The Power Supply Thread


dgaschk

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Well..  I took apart the PS and moved some stuff around..  I believe it is just one 12V regulator rail that has separate crude current limiting on each branch.

Anyway.. 

Rail 1 was the 12V to the MB 24pin connector and all the hard drive connectors.

Rail 2 was the 12V for the CPU power the 4+4 connector)

Rail 3 was PCIe power 1

Rail 4 was PCIe power 2.

 

I yanked the PCIe power 1 and moved it to Rail 1

I split the 4 drive cables:  2 go to Rail 3 and 2 go to rail 4

 

And wouldn't you know it..  They have a 620W PS single rail for $30 AR FS from Antec today!!  Figures!

I would have got that one instead of hacking mine..  Oh well...

 

Jim

 

 

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I have the Antec 300 case, which is a nice case, especially the 120mm fans on the front. With that said, I was looking into getting the Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU since it supports 11 drives, which is the max my case will hold once I get the 5-3 drive bay adapter.

 

I don't really need 7200 RPM drives since the server is not an intense read/write operation. So I would assume that the 520W PSU would be more than enough for 5400 RPM drives, or green drives? Case also has a slot for an SSD drive too.

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- I have a SeaSonic on the way.

 

+1

 

After having various power related problems with various builds over the years --- including both my unRaid servers,

using power supplies from Corsair, Antec, Rosewill, etc.,  I started using SeaSonic X-Series Gold power supplies only.

 

They are more expensive, (go on sale regularly though) but in my opinion---worth it!!

 

I have had no power related issues with any of my 'puters since!  ;D

 

Just my 2 cents worth --- YMMV

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  • 3 weeks later...

Building my server with

 

Intel 1220L 20W tdp

supermicro x9scl+-f

6 WD GREEN HDD

8GB RAM

Define mini case

 

The PSU mentioned SeaSonic X series SS-400FL 400W is very nice, but my power draw will be around 80+24x6=230W and since this PSU is not Platinum power efficiency will not be 90%, more like 88% at idle, very bad if you ask me.

 

So perhaps there is better PSU?

How could intel make MAJOR screw up by releasing nice Xeon low power CPU's but forgot about PSU? They should make PSU's too, as how can you make power efficient server without power efficient PSU?

 

And I can say the same for AMD, nice move on E-350 18W but hey, you must use picoPSU and it's not very nice as you will be depending on you power brick to do what seasonic does with 2x more components.

 

And I know that Titianium PSU is what I need, they are at 20% load as efficient as Gold is at 50%. But how come nobody makes them?

 

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Here's a wacky idea for a combined UPS and PSU.  It's called a car battery  ::)  12 volts (approx), tapped at 4 cells for 5v (approx) with a decent charger on it.  Anybody tried it?

 

After all, our UPS is a 12 volt battery, run through an inverter to produce 230VAC (in Thailand) then the PSU steps it down to 12volts AC, rectifies it to DC and smooths it to nearly as good as a car battery, all that inefficiency...

 

You could probably get 4-6 hours Uninterruptible Battery Backup with a decent car battery. 

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Here's a wacky idea for a combined UPS and PSU.  It's called a car battery  ::)  12 volts (approx), tapped at 4 cells for 5v (approx) with a decent charger on it.  Anybody tried it?

 

After all, our UPS is a 12 volt battery, run through an inverter to produce 230VAC (in Thailand) then the PSU steps it down to 12volts AC, rectifies it to DC and smooths it to nearly as good as a car battery, all that inefficiency...

 

You could probably get 4-6 hours Uninterruptible Battery Backup with a decent car battery. 

 

My friend who worked as admin for hosting company got very sick and still has chronic cough after working in server room with UPS and car battery. So it must the the outgassing fumes of car battery that got him sick. If anyone attempts this them YOU MUST USE SEALED CARD BATTERY, do not use regular battery that you can add water to.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ive picked out most of the parts of my new server build.  I just can figure out this PSU stuff.  I want to be efficient as possible, meaning I dont get a bigger PSU than I need.

