December 2, 201411 yr So, the HGSTs are rated at 2A startup power (http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/0BF8B842F66D454288257C74007E842B/$file/DS_NAS_spec.pdf) As the Fractal R5 houses up to 8x 3.5" drives you're looking at something like max 16A draw on 12V at startup. The 860 delivers a whopping 71A on 12V. Even when you allow for the other components, there is plenty headroom. The thing with a PSU for systems like media storage servers is that most of the time, they'll be idling, with a very low power draw. For a system like yours, with let's say 8 drives each sucking up 7.3 watt and a mobo + cpu combo probably at 40-45 watt (when you include a SATA card for the two last disks as well as the IPMI) you won't exactly be pushing the 860 watt PSU. Utilization will be less than 10 percent. Which means that the Platinum level efficiency you're paying good money for is effectively not giving you much in return. Expect somewhere around 85-86% efficiency. The Seasonic SS400FL2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151097) delivers 33A on 12V and would provide somewhere near 91% efficiency at 25% load. To sum up - unless you have some other motive for going for the 860, you can probably get more efficiency from a smaller (and less costly) PSU.
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