and of course has the remainder of the 5 year warranty.
 
Exocet956 said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182020 How does this one sound? I already have quite a few rosewill power supplies and have yet to have any problems. it has dual 12v rails, so does that mean 12v1 + 12v2 = total 12v power? by that math i should have 34 amps on the 12v line right?
Click to expand...

For that many drives, I would avoid Rosewill like the plague. I don't know if you're planning on SLI at all on this system, but there's one unit I can think of that can handle it (single 12v @ 45A):

http://www.servercase.com/miva/miva...roduct_Code=PSL-6701P&Category_Code=4U_Server

I'd also suggest this brand new Silverstone:

http://www.sundialmicro.com/SilverStone-Power-560Watt-sstst56zf_1723_593.html

Other units to consider would be the PC P&C 510w (if not planning SLI) or 850w (if planning SLI), the new Fortron quad 12v 700w units, or the Silverstone/Enhance 650w.
 
I think I would avoid any dual 12v unit with that many drives - they would all be on 12v1 with the video card(s) and could possibly overload even the strongest dual 12v design.

Your budget doesn't leave much room, but I found you a good one: http://www.directron.com/fsp70080glc.html

This is the 80mm version of the new Epsilon - high efficiency, quad 12v rated at 15Ax4 with a combined 50A limit. IIRC the drives should all be on 12v4 with the vid cards on 12v3. One of the 12v lines will not be used on your system.
 
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