Mobo-ASUS M4A78LT-M LE mATX AM3 DDR3 AMD 760G 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI Radeon 3000 Sound GBLAN Motherboard

CPU-AMD Athlon II X2 260 Dual Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ 2MB L2 Cache 65W 45NM Retail Box

RAM -2Ggig

HD- Will have 5 WD Green drives to start but eventually will go up to 11-12

Generic 12 bay case with 2-3 fans plus cpu fan

 

The PSU im thinking is

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_441&item_id=041478

 

will this be okay?

 

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Ive picked out most of the parts of my new server build.  I just can figure out this PSU stuff.  I want to be efficient as possible, meaning I dont get a bigger PSU than I need.

Mobo-ASUS M4A78LT-M LE mATX AM3 DDR3 AMD 760G 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI Radeon 3000 Sound GBLAN Motherboard

CPU-AMD Athlon II X2 260 Dual Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ 2MB L2 Cache 65W 45NM Retail Box

RAM -2Ggig

HD- Will have 5 WD Green drives to start but eventually will go up to 11-12

Generic 12 bay case with 2-3 fans plus cpu fan

 

The PSU im thinking is

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_441&item_id=041478

 

will this be okay?

 

Keep using green drives and that will be fine.

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Ive picked out most of the parts of my new server build.  I just can figure out this PSU stuff.  I want to be efficient as possible, meaning I dont get a bigger PSU than I need.

Mobo-ASUS M4A78LT-M LE mATX AM3 DDR3 AMD 760G 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI Radeon 3000 Sound GBLAN Motherboard

CPU-AMD Athlon II X2 260 Dual Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ 2MB L2 Cache 65W 45NM Retail Box

RAM -2Ggig

HD- Will have 5 WD Green drives to start but eventually will go up to 11-12

Generic 12 bay case with 2-3 fans plus cpu fan

 

The PSU im thinking is

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_441&item_id=041478

 

will this be okay?

 

Keep using green drives and that will be fine.

 

thank you.  Upon further research I see this motherboard has issues with unraid due to the NIC.  No biggie though.

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Hmmm i have a bit of a problem that maybe someone could explain/help out with. I just got my unraid server up and running and love it. but whatever thats not why im here :)

 

I'm here in regards to the PSU i'd picked out.  heres the setup....pretty much everything but the mobo was from Raj's recommendations.

 

Norco 470

BIOSTAR TA785G3HD AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX

AMD Sempron 145

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 240-Pin DDR3

PSU- CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W

At the moment 3 ecogreen 2tb drives.....soon as transfers finish itll be 5 2tb eco greens plus 1 1tb green drive. (which should suit me fine for a long time)

 

The PSU is where i have issues. It simply won't work with the other components. Plug it in and i get a split second of led lights coming on then they turn off. Luckily i had a "backup" Logisys ~500W psu laying around (from a power outage and subsequent emergency purchase of a PSU the store had on hand) . So plop it in and everything works. In fact that is what is running the server at the moment. However it is loud, lacks SATA plugs (has 2) so im using convertors and overall its just to loud.

 

Now i did take the Corsair that wasn't working and tried it on the new HTPC is was building (i-3 sandy bridge and asrock h67M-ITX mobo) and it started that up just fine. So i know the actual PSU works. As does the mobo.

 

I do also have a corsair TX650 but i was planning on saving that till i built my new pc, as such i dont really want to use it and also it seems like it would be overkill anyways (the corsair 430W Raj had recommended even at 10+ drives). Funny as I had a corsair PSU die on me and i sent it to corsair and got that one instead. one i sent in was ~400W i got for like 25 bucks. Not a bad deal IMO :)

 

So i guess im here for a what would you do? The logisys psu is simply to loud. is there anyway/idea's to get the corsair CX430 to work with that setup or am i SOL? In which case any recommendations on a replacement PSU?

