May 2, 201016 yr Seasonic X650.. maybe overkill but completely silent, modular, highest quality and has it own 120mm PWM Seiko fan to prevent damage if overheated. Stays completely silent though whatever I do. It might be overkill at the expense of power usage. I would probably choose the 400W model. 6 drives and a low power MOBO CPU will not need 650watts and what you save in one place you may end up spending in another. My 750W PSU seems to add to the power draw even though I only have 5 disks in use. EDIT: I'm trying to find the best PSU for this build. Ideally, something modular and low wattage. I have a Corsair CMPSU-520HX in my HTPC that could be re-purposed, but it seems overkill. I might repurpose the 520HX and use the X650 for the HTPC.
May 2, 201016 yr PSU efficiency drops off under 20% load quite dramatically. I'd say anything upto 450 should be a good match, no problem with using the 520HX since you have one. If it is being used currently and doesnt need to be replaced, I'd look at something lower powered. I suspect like most unRAID servers the HDDs will spend most of their time spun down.
May 3, 201016 yr Seasonic X650.. maybe overkill but completely silent, modular, highest quality and has it own 120mm PWM Seiko fan to prevent damage if overheated. Stays completely silent though whatever I do. It might be overkill at the expense of power usage. I would probably choose the 400W model. 6 drives and a low power MOBO CPU will not need 650watts and what you save in one place you may end up spending in another. I would say for 6 disks anything over 200 watts is an overkill. My little NS-520 is happily running 6 internal disks with a 180W PSU, which is probably also an overkill as the highest spike ever recorded on the Kill-a-Watt with this server was 95W.
May 3, 201016 yr Seasonic X650.. maybe overkill but completely silent, modular, highest quality and has it own 120mm PWM Seiko fan to prevent damage if overheated. Stays completely silent though whatever I do. It might be overkill at the expense of power usage. I would probably choose the 400W model. 6 drives and a low power MOBO CPU will not need 650watts and what you save in one place you may end up spending in another. I would say for 6 disks anything over 200 watts is an overkill. My little NS-520 is happily running 6 internal disks with a 180W PSU, which is probably also an overkill as the highest spike ever recorded on the Kill-a-Watt with this server was 95W. My DS-520 spikes a bit higher. What drives are you using? Also the NS-520 vs the X7SPA with an additional card my require a wee bit more power. 6 Disks, fans and a card, 250 should be fine.
May 3, 201016 yr I expected a load around 120W dropping to 80W with HDD spundown that'll work with a 400W psu. With a 80+ certified supply even a 250 or 300w runs you $40-50, I'd take the 400CX from Corsair. Good length leads, 6 sata 6 molex, 3 year warranty, good reputation, $39.99 with rebate currently from newegg. Antec earthwatts 380 at $44 is a good contender if you dont like Corsair PSU's.
May 3, 201016 yr Seasonic X650.. maybe overkill but completely silent, modular, highest quality and has it own 120mm PWM Seiko fan to prevent damage if overheated. Stays completely silent though whatever I do. It might be overkill at the expense of power usage. I would probably choose the 400W model. 6 drives and a low power MOBO CPU will not need 650watts and what you save in one place you may end up spending in another. My 750W PSU seems to add to the power draw even though I only have 5 disks in use. The Seasonic X650 (and X750) appear to be the exceptions to the rule. Both are 80 Plus Gold Certified and have amazingly high efficiency even at low power consumption: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article986-page4.html It's supposed to have multiple 12V rails, though. Not sure if that's going to pose a problem. There's also the matter of pricing. With frequent promotions, you can get 3x Corsair 400CX power supplies for the price of one Seasonic X650.
June 1, 201016 yr Author I finally got this built. Supermicro X7SPA-HF-O Mini ITX MB G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 667 SO-DIMM #F2-5300CL5D-4GBSA RAM Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V PSU 6x Hitachi Deskstar HD32000 2TB 7200 RPM HDD Lian Li PC-Q08B Mini-ITX CASE Running parity creation @ ~ 58,000 KB/sec. The optical bay is the perfect area to stuff all the unused power cables. The case has 2 fans and the MB has 2 fan headers. Perfect. My storage needs are modest, so the capacity and physical size are just right. Since I now have three servers, I'll be selling some good parts in the near future. Will post in 'Pimp Your Rig' shortly.
June 1, 201016 yr This is exactly what I am planning on building - you beat me to it . I have ordered the Supermicro X7SPA-HF-O board, Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W power supply, 2x WD20EARS, 1x WD10EADS but can't get this case yet where I live so I intend on using the cheapest available case existing until I get it (HEC 6T10 - good small uATX case can fit at least 4-5 drives without modding).
June 1, 201016 yr It's a really elegant design. How do you like the IPMI on that board? I have trouble with that one on Mac OS X. It just doesn't want to work in the browser. And this the most beautyful case for this rig: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2∏=39
June 1, 201016 yr It's a really elegant design. How do you like the IPMI on that board? I have trouble with that one on Mac OS X. It just doesn't want to work in the browser. And this the most beautyful case for this rig: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2∏=39 That is a really nice case. Guess I did not realize how particular I was. I prefer the Lian Li case. I like having a DVD drive on my server so I can backup or burn an ISO OS image if I need to.
September 9, 201015 yr Supermicro X7SPA-HF-O Mini ITX MB G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 667 SO-DIMM #F2-5300CL5D-4GBSA RAM Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V PSU 6x Hitachi Deskstar HD32000 2TB 7200 RPM HDD Lian Li PC-Q08B Mini-ITX CASE Running parity creation @ ~ 58,000 KB/sec. The optical bay is the perfect area to stuff all the unused power cables. Rob, We've got almost identical rigs except for the RAM and HDs. I'm getting quite similar parity creation performance w/ a variety of WD Green 2TB and 1TB drives. Just curious... what are your drive temperature running? Are you still on stock Lian Li fans? I changed the fan on the top of the case to an Antec running at a little higher RPM, and was thinking of upgrading the front fan as well.
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