Alecthar
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Posts posted by Alecthar
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Looking for some input. My issue is with my power supply and I hope I have posted in the appropriate thread.
Is there any know incompatibility issues with Seasonic X series PSU's and Supermicro motherboards?
Back ground to my inquiry:
I am an unRaid newbee and have had my server together for about four weeks now. I researched for several weeks prior to parts purchase, assembly and use of unraid and decided it best for my needs and thought i used all proven known good hardware. I followed the 20 drive beast tower build as a guide. I changed the psu thinking it was an upgrade in reliability and performance. I went with a SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply from the egg. My board is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O with 8GB of Kingston Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G. I currently have 3 Norco cages with a total of 14 drives mixed green and 7200 rpm [1 x parity, 1 x cache, 12 x data] for a total of 15TB storage.
1st boot - got the 1 second blast of power enough to move the fans then nothing. Went thru all connections tried again an she started right up.
Over the course of the three weeks I built up my sever copying data, preclearing and adding discs to array repeat until I got to where I am now. After no longer adding drives and wires realized the power up problem was not going away. If i powered down and later tried to restart i would get the one second burst and nothing. I would have to flip to PSU power button off [MB lights no longer on] four or five times to get it to boot so I contacted customer support at seasonic and they immediately processed an RMA and shipped me a replacement. Well I received it yesterday and promptly hooked it up. Now I have quite the opposite problem, it wont shut down. Using the powerdown button on the web gui it goes through the motions and proper shutdown sequence and the sever powers off - for 3 seconds - and then automatically reboots. Very frustrating. Repeated three attempts with no change, removed UPS as source power, no change and plugged directly into wall socket same thing. Contacted support again this morning and received this response:
Dear customer,
Thanks for your prompt response.
It seems like there is an compatibility issue between the motherboard and psu.
However, we'll send you another psu for testing.
I replied asking if it was possible to send along new wiring harnesses to eliminate the potential of one being bad and received this response:
Dear customer,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I also re-checked your RMA request form, I saw super micro MBD-X8SIL-F-O.
Their motherboards are known for most of psu not compatible recently, because they carry their own brand psu.
I promptly replied that I have tried 2 known working psu's and have no trouble along with some other comments.
Currently awaiting a response.
I thought Seasonic was the best...Did I choose an incompatible PSU?
If you've read this far thank you. I needed to vent. Any comments, criticisms, or sympathy's accepted.
I've honestly never heard of an "incompatible PSU". All PSUs use standardized sets of pins and cabling. The internals may differ, but one quality PSU should behave much the same as any other, as far as startup procedure goes. The motherboard actually handles the signaling of the PSU to send power. If the system is actually booting up rather than just fans spinning up and the like, with no system activity occuring, then the likely culprit is your motherboard. Sending power to the motherboard wouldn't cause the system to start up, even if the PSU were "sticking" on and still sending power, the most it would do is power components that don't rely on information from the motherboard to startup (fans, water cooling equipment or the like). My assumption is that there's a power-related function on the SuperMicro boards that's designed to signal server PSUs, but for some reason is triggering something unique in the X series PSUs that causes the issues, maybe the PWM circuitry that manages the fan (it's different from most other PSUs).
Seasonic is a sterling PSU maker, though. You shouldn't let this issue dissuade you from purchasing their supplies in the future. This is literally the only time I've ever heard of something like this.
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next month I need to get the last few things for my build I have almost the same build as this http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12822.0 I am planning on from now on to get 3tb drives. what about this for a psu http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-gold-2/ax850.html
Assuming you're running all green drives, that's probably more power than you need, but there's nothing wrong with it.
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Yeah it claims to have four rails on the casing which also seems suspect because that would be more like 850 - 900W. I'll check with a multimeter to see if the two hard disk rails are connected. I could always swap over the plugs on the PCIe connectors for Molex plugs and use them to power the hard disks as I won't be using a PCIe video card..
