How strong a Power Supply needed for 12 IDE Drives?

[camara120]

Hi.

My friend is going to RAID 12 IDE Hard drives. How powerful a power supply will he need to give the drives as well as the rest of the machine enough power? Thanks!

 

[yhelothar]

one with a very high 12V+ rail
enermax has the highest, I'd look into the 550W and possibly the 660W

 

[Zepper]

Check the current draw (+12V line) per drive multiply that by 12 and add 8-10A for the rest of the system and a little more for some headroom - that's how much you need on the +12. On that size PSU you'll have plenty of +5V to go around. Lots of people have been modding in an extra PSU to power that many drives as 2 moderate PSUs can cost less than one monster. Although there is a 600W unit out there that's not too costly.
.bh.

 

[camara120]

This this one would be ok?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If he's got the bread for a 12-IDE RAID, he should quit putzing with consumer-level crap and jump headfirst into the world of redundant server PSUs.

2x600W should handle his needs - 3x500W would probably be about the same price though.

- M4H

 

[Pariah]

12 drive enclosures ship with 300W PS's, so a 450W should be plenty if you add a computer to it.

 

[Zepper]

I was thinking of the iBest at svc.com, but it's kind of weak on the 12V line for his application. That Enermax is gross overkill - around 40A of 12V.
The Sparkle or Fortron 550W units on newegg are still overkill but cost less than $100.
Or you could use two Enlight 300W units for a total of $50.
.bh.

pariah,
. The 300W PSUs in the drive array cases have only 5V and 12V rails divided specifically for drives (about 75% 12V and 25% 5V). Can't compare directly.
.bh.