November 10, 201015 yr I am building a 22 drive beast in a Norco 4224 case. At this point I am still collecting hardware and trying to use as much of what I already have as possible. I've read the PSU faq and if I understand correctly, put simply, a single 12v rail with as much wattage and amps as possible is best. The Thermaltake Toughpower PSU has 4 12V rails. 2 supply the motherboard with up to 48A and 1 supplies all of the sata connections with up to 18A according to the manual. The 4th rail I would not be using as it is for GPU 8 pin connectors. Since these rails are separate, there is no way for me to load balance if I understand the FAQ correctly? The Silverstone DA1200 seems a bit overkill but I already have it. I looked at their website and the marketing speak matches up with what the FAQ is saying is important: Powerful single +12V rail with 90A, 1200W continuous power output rated up to 50?, Efficiency greater than 80% at 20%~100% loading. Will this PSU fit in a Norco 4224 case? It's deeper than most normal PSU (150 mm (W) x 85 mm (H) x 230 mm (D)). Will the 6 standard molex connectors be enough to hook up to the drive cages in the Norco 4224? The 4224 looks like it requires 12 molex connectors, 2 for each row. Will 6 molex Y-splitters work? Am I missing something with the DA1200 and should try to sell it and get a CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX? Thanks! Todd
November 10, 201015 yr The silverstone PSU is overkill but it will work. you might also lose a bit of power efficiency as it might not be running in it's optimal range. The PSu should fit, from memory there is plenty of space in the 4224. The norco case only requires 6 molex for the SAS backplanes as the other 6 are for a redundant power supply. Depending on how you want to connect the fans up though you may need more. The standard 4 fan midplate runs off a molex connector and the 2 loud jet engines at the back run off a molex too. You can always start with that PSU and then get the Y splitters afterwards if you aren't poulating the whole case. If you need anything else let me know. Josh
November 10, 201015 yr The Thermaltake Toughpower PSU has 4 12V rails. 2 supply the motherboard with up to 48A and 1 supplies all of the sata connections with up to 18A according to the manual. The 4th rail I would not be using as it is for GPU 8 pin connectors. Since these rails are separate, there is no way for me to load balance if I understand the FAQ correctly? I thinnk you have the basic idea. According to the Thermaltake manual 12v1 = 8-pin-CPU power, 4-pin-CPU power 12v2 = 8-pin-CPU power, 6-pin-PCIe connectors 12v3 = 24-pin main MB power, 8-pin-PCIe connectors 12v4 = Peripheral and Floppy connectors, S-ATA connectors. 12v4 seems to be rated at 30Amps... so you might not be restricted to 18A as you thought. It still is not as capable as the silverstone supply but 30 Amps should be able to handle 10 or 12 drives. (figure on 2 to 3 amps per drive) It could certainly be used for the short term.
November 10, 201015 yr Author Good to know about the Norco 4224. The DA1200 has 4 connectors for a total of 12 molex but only comes with 2 cables. I will have to see if I can get an extra 1 or 2 for fans and skip the Y-Splitters. I have done some tests with a kill-a-watt meter and the PSU seems efficient. I have been testing power draw and without drives it is drawing less than 100w. This is an e6700 dual core running at 2.66ghz. I can get it down to 85w if I under clock the cpu to 1.33ghz and disable the second core, but that is a topic for another thread after I do some more searching. The manual for the Toughpower is a bit misleading, it lists the rails in order of max amps instead of in order by rail. The 12V4 only has 18A max before it will shutdown. Regardless, I don't think it will power my 18 drives I currently own.. +12V1 18A Max +12V4 18A Max +12V2 30A Max +12V3 30A Max
November 10, 201015 yr 6 molex would be enough for the backplanes. you need 2 more (1 may do as the jet engines on the back have a female and mail attachmetn but the cable might not be long enough) for the fans. A lot of people change the fans so they run quiter and most of those run off the mobo so you might not need more molexes. Josh
November 10, 201015 yr The manual for the Toughpower is a bit misleading, it lists the rails in order of max amps instead of in order by rail. The 12V4 only has 18A max before it will shutdown. Regardless, I don't think it will power my 18 drives I currently own.. +12V1 18A Max +12V4 18A Max +12V2 30A Max +12V3 30A Max The manual shows it differently... but perhaps your supply is different. I saw it in the page as shown below and it clearly indicates a 30Amp 12v4 rail where the SATA drives are connected, but as you said, even one 30A rail is not enough for 18 disks UNLESS you make up a custom cable so you can also take advantage of one of the PCIe rails, and add in the +5 volts from one of the 5volt sources for the rest of your disks. Really easy to do if you are handy with a soldering iron, and made easier because of the modular connectors to the supply. You are better off with the larger supply if you are building a full sized 22 disk array.
November 10, 201015 yr I bought a OCZ power supply on a whim once because I got a great combo deal. I forgot to look to see if it had a single rail or not. I discovered it was a 4 rail from the specs so I decided to see if I could open it up and combine the rails. When I opened it up all of the 12 volt lines were hooked together already. It might be worth a look under the hood before you make a final decision.
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