Newbie question on SATA power

[abernardi]

Hi everyone.  So far, so good.  I have the server up and running with just two drives at the moment and transferring data over as I write (remotely from work with logmein.com, I love these times!).  Anyway, I just picked up an  ISTAR BPU-350 5 bay cage on ebay and see there are 3 molex and two SATA power ports on the back.  On their website they say you should either use at least the 3 molex or the 2 SATA ports for power.  I understand that unRAID will spin down the drives that are not being used, so my question is, will this power distribution scheme prevent the drives from individually powering down when not in use?  Are they all going to be spinning when only one is needed? 

 

Another newbie question about the power supply.  It looks like there's just one bundle of wires coming out of the PSU including only 2 SATA power ends and 2 Molex ends.  I'll have 8 or 9 drives when this is finished.  Do I just buy some splitter cables, or is there another option?

[Joe L.]

Hi everyone.  So far, so good.  I have the server up and running with just two drives at the moment and transferring data over as I write (remotely from work with logmein.com, I love these times!).  Anyway, I just picked up an  ISTAR BPU-350 5 bay cage on ebay and see there are 3 molex and two SATA power ports on the back.  On their website they say you should either use at least the 3 molex or the 2 SATA ports for power.  I understand that unRAID will spin down the drives that are not being used, so my question is, will this power distribution scheme prevent the drives from individually powering down when not in use?  Are they all going to be spinning when only one is needed? 

 

Another newbie question about the power supply.  It looks like there's just one bundle of wires coming out of the PSU including only 2 SATA power ends and 2 Molex ends.  I'll have 8 or 9 drives when this is finished.  Do I just buy some splitter cables, or is there another option?

What brand/model power supply do you have?  It almost sounds as if it might not be capable for 8 or 9 drives?

[Rajahal]

Your drives should still be able to spin down individually, even if they share power through your drive cage.

 

What type of PSU do you have?  I'm surprised that you have only 2 SATA and 2 molex, most modern PSUs have at least 4 of each.  You can use cable splitters, that's what many people do.  Just get decent quality ones as cheapo ones are more likely to fail over time and cause you headaches.  Monoprice.com is a good source for all kinds of cables.

[abernardi]

Joe & Rajahal,

  OK, thanks for the power clarification.  I have a Visionman Acserva TSI 1NG700 server with an Orion 585 Watt PSU.  It's somewhat old in computer years, I think it came out in 2003 or 2004.  Asus P5N-MX moto, Pentium dual core E2180 CPU, 2GB RAM, 10/100 built-in ethernet (I think I'll upgrade that to gigabit), 2 PCI, 1 PCIe 1X, 1 PCIe 16x, 4 SATA ports (need another 4 port SATA card).  Any good, cheap Gigabit and SATA cards you'd recommend?

 

 

 

 

[lionelhutz]

Those power connections are all connected together in the cage. So, you could just use 2 connections and be fine. Honestly, I expect 1 connection may be OK but 2 would give extra insurance.

 

Peter

 

[abernardi]

I found those power suggestions on the iStar website.  They said it's safer for when all the drives spin up together and pull a lot of current.