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PSU for 30 HDD's

F

Faldaani

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
195
I'm looking for a PSU capable of powering around 30 HDD's and one E6600.

I have no interest in quad PCI-e connectors and such, all I need is SATA power and Molex connectors.

One problem is that it needs to fit in the Lian Li PC343B with HDD's mounted, so it can probably not be deeper than 20cm (7.9"). Another problem is that I'm in Europe.

I've considered and probably discarded the Enermax Galaxy series, the Silverstone Olympia and probably the Thermaltake Toughpower based on their size.

Whats left is an Antec Truepower Quattro 1000W with zero reviews, and OCZ ProStream with way too few connectors even if I split them and a "Dark Power Pro 1000W", whatever that is. The "Dark Power Pro" advertises more cables than it has modular connectors...

I don't want to run two PSU's, currently I'm running 2*500W Tagan with 20 HDD's and it works fine, but takes up too much room.

Any ideas?
 
Dark power pro is made by topower

I suggest the Olympia 1kw. The Galaxy is still a multi-railed (unused power), same with the Thermaltake.

Going by the fact that the Silverstone has 80a, and that each hard drive takes 2a.. You have more than enough, not even counting staggered spin-up.
 
Thank you for the advice.

I guess I'll have to cut a big hole in the case and have the PSU extend a few CM behind, or mount the case on legs and have the PSU under the case :(

The Olympia has 6 SATA and 6 Molex connectors native....
To get 30 HDD's on that I'd have to split each Molex into 2 SATA., and split each SATA into 2 SATA

thats 24... so hmm, I take each molex and split them twice first, then split them into SATA.

Question is, can the cables really handle that, preferably without melting.

EDIT: Based on the photos in the HardOCP review of the Olympia it looks like the molex/sata cables are quite thing.
 
Well the logic of taking up more space doesn't really jive. Two S12's are probably as long as a large 9" PSU.



Look at the OP1000, it's a great PSU for the money or go the extra mile (read: $$) and get a TC1KW with a custom harness from PC&P.


BTW, where are the pics? ;)
 
I haven't ordered anything yet, want to make sure everything fits...

I will use my vertical space for HDD's. I could mount two PSU's ontop of eachother, but I'd lose 3-4 HDD's, which is why I'm trying to find a compact PSU.

Right side
Left side

Those drawings feature my current PSU's. As you can see there is room for at least 6 more HDD's if I only use 1 PSU.

But that PSU can't be too long unless I want it sticking out the back.
 
Are you using staggered spinup? If not that transient load at startup is going to be murder on most power supplies. You are probably going to have to go with a longer than average power supply because there are very few that can do what you need in standard sizes.
 
My controllers will support staggered spinup, however, I'm not going to be using backplanes so I guess that staggered spinup will not work, unfortunately.

I might reconsider, but paying $150 * 6 (6x Icy Docks for PC343B cube) just to get staggered spinup seems so.... wrong.

The consensus seems to be the Olympia, however, I'm still worried that using enough Y-cables on the 5 cables (2 sata, 3 molex) to power 30 drives will cause them to melt.

Anyone happen to know the AWG of the cables used for the Olympias SATA and Molex connectors?
 
Faldaani said:
Anyone happen to know the AWG of the cables used for the Olympias SATA and Molex connectors?
Click to expand...

18AWG IIRC.

With no staggered spinup you are going to want to look at what the startup draw is on those drives because you could be looking at more than 30A 12v.

Personally I would not use that many adapters and would get a proper native solution.
 
I'm all for proper native solution..

I'm in Europe though, so my options are rather limited. I'm guessing you don't count the Olympia as a proper native solution, so any other ideas? =)
 
Faldaani said:
My controllers will support staggered spinup, however, I'm not going to be using backplanes so I guess that staggered spinup will not work, unfortunately.

I might reconsider, but paying $150 * 6 (6x Icy Docks for PC343B cube) just to get staggered spinup seems so.... wrong.

The consensus seems to be the Olympia, however, I'm still worried that using enough Y-cables on the 5 cables (2 sata, 3 molex) to power 30 drives will cause them to melt.

Anyone happen to know the AWG of the cables used for the Olympias SATA and Molex connectors?
Click to expand...

A backplane is only a hot swapping interface, you can still use staggered start with plugging in directly to the drives.

Oh and whats wrong with the 6 x bay units ;) :D


I am a little lost by your post, you are using a PC-343?? I have 30 drives in mine and dual PSU's....
 
I am going to use a PC343b, but since I'm kind of refusing to use 3x 5.25 -> 5x 3.5" bays and instead using 3x -> 4x bays, I need as much internal room as possible.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Europe ok.

What exactly are the drives you are going to be using?
Click to expand...

Seagate 7200.10's and future generations, 500gb or 1tb configuration.

They do support staggered spinup afaik, and so does the areca controllers... just not sure it works with pin 11 of the SATA power connector present. Going to attempt to get some proper information on that, try it myself and/or ask in the disk forum.
 
Ok so looking at the Seagate info they are specifying 2.8A 12v for startup on those peak. So errr.......30*2.8=84A if they boot at the same time :eek:

Even if staggered that could be a big hit since the specification calls for only 40% of its capacity max on transeint loads for a PSU.

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/100402371a.pdf

That is going to really hurt. I would contact andyOCZ here on the boards and see if PC Power and Cooling is offering their custom harness options to European users now that OCZ is distributing their products there.
 
Thank you, I'll do that while trying to figure staggered spin up out in the disk forum.
 
I wonder if you could get Performance-Pcs to custom a PSU with a ton of SATA connectors and just remove all the cables you won't be needing.
 
I'd look at a PC Power and Cooling 850w or 1000w and have them custom wire it to your needs.

I built a dual Clovertown rig with 16 HDs and they did a beautiful job wiring a custom Silencer 610 for me.
 
lizardking009 said:
I'd look at a PC Power and Cooling 850w or 1000w and have them custom wire it to your needs.

I built a dual Clovertown rig with 16 HDs and they did a beautiful job wiring a custom Silencer 610 for me.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Performance-PCs should be able to do it also, and IIRC they are authorized by PCP&C to do wiring harness modifications..
 
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