PSU Recommendations of new Norco RPC-4224 build to support 24 Hitachi 4TB drives


Auggie

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Yes, the larger drives will not require a larger power supply.

 

That depends upon the number of platters and the rotational speed.  A 4TB drive using 5 x 800GB platters will take more power to spin up than a 4TB drive using 4 x 1000GB platters.  Simple physics.  Same answer for 7200 RPM drives vs 5400 RPM drives.

 

Since these 4TB and 5TB WD Red drives have yet to be released, we can't know for sure what the spin-up power requirements may be.

 

Quite often HD manufacturers will utilize higher platter count versions on initial release of larger capacity sizes, so there's a pretty good chance that 5TB drives will require more power.

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As Paul noted, we simply don't know for sure.  But I'd fully expect the 4 & 5 TB Reds to be 1TB/platter drives ... so they'll clearly have slightly higher power requirements (especially at spinup) than their 3TB cousins.    But I think the operational difference (after spinup) will be a very small increment ... not enough to make a difference in your PSU.  For example, if it was a full watt more (probably not likely), on a 24 drive system that'd be 24 more watts ... probably well within your "headroom" on any quality PSU.

 

But the simple answer is we don't really know  :)

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Actually, I do have faith that the new larger capacity drives will not require more power. Because they have to fit the existing power available in the systems. If WD makes a new 5TB drive requiring 20% more power, it will not sell. Storage array manufacturers are not going to upgrade power supplies, buyers are not going to see the operating costs climb.

 

Drive manufacturers have a power envelope to fit in, and they will. It is very unlikely you will see a 6 platter drive again, and there are already have 5 platter drives at 7200rpm within the power spec.

 

Disk drive motors are key technology, and anyone who makes a power hungry version is going to lose.

 

Even incremental increases in power demand are going to frowned upon. The large scale demand is for lower power consumption, not even status quo, but lower. It is a purchase decision factor, and it's all about the sales.

 

Maybe you see the Reds as technology leaders, and you are willing to overpay and accept higher operating costs. But they are actual red headed step kids being repackaged.

 

I have no problem telling my vendors no thanks, I need lower costs especially for bulk storage. That's what 5TB drives are, bulk low cost storage. I have faith Seagate and WD understand their business. They have not ignored those meetings about power and cooling limits of available disk shelves. If they want in those shelves, they'll make drives that fit.

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  • 1 month later...

A tangent to this topic:

 

How long a SFF-8087 cable do I typically need to get from the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards to the RPC-4224 backplane?  As stated in the initial post, I'll be using a Supermicro X9SCM-F mobo and I'm trying to order all the parts in advance or concurrently and don't have the Norco case yet.

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  • 1 month later...

Just some follow-ups for future reference in case anyone else is contemplating similar hardware:

 

1)  0.5 meters is the perfect length for SFF-8087 cables that allows it to snake through the fan wall with a straight shot to the HBA's, with no extra slack to cause any unnecessary air flow impediments.

 

2)  I settled on the fan-less SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W PSU, and coupled with 120mm PWM Noctua's on the fan wall plus 80mm PWM Noctua's on the back, the server is practically silent: top priority since it's located with the component rack of my home theater.  I did have to resort to one SATA power splitter because the SS-520FL2 strangely comes with one 3-plug SATA cable and one 2-plug SATA cable; not enough to service the 6 SATA power receptacles of the drive backplanes.

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I did have to resort to one SATA power splitter because the SS-520FL2 strangely comes with one 3-plug SATA cable and one 2-plug SATA cable; not enough to service the 6 SATA power receptacles of the drive backplanes.

 

I assume you actually mean peripheral cables, since the 4224 uses molex, not sata power connectors.

 

My SS-860XP2 also didn't come with enough 4-pin hookups so I contacted seasonic. No free cables, but they directed me to

http://www.btostech.com/store/pc/Seasonic-Modular-Cables-c79.htm

who supplied me with additional cables at a very reasonable price.

 

They have both the old style (colored wires with nylon wrapping) and new style (flat black) cables. Some of the cables are slightly different between power supplies, but the molex ones are interchangable, if you happen to prefer one style over the other.

 

And just to stay on topic, according to my UPS my server (8 WD Green drives) uses about 100W of power with all drives spun down, 160 during parity check. Yeah, the power supply I got is a bit overkill. :P

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I did have to resort to one SATA power splitter because the SS-520FL2 strangely comes with one 3-plug SATA cable and one 2-plug SATA cable; not enough to service the 6 SATA power receptacles of the drive backplanes.

 

I assume you actually mean peripheral cables, since the 4224 uses molex, not sata power connectors.

 

My SS-860XP2 also didn't come with enough 4-pin hookups so I contacted seasonic. No free cables, but they directed me to

http://www.btostech.com/store/pc/Seasonic-Modular-Cables-c79.htm

who supplied me with additional cables at a very reasonable price.

 

They have both the old style (colored wires with nylon wrapping) and new style (flat black) cables. Some of the cables are slightly different between power supplies, but the molex ones are interchangable, if you happen to prefer one style over the other.

 

And just to stay on topic, according to my UPS my server (8 WD Green drives) uses about 100W of power with all drives spun down, 160 during parity check. Yeah, the power supply I got is a bit overkill. :P

 

Dang, nice to find replacement cables, but not the missing 4 or 5 Molex needed by Norco cases.

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I did have to resort to one SATA power splitter because the SS-520FL2 strangely comes with one 3-plug SATA cable and one 2-plug SATA cable; not enough to service the 6 SATA power receptacles of the drive backplanes.

 

I assume you actually mean peripheral cables, since the 4224 uses molex, not sata power connectors.

 

Ya, I totally was in the "SATA" mind-set when writing the post since it has been a month or so since getting it buttoned up and forgot that the cage backplanes use standard Molex.

 

My SS-860XP2 also didn't come with enough 4-pin hookups so I contacted seasonic. No free cables, but they directed me to

http://www.btostech.com/store/pc/Seasonic-Modular-Cables-c79.htm

who supplied me with additional cables at a very reasonable price.

 

They have both the old style (colored wires with nylon wrapping) and new style (flat black) cables. Some of the cables are slightly different between power supplies, but the molex ones are interchangable, if you happen to prefer one style over the other.

 

Shame about Seasonic not offering the cables themselves and referring to a third party, though eventually I may replace the splitter with one of them 3-Molex modular cables from the link; this is really just an aesthetic preference only as it's working just fine with the OEM modular cable with one splitter.

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