October 25, 200817 yr Starting this thread as a placeholder for later addition of a summary to the wiki. If you know of a PSU that meets these specifications or better please post a Make, Model/Serial number and URL if one exists: Single Rail 550W or greater 80% efficiency or better 120mm fan or bigger Globally available a.k.a not a no name wonder / re-brand We can refine this list of criteria as they are added. I will start: Make: Corsair Wattage: 650W Model: TX Series PSU CMPSU-650TXUK. Other: 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail. URL: http://www.corsairmemory.com/products/tx.aspx
October 25, 200817 yr Make: Corsair Wattage: 550W Model: CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Other: 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V 41amp Rail. URL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 This is the one I have & it runs 16 drives just fine.
October 26, 200817 yr Make: Corsair Wattage: 550W Model: CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Other: 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V 41amp Rail. URL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 This is the one I have & it runs 16 drives just fine. Same store, same brand, $2 more, 100W more ... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=650TX Bill P.S. This thread reminded me I need one, just bought it.
October 26, 200817 yr Make: Corsair Wattage: 550W Model: CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Other: 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V 41amp Rail. URL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 This is the one I have & it runs 16 drives just fine. Same store, same brand, $2 more, 100W more ... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=650TX Bill P.S. This thread reminded me I need one, just bought it. That's the PS I use. Highly reccomend.
October 26, 200817 yr Make: Corsair Wattage: 750W Model: CMPSU-750TX Other: 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V 60 amp Rail. URL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 Cool as a cucumber
October 26, 200817 yr Question, why only those with 120mm fans? Even power supplies with 80mm fans can be quiet... For example: Make: PC Power and Cooling Wattage: 610W Model: Silencer 610 S61EPS Other: 80mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V 49A Rail URL: http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-610-eps12v.html Isn't that the one Tom uses for his MD-1500 builds? Addendum: I did a search on Newegg and I didn't realize only a few power supplies featured single 12V rails. Even less when you consider the 550+W requirement.
October 26, 200817 yr Author OK great responses so far. Based on cost and performance I would say its best to only list one Corsair PSU in the TX range (the 750W). From the specs it can handle more load before the noise starts to ramp up and has a 140mm fan instead of a 120mm one. Otherwise we will be listing 3 or 4 PSU's from the same range of every manufacturer which seems a bit pointless. So far then we have 2 PSU's. (These things are rarer than I would have thought.) I also looked at a few others and I was a tad annoyed to find alot of manufacturers hide their test stats. i.e they dont show: heat, noise or real power graphs on their www sites. I was also thinking of adding "modula"r to the requirements list. Personally I have having loads of unused cables kicking about in a case. Opinions?
October 26, 200817 yr Much better than corsairs *50w (except 450W) are ones ending with *20w as they are manufactured by seasonic thus to which they're quieter and more efficient. I'd recommend you Corsair 520W [CMPSU-520HXEU]. A great alternative are also BeQuiet's P7 Dark Power Pro PSU's. Nowadays these are the best PSU's concerning their noise and efficiency. If i were you and could afford one, i'd definietly go with it. Actually, they don't have 'true' single 12v line, but their four rails are bridged into one (they have four converters which consist of one rail). Second important thing is how much power you really need. In fact the highest efficiency is reached when psu is loaded between 40 and 50%. What's more typical unraid machines don't draft as much power as people think. Let's assume an examplary server: - 16 X 1Tb non-wd green disk's - celeron e1400 - 1 gig of ram - generic motherboard /w gpu integrated - two external silicon image sata controllers For that server the a suitable psu is a good 550W. The biggest energy draft takes place when disks are being spun up. In that moment it may reach up to 27.5W per disk (25W on 12v rail and 2.5W on 5v rail) so, it's easile countable that for sixteen disks the peak power draft (on 12v) may be as big as 400W so, there are still 100W free for rest of the hardware. After spinning up the power need drops to what manufacturer's declare and, the typical value is 0.75A * 12V = 9W so, for sixteen disks it's 144W + 75 watts for hardware = 219W. 219W / 550W * 100% = 39,8% - the psu efficiency is high when loaded like this.
October 26, 200817 yr Author Now we are getting somewhere, thanks Koperfild. Ok so Wattage rating is almost irrelevant. The problem I have is whilst the BeQuiet's look excellent they dont show power efficiency graphs anywhere so we are essentially guessing that they max out (efficiency wise) at 50% (although its likely a good guess). So lets redirect this thread to "here is a shortlist of PSUs you should choose from for a fully populated 16 drive unRAID that scale to 20 dives making the assumption that will be coming sometime in the next year". Can you also explain "Actually, they don't have 'true' single 12v line, but their four rails are bridged into one (they have four converters which consist of one rail". I see each rail is rated up to 20A as per ATX spec but the total Amperage rating is 52A. This worrys me as: 27.5W per disk = 2.3Amps peek at startup So 16 disks = 37Amps Whilst i understand its unlilely to hit that theoretical peak 37Amps is still much greater than 20Amps meaning you must split them between rails or you will have a problem. Also 4 rails at 20Amps = 80 Amps which is much less than the 52Amp maximum. I am concerned this coud pose a problem to users that just plug things in and dont know the consequences.
