PSUs & Rackmount Cases

[BillK]

Background

As the number of drives began to grow in my unRAID server (now 6 SATA and 2 IDE), I started to wonder how well my PSU (an Enermax NoiseTaker II 600W) would stand up to the demands (it has two +12V rails, one for the single 4-pin Aux CPU connector and one for everything else).  Each rail is rated for 22A, with a combined total of 35A.  I plan to conduct some Internet research (drive specs), as well as run some tests using a Fluke multimeter, but it dawned on me that there might be another path...

 

A second PSU! 

 

The problem with this solution is how to mount it.  I currently use a 19" rack to house all my equipment.  This approach maximizes the amount of equipment I can stuff into a relatively small footprint (a KVM, two UPSs, three 4U servers, a scanner, two printers, a cable modem, a switch, a telcon punch down, and a wireless router).  The downside is the cost of rackmount cases, which tend to start at ~$200 and only go up from there.

 

Unfortunately, my current 4U case is only made to handle one PSU.  I checked the Cool Master website, particularly for their stacker unit, but it only appears to come in a tower configuration.

 

Questions

So this leads me to three questions:

 

1.  Am I worrying over nothing (i.e., just keep adding drives)?

2.  Does the Cool Master Stacker case really have room for two full size PSUs, or does it use one of those "mini" dual PSU units?

3.  Does anyone have a rackmount case recommendation for dual PSUs?

 

Thanks.

 

BillK

[cool_runner]

You should check out this thread. Most important he used a dedicated case for his MB and OS drive, and placed all his storage drives in another case, with each case having its own PSU.

 

I was hoping to do the same things he did, but use unRAID instead of WHS. Unfortunately, according to Tom port multipliers have experimental support in linux right now. Although he wasn't clear if he could make it work.

 

By the way, if you look at the first post in the thread, he links to a 4U server case that is only $80+shipping.

[ysss]

Port multiplier still doesn't work. Here's an excerpt from Tom's email regarding PM:

 

As for port multiplier support - doesn't look good as of today.  Check

out these threads:

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg05844.html

 

http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg06171.html

 

I don't really want to revert to an earlier kernel release (2.6.18) in

order to install the unsupported patch mentioned in the above thread.

 

My unraid server has a PM Box ready to be connected... so once Tom has found a good source for PM support to be included, I can try it out a.s.a.p. and post my findings here.

[goofygrin]

You could "ghetto" wire it since SATA cables can be longer than PATA.

[ysss]

Yes, very good point