It is weird that they dion't split the hard disk connectors off more than one rail because according to Intel's ATX standard the maximum on any 12V rail should be 20 amps..., which means most single rail supplies do not comply with the ATX standard..
Thanks for the feedback Joe
John
Your math is incorrect. You don't figure out total +12V wattage on a multi-rail PSU by taking the rail amperages, multiplying them by the voltage in question and adding them together. The PSU label will have information for the total combined wattage. Basically the reason for this is that a multi-rail PSU is really just a single rail PSU with the current split up for OCP, so just like a single rail PSU it can only pull so much wattage. Each rail can go up to a certain maximum current before tripping OCP, but the supply as a whole cannot sustain all of the rails running at their maximum OCP rating.
And PeterB is absolutely correct, after ATX 2.3, there is no absolute over current limit.
I do wish someone would make a more server friendly consumer PSU. Having molex/hard drive power spread out over multiple rails would be nice. I mean, sure single rail makes things easy in the sense that you know there's no chance of tripping the OCP without just plain overloading the supply, but if you get a short and you're running a, say, 750W PSU, something is going to fry, and I wouldn't put my money on "not the drives".
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Just wanted to mention the upcoming NZXT Source 210. It's supposed to be very affordable (~$40) and with 3 5.25'' bays and 8 3.5'' internal bays you can run a single 5 in 3 cage and hit 13 drives for significantly less than the cost of running a 15-bay tower build. It's also very slick in terms of aesthetics.
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I currently have an array with 16 7K2000 drives. These are 7,200RPM drives but Hitachi shows the power at 2.0 and not three like has been suggested here for faster drives (should I believe Hitachi?). I'm getting close to needing more space so I'm looking to replace the Antec case/PSU with a Norco 4224 and have every intent to max it out with 24 drives as soon as unraid supports that many. I'm waiting for the next great sale on the 5K3000 drives and am trying to figure out the power requirements for the 4224 loaded with all these drives. I'm leaning towards the CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006). With a single 60A rail it seems that this should do just fine, no?
Also could someone please clue me in on the difference between their normal PSU and the enthusiast line such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021 It looks like it's justa $5 difference but I'd like to understand what the $5 gets you.
Both of the supplies you reference are from Corsair's TX line, the difference is that the first one is an older version of the unit, it's less efficient and performs worse. It's still a very solid supply, but the TX750 V2 (the second one you linked) is a much better buy overall. My feeling is that any price premium on the older unit is likely due to declining supply.
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I just wanted to toss in here that the Antec High Current Gamer PSUs in the 400W-620W range are based on the very solid Seasonic S12 Bronze platform. These are a slight efficiency upgrade over the standard S12 (also Antec Neo Eco from 400W-620W). Internally they are unchanged, and often come at a significant discount vs. their Seasonic branded counterparts. For example, the Seasonic 520W S12 Bronze is currently $80, whereas the Antec HCG 520W is $60.
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...which means they're a fine deal, I take it, right? Seasonic is the Mercedes-Benz, as far as I understand - and those new TX's are pretty good value.
Well, the Antec Neo Eco's are less efficient than more recent PSUs, one of the reasons Seasonic doesn't actually retail those standard S12s anymore (you can get S12 Bronze supplies, though), but they're relatively inexpensive and very reliable.
The TX's, new or old, are both very solid supplies, and good values. If you consider the rebate (I don't usually, but that's just me) the older TX line is probably a better value, but if you don't count on getting that money back, the TX V2s are better units all around, and really nice values, as are the virtually identical XFX Core Edition 650W units.
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I wouldn't doubt if they're the same PSU's and they just paid to certify them now. This way, they can change the packaging and charge more.
You'd be incorrect. The old TX series were a mix of Seasonic and CWT based units, while the TX V2s are based on the same Seasonic platform as some of the XFX Core Edition units.
Also, if I recall correctly the Antec Neo Eco units are based on Seasonic S12 platform.
The Power Supply Thread
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