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I need a BIG atx power supply
- Thread starter hondaman
- Start date
Theguynextdoor
Golden Member
What did you build a server? I think you can get about with 2 PSU's.
Short lengths of 18 ga wire can handle about 10A, so you probably don't want to run more than 6 or seven drives per branch off of the PSU to take the added startup current into consideration. Amp makes drive power connectors that you can clip right onto existing 18 ga wires (like insulation displacement connectors on drive cables.) Zippy PSUs have drive branches that are about 21" to the first connector and another 7" to the other one (only two per branch) total 28" long. Would be a good one to mod for that. You need to know the max startup current of your drives so you can judge what total amps on the 12V rail you need.
. Are you able to stagger-start your drives on initial power up like SCSI? If so, you might be able to put more than 5 or 6 per branch off the PSU. In any case, I know of no PSU that has that many drive connectors as standard equipment. With that many drives it is std. practice to use hot-swap cages that only require one or two drive power connectors per cage. If you are going cageless, you will have to do the 'Y' thing or roll your own connection solution.
. Using two PSUs is probably a good plan as buying one with the Amps you will need if all drives start up at the same time will break the bank. The $300. , 700W Zippy claims 45A@+12V and that is about what you will need (about 42 A, maybe more, just to cover the drive startup surge). While you can get two high quality PSUs with about 50A total on the +12 for under $200. Once all the drives are spun up, you'll only need 14A plus some headroom, say 20A total) to keep them going. Stagger start is a GOOD THING!
. If one PSU goes bad, you may lose your array; if one of two goes bad, you lose your array. The odds are a bit higher, but not drastic. The key is making verified backups. RAID is NOT equal to backing up - even RAID 5 - it's purpose is mainly to minimize downtime. If you plan on running w/o backups then I'll be here with the "I told you sos" and my miniature violins... 😉 You will want to put the whole thing on a stout UPS too. I seldom have any hardware problems with a machine that runs off of a quality UPS - "pity the fool" that runs without.
.bh.
. Are you able to stagger-start your drives on initial power up like SCSI? If so, you might be able to put more than 5 or 6 per branch off the PSU. In any case, I know of no PSU that has that many drive connectors as standard equipment. With that many drives it is std. practice to use hot-swap cages that only require one or two drive power connectors per cage. If you are going cageless, you will have to do the 'Y' thing or roll your own connection solution.
. Using two PSUs is probably a good plan as buying one with the Amps you will need if all drives start up at the same time will break the bank. The $300. , 700W Zippy claims 45A@+12V and that is about what you will need (about 42 A, maybe more, just to cover the drive startup surge). While you can get two high quality PSUs with about 50A total on the +12 for under $200. Once all the drives are spun up, you'll only need 14A plus some headroom, say 20A total) to keep them going. Stagger start is a GOOD THING!
. If one PSU goes bad, you may lose your array; if one of two goes bad, you lose your array. The odds are a bit higher, but not drastic. The key is making verified backups. RAID is NOT equal to backing up - even RAID 5 - it's purpose is mainly to minimize downtime. If you plan on running w/o backups then I'll be here with the "I told you sos" and my miniature violins... 😉 You will want to put the whole thing on a stout UPS too. I seldom have any hardware problems with a machine that runs off of a quality UPS - "pity the fool" that runs without.
.bh.
http://pcpowercooling.com/about/index_whatnew.htm
I'm gonna get one that is a cross between a 510w AG and a 510w SLi for the connectors.
24+6+8 for the mobo (SSI ETX 3.51 for Tyan 2885 and 2895's)
2 PCIe 6pin 12v's
6 SATA
5 molex lines with 3 connectors each (12 molex and 3 mini's)
I'm gonna get one that is a cross between a 510w AG and a 510w SLi for the connectors.
24+6+8 for the mobo (SSI ETX 3.51 for Tyan 2885 and 2895's)
2 PCIe 6pin 12v's
6 SATA
5 molex lines with 3 connectors each (12 molex and 3 mini's)
Originally posted by: Zepper
Short lengths of 18 ga wire can handle about 10A, so you probably don't want to run more than 6 or seven drives per branch off of the PSU to take the added startup current into consideration. Amp makes drive power connectors that you can clip right onto existing 18 ga wires (like insulation displacement connectors on drive cables.) Zippy PSUs have drive branches that are about 21" to the first connector and another 7" to the other one (only two per branch) total 28" long. Would be a good one to mod for that. You need to know the max startup current of your drives so you can judge what total amps on the 12V rail you need.
. Are you able to stagger-start your drives on initial power up like SCSI? If so, you might be able to put more than 5 or 6 per branch off the PSU. In any case, I know of no PSU that has that many drive connectors as standard equipment. With that many drives it is std. practice to use hot-swap cages that only require one or two drive power connectors per cage. If you are going cageless, you will have to do the 'Y' thing or roll your own connection solution.
