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PSU Model : request your suggestion

L

lightp2

Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
672
Dear all, would like to request your kind suggestion. Iam looking at around Jan 2010 for deployment.

I am trying to determine most ECONOMICAL and STABLE PSU model to support 6-10 units of Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue Single Platter or 1TB Caviar Green 64MB-cache WD10EARS. 24x7 usage.

This is for file server build so no need to consider heavy VGA card power requirement. My location is non-US so access to common brands only.

In case the performance is not enough I may need to build a second custom box using PSU+Paper-Clip-trick setup to support additional hard disks in a separate case and link them to primary box. Norco is not available locally and other similar enclosures are very expensive.

Thanks.
 
Assuming 10 HDs at 25W peak power consumption per drive, you would need 250W for the drives plus whatever power requirements your CPU and other components have. Do you have anything specific in mind for the other components or have you just decided on the drives so far? Either way, a quality 550-600W PSU should be plenty for the entire system. Some good options would include the Antec Truepower New 550W or 650W, Antec Earthwatts 650W, Corsair VX550 or TX650, Seasonic X-650, any ~600W Enermax, etc.
 
Locally I can get access to reasonable cost Corsair VX550/TX650 and also Cooler Master Silent Pro M600/M700. I am leaning toward TX650 (8-SATA connectors) or M600/M700 (9-SATA-Connectors) so that I do not need to handle too many 4pin-to-sata power converter.

I would like to ask one more question. I see that the TX650 provides MAXIMUM combined 170Watt on the 3.3V and 5V. Isn't this below the estimated power draw upon start-up? Or does SATA connection draw power from 12v rail as well? I have to ask this question because I was told by my friend that he once saw somebody building a 5 disks + 2 DVD drives + gaming vga card and the PSU imploded on first go. Admittedly it could be cheaper low-end PSU.

For other parts, I have spare 5 x PCI-based Intel Gigabit NIC and 2 x Broadcom Gigabit NIC. 4x1GB DDR2-800 ECC unbuffered ram. I am researching other needed items.
 
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HDs require most of their power from the +12V rail. The +5V is used to power the logic boards but the motors are powered from the +12V rail. Out of those options, I would favour the Corsair, but the Silent Pro units are very good as well.
 
In that case I would go for the TX650 as the prices for TX650 and M600 are close locally. Thank you very much for your kind information and also helping me to learn more about PSU. I am going to ask my next question in the data storage forum for other issues.
 
The TX650 is definitely the better choice since it has more power on the +12V rail than even the M700. Good luck with the build.
 
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