 

 

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The 430W PSU absolutely should work for your set up.  Perhaps you just had a loose connection?  Also, did you remember to plug in the small 4 pin power plug as well as the large 20 pin one?  Your motherboard requires both (not all do).

 

Yep i plugged in the 20+4 (ie 24 pin) and the 4 pin. For the four pin had to split the "8pin" apart. Shouldnt matter which four of the two i use right? I checked for loose connections as well, used a bit of force (not much just enough to make sure it was all the way in for sure) and it didnt matter.

 

I'd actually ordered two of these and put one in my old pc. It gave me a bit of a struggle and wouldnt work at first but after 5 minutes of plugging it in and then unp[lugging and testing with the logisys it finally worked and has been ever since (about 2 weeks now).

 

Just not sure why this one wont work when i know it works (via testing with the htpc). Google hasnt been much help as most people seem to either be problems with the psu or mobo not just one not wanting to turn the other on

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Huh, that's very odd.  I've never had any trouble with those PSUs, and I've used probably 10 or more of them.  You are correct that it shouldn't matter which half of the 8 pin connector you use, but of course it can't hurt to try the other half.  I suppose at this point I would just return the PSU as defective and go for a different brand (such as the 400W Antec Neo Eco).

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yeah its puzzled a few other people i've talked to as well since it works on the htpc but just not on that mobo. If i hadnt installed the other in my desktop i'd give it a try but it's a hassle. Curious if its a corsair issue with that motherboard or just the psu itself.  Ill just hold onto it over sending back. Cheap enough to not worry on the price (40 bucks aint bad) vs having to lose 15% plus shipping to return it anyways. Thanks for the recommendation on the antec as well.  Definitely need something quieter. I live in such a quiet area that the fan from the logisys psu can be heard outside the closet doors and in the hallway. Or maybe i just have a thing against fans as my laundry room "vent" fan annoys me too lol

 

Other than that though everything runs great!

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Yep i plugged in the 20+4 (ie 24 pin) and the 4 pin. For the four pin had to split the "8pin" apart. Shouldnt matter which four of the two i use right? I checked for loose connections as well, used a bit of force (not much just enough to make sure it was all the way in for sure) and it didnt matter.

 

After you split the 8pin apart, if you look at the two sides of the 4+4 connector, they aren't exactly the same.  I'd make sure you had the correct one connected to the motherboard, as I've had problems when the wrong one was connected.

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Yep i plugged in the 20+4 (ie 24 pin) and the 4 pin. For the four pin had to split the "8pin" apart. Shouldnt matter which four of the two i use right? I checked for loose connections as well, used a bit of force (not much just enough to make sure it was all the way in for sure) and it didnt matter.

 

After you split the 8pin apart, if you look at the two sides of the 4+4 connector, they aren't exactly the same.  I'd make sure you had the correct one connected to the motherboard, as I've had problems when the wrong one was connected.

 

I'd tried them both. One is the "standard" 3 squares and 1 rounded while the other is all rounded. if that makes sense. Anyways i'd tried them both with no luck. I just ordered the 400W Antec Neo Eco anyways so hopefully that will work

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So I hate the Corsair I have, mostly because it has too many thick unused cables... by Black Friday I'd like to do it right and buy a Seasonic modular like I should have in the first place...

 

I currently have 11 drives, but I'm planning on eventually expanding to a full 20 (4 on the mobo, 8 on one card, 8 on the other)

 

Parity is a 7200 RPM, rest are green drives and will be...

 

650, 750, 850; which one would get me by?

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I'm using that Seasonic X650, and love it!  The reason that it's on offer is that it's been replaced by the X660.  However, the 660 comes with only five 'molex' peripheral connectors (eight on the 650).  This may, or may not, be a problem for you, but my plan to add 5x3 cages to my machine dictated that more molex would be required.  This was enough to swing me towards the X650!

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