. Using two PSUs is probably a good plan as buying one with the Amps you will need if all drives start up at the same time will break the bank. The $300. , 700W Zippy claims 45A@+12V and that is about what you will need (about 42 A, maybe more, just to cover the drive startup surge). While you can get two high quality PSUs with about 50A total on the +12 for under $200. Once all the drives are spun up, you'll only need 14A plus some headroom, say 20A total) to keep them going. Stagger start is a GOOD THING!
. If one PSU goes bad, you may lose your array; if one of two goes bad, you lose your array. The odds are a bit higher, but not drastic. The key is making verified backups. RAID is NOT equal to backing up - even RAID 5 - it's purpose is mainly to minimize downtime. If you plan on running w/o backups then I'll be here with the "I told you sos" and my miniature violins... 😉 You will want to put the whole thing on a stout UPS too. I seldom have any hardware problems with a machine that runs off of a quality UPS - "pity the fool" that runs without.
.bh.
Sounds like you know what you are talking about, hehe, but I am not too technically savy when speaking about electicity and/or its components. I wouldnt necessarily be opposed to modding 2 PSU's, however, I havent seen a diagram on how to do it when using the particular type of PSU that i am using. The MB is a Tyan Thunder K7, and allegedly, it takes a special type of PSU
No, the drives cannot be staggered to spin up. That feature is not included with this card (Escalade 8506-12)
Backing up a 1.8 TB server is out of the question for me, so I must find ways to make it as stable as possible, although I realize nothing I do to make is foolproof is guaranteed.
It is on a dedicated UPS, so that part is covered.
. Now you know why SCSI is still the preferred system for this type of setup - and staggered start is just the tiniest part of it.
. And perhaps its another reason to use hot-swap cages - I think some of them (for PATA and SATA) can do stagger start internally. And some drives have a jumper that will add a motor start delay. Perhaps you could jumper half the drives for delay and the other half for immediate start - that would cut down the Amps you need from the PSUs dramatically (saving bocoup bucks!). You might need to add a boot delay either in the mobo BIOS setup or your controller card's setup to allow all the drives to come to speed prior to access at cold boot times.
. You wouldn't really need to do much modding. Use the main PSU that powers the mobo (which will need some special mobo connctors but is still basically the same as any other ATX PSU) to power some of the drives and add an ordinary (well, not too ordinary as you will want some heavy amps on the 12V rail) ATX psu and use it to power only the rest of your drives and perhaps a few other peripherals - you won't even use the mobo connector on it except to connect a Y off your on/off switch from the case so both PSUs will power on at once - there is another method that offers a small delay in the startup to the secondary PSU - I will diagram them both and add a link here later. And for best practices you might want to connect a 2A (~1.7 Ohm, 10 Watt power resistor) dummy load across the 3.3V rail to protect that regulator circuit. Though that isn't really necessary if you never intend to use that PSU for any other purpose.
. Look in your drives' spec sheets for the power requirements of each model. You will see two Amp ratings, one for running/accessing and one for starting. you will need to add the starting amps of however many drives will start at once to the running Amps of the drives that are on delay - and that will be your startup number. Then add up the running/accessing amps for all drives to get your continuous number. I would want at least a +20% startup cushion and a 50% continuous cushion plus enough to run your mobo and other peripherals on top of that. That'll take a bit of "pencil and paper" work to get a number you feel comfortable with. Remember 1 hour of prep work on the front end = 3 hours of rework and fixup on the back end...
.bh.
. And perhaps its another reason to use hot-swap cages - I think some of them (for PATA and SATA) can do stagger start internally. And some drives have a jumper that will add a motor start delay. Perhaps you could jumper half the drives for delay and the other half for immediate start - that would cut down the Amps you need from the PSUs dramatically (saving bocoup bucks!). You might need to add a boot delay either in the mobo BIOS setup or your controller card's setup to allow all the drives to come to speed prior to access at cold boot times.
. You wouldn't really need to do much modding. Use the main PSU that powers the mobo (which will need some special mobo connctors but is still basically the same as any other ATX PSU) to power some of the drives and add an ordinary (well, not too ordinary as you will want some heavy amps on the 12V rail) ATX psu and use it to power only the rest of your drives and perhaps a few other peripherals - you won't even use the mobo connector on it except to connect a Y off your on/off switch from the case so both PSUs will power on at once - there is another method that offers a small delay in the startup to the secondary PSU - I will diagram them both and add a link here later. And for best practices you might want to connect a 2A (~1.7 Ohm, 10 Watt power resistor) dummy load across the 3.3V rail to protect that regulator circuit. Though that isn't really necessary if you never intend to use that PSU for any other purpose.
. Look in your drives' spec sheets for the power requirements of each model. You will see two Amp ratings, one for running/accessing and one for starting. you will need to add the starting amps of however many drives will start at once to the running Amps of the drives that are on delay - and that will be your startup number. Then add up the running/accessing amps for all drives to get your continuous number. I would want at least a +20% startup cushion and a 50% continuous cushion plus enough to run your mobo and other peripherals on top of that. That'll take a bit of "pencil and paper" work to get a number you feel comfortable with. Remember 1 hour of prep work on the front end = 3 hours of rework and fixup on the back end...
.bh.
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