October 26, 200817 yr Now we are getting somewhere, thanks Koperfild. Ok so Wattage rating is almost irrelevant. The problem I have is whilst the BeQuiet's look excellent they dont show power efficiency graphs anywhere so we are essentially guessing that they max out (efficiency wise) at 50% (although its likely a good guess). So lets redirect this thread to "here is a shortlist of PSUs you should choose from for a fully populated 16 drive unRAID that scale to 20 dives making the assumption that will be coming sometime in the next year". Can you also explain "Actually, they don't have 'true' single 12v line, but their four rails are bridged into one (they have four converters which consist of one rail". I see each rail is rated up to 20A as per ATX spec but the total Amperage rating is 52A. This worrys me as: 27.5W per disk = 2.3Amps peek at startup So 16 disks = 37Amps Whilst i understand its unlilely to hit that theoretical peak 37Amps is still much greater than 20Amps meaning you must split them between rails or you will have a problem. Also 4 rails at 20Amps = 80 Amps which is much less than the 52Amp maximum. I am concerned this coud pose a problem to users that just plug things in and dont know the consequences. Well, i've done some more researches about be quiet psu's and it looks like i lied to you about their "brigded rails". In fact only two of their four 12v rails supply the power for sata devices. Now, recommended psu's are: - Antec TruePower Trio 650 - up to 18 drives, dual core cpu, three pci sata controller - PCP&C Silencer 610W - up to 18 drives, dual core cpu, two pci sata controller - Corsair HX620W - up to 18 drives, dual core cpu, two pci sata controller - PCP&C Silencer 500W - up to 13 drives, dual core cpu, two pci sata controller - Corsair HX520W - up to 13 drives, dual core cpu, two pci sata controller - Corsair VX450W - up to 10 drives, dual core, one pci sata controller Don't worry about Corsair's and Antec's rail separation, it's just a marketing hoax.
October 26, 200817 yr Another way of dealing with the surge issue is enabling power up on standby. With the most modern drives, this is either a jumper or software setting. It's a way of enabling staggered spin up on the drives without defining something at the controller level.
October 26, 200817 yr Another way of dealing with the surge issue is enabling power up on standby. With the most modern drives, this is either a jumper or software setting. It's a way of enabling staggered spin up on the drives without defining something at the controller level. True, by the way, does anybody know if there is a possibility to disable that feature in barracuda .11 drives and enable the standard role (activity info) for the 11th pin in the sata mole? I've found two documents about that but don't understand much: http://ftp.t10.org/ftp/t13/technical/d97150r0.pdf http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7221531/description.html
October 27, 200817 yr Tread carefully here... you're traveling amongst the world of specsmanship... I suggested the Corsair 750 due to real world experience, not as a result of examining the "specs"... my systems has had as many as 14 drives, not earth shaking, but substantial... I've had two other power supplies in it, an OCZ 600 watt and a Seasonic 650 watt... with both supplies (mostly with the OCZ) the machine would re-boot when I hit the button to spin up all drives. Power calculations aside, as they predicted "no problem ", I think actual results count for a lot more credibility.... I can only say that the Corsair 750 runs cool (speaks to efficiency) and doesn't sag under load... YMMV
October 27, 200817 yr Tread carefully here... you're traveling amongst the world of specsmanship... I suggested the Corsair 750 due to real world experience, not as a result of examining the "specs"... my systems has had as many as 14 drives, not earth shaking, but substantial... I've had two other power supplies in it, an OCZ 600 watt and a Seasonic 650 watt... with both supplies (mostly with the OCZ) the machine would re-boot when I hit the button to spin up all drives. Power calculations aside, as they predicted "no problem ", I think actual results count for a lot more credibility.... I can only say that the Corsair 750 runs cool (speaks to efficiency) and doesn't sag under load... YMMV Unlike Corsair, both Seasonic and OCZ have split 12v rail, and that was the problem.
October 27, 200817 yr Author My gut tells me the 750W is too big. Will do some more calculations. What is becoming clear here is that there is only a small handful of PSU's that match unRAID's fully loaded requirements (which is what we should be speccing for). I have started a wiki page here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=PSU Please lend a hand editing it but lets keep it a quick read and simple to understand; essentially background to why the short list as the ones you should buy.
October 27, 200817 yr Unlike Corsair, both Seasonic and OCZ have split 12v rail, and that was the problem. Also, if memory serves me correctly, a change was put in to the spin up command where the drives were spun up all at once rather then serially. That's a huge surge/drain at all once. I would love to hear how this works with the Corsair supplies that allow shared power from other rails.
October 27, 200817 yr I would love to hear how this works with the Corsair supplies that allow shared power from other rails. Look here: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990
October 27, 200817 yr Author The Corsair 750 is the front runner this now but am i right in saying its not modular?
October 27, 200817 yr The Corsair 750 is the front runner this now but am i right in saying its not modular? No it is not modular.
October 27, 200817 yr I don't think there are any modular power supplies that only has a single 12V rail. If you want modular, the Corsair HX series seems to be the best bet.
October 28, 200817 yr Unlike Corsair, both Seasonic and OCZ have split 12v rail, and that was the problem. I don't think so... I was real careful to balance the loading.
October 28, 200817 yr BTW, the Corsair 750 is on sale right now at Newegg for ~$100 after rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 Free shipping, too. Cheers, Bill
October 28, 200817 yr BTW, the Corsair 750 is on sale right now at Newegg for ~$100 after rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 Free shipping, too. Cheers, Bill $82 shipped with the promo code right now. When that's expired, Provantage has been cheaper than Newegg on these all summer (I keep looking up prices on the 1000HX). http://www.provantage.com/corsair-memory-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm EDIT: $74 after rebate from buy.com. 5% off coupon. http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=84773074 http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-750w-tx-series-80-plus-certified-power-supply-corsair-tx-cmpsu/q/loc/101/206178325.html
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