What size PSU do I need for my 10 hard drives?

[Jaxidian]

Okay, so here's what it's running:

MOBO: AM2 nothing special ECS or Gigabyte
CPU: 65W dual-core AMD (one of the "green" CPUs - I think it's a 2300)
RAM: 2x1GB DDR2 6400
Optical Drive: Only sometimes a DVD drive plugged in internally or externally via USB
Hard Drives (assume 7200RPM for all):
- 2x 750GB SATA
- 3x 500GB SATA
- 1x 300GB SATA
- 1x 300GB IDE
- 1x 200GB IDE
- 2x 120GB IDE
Video: PCI (not express) ATI 9250 (once I get this stable I'm hoping to yank this)
Fans:
- 1x 200mm
- 4x 120mm (all LED)
- OEM HSF
- PSU's ?? fan
- 2x 80mm
Other:
- PCI-based 3-port SATA Controller w/single IDE controller (a cheap one, don't have many details on it)

Thanks!
-Jax

PS. I'd like to add more hard drives in the future - perhaps another 5 or so. So please recommend something for my current hardware and something that can handle 5 more hard drives (probably 500GB or larger).

 

[imported_Scoop]

Looking that the CPU is 'one of the green', you probably aren't much of a gamer and thus don't have a need for a power hungry GPU which would be the single most power consuming part of the build. In this case, wattage isn't really the issue here. The issue is where on earth will you find a PSU to have a combined 15 power connectors for your PATA and SATA hard drives.

Now that I think more of it, you're probably already using all of your SATA slots on the motherboard and both of the IDE ports. You're thinking of adding 5 sata drives would mean you'd need a board with 11 SATA ports. If this doesn't sound like an impossible task, most of today's boards only come with 1 PATA port so you can only hook 2 of your IDE drives so you'd have to get rid of two drives.

Well, you'll be fine with a PSU with something like 400W on the 12V rail(s) for 15 hard drives. If you decide that you're not going to hunt for a board to support 15 drives and stick with the 10 you have and replace older, smaller ones with bigger ones, a PSU with 325W on the 12V rail(s) should do the job. You do the rest of the research.

 

[MarcVenice]

Having them spin up all at the same time might give the PSU quite the kick everytime you boot though. Just speculating here, but might want to get a second opinion on that and see if someone else agrees.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Having them spin up all at the same time might give the PSU quite the kick everytime you boot though. Just speculating here, but might want to get a second opinion on that and see if someone else agrees.

good points......
someone with some definite knowledge about spinning all those drives together is needed.
I do recall somewhere that the hit on a 400watt PSU over time would not be worth the trouble!

In your case I am inclined to believe the bigger the better...
I can`t believe these people who say oh you want to spin 10 drives at the same time...well a 350 watt should do you just fine......rofl

 

[imported_Scoop]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Having them spin up all at the same time might give the PSU quite the kick everytime you boot though. Just speculating here, but might want to get a second opinion on that and see if someone else agrees.

good points......
someone with some definite knowledge about spinning all those drives together is needed.
I do recall somewhere that the hit on a 400watt PSU over time would not be worth the trouble!

In your case I am inclined to believe the bigger the better...
I can`t believe these people who say oh you want to spin 10 drives at the same time...well a 350 watt should do you just fine......rofl

http://www.digit-life.com/arti.../storage/hddpower.html

Well, they didn't test every HD in existence but quite a few and the max spinup power consumption was between 16 to 30W. With 10 HDs that would be 160-300W. And this is for both the 5V and 12V lines, though mostly on the 12V. There isn't much else going on in the startup.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have an old Dell 400SC server that I got several years ago really cheap.
I have taken it out of the case and stuck it into my old chieftec full tower (12 bay case)

It currently has 1 cdrom, 5 IDE hard drives, and 4 SATA hard drives connected to it.

It doesn't recognize all 9 hard drives with the stock power supply.
However, with the stock 250 watt power supply it recognizes 8 of the hard drives.
I've got a 1.8ghz celeron, 384mb of ram, integrated video, integrated gig-ethernet, second nic, third nic, 4 port SATA card, cheapo IDE Raid card. I use molex splitters and have a bunch extra just in case.
I bought a 350 watt dell compatible power supply from newegg and now everything powers up without trouble.
Since I've stuck in some 3:2 5.25 drive bay converters ... I still have room for some more hard drives after I have money again ....


I would be very comfortable running my dell server on a 275 or 300 watt power supply. 250 was just not quite enough juice for 9 hard drives and everything else.
Since you've got a better video card and CPU, I would suggest a minimum of a 350 watt power supply for you.
I'd recommend a quality 400 or 450 watt supply just to play it safe (in case you opt to replace the CPU with something "meatier" in the future, or in case you opt to install a better video card.)

 

[renethx]

For example, the power draw of WD7500AAKS at spin-up is (according to StorageReview.com)

0.92A @5V and 2.47A @12V.

The power draw of a typical midrange sytem (E4300, nForce 680i, 2x1GB DIMM, Radeon X1950 Pro, sound card) is (according to actual measurement by BeHardware):

ATX: 7.14A @3.3V, 5.22A @5V, 4.56A @12V
ATX12V: 3.76A @12V

So the necessary power to start, say, a 16 HDD system is:

- 3.3V: 7.14A = 23.56W
- 5V: 5.22 + 16 x 0.92 = 19.94A = 99.70W
- 12V: 4.56 + 3.76 + 16 x 2.47 = 47.84A = 574.08W
- Total power 697.34W

So you need a power supply of 700W and 48A at 12V (at least). For example, SilverStone SST-ST75ZF 750W is a good choice. This is just a theoretical value necessary only at spin-up time. Experience tells that a PSU of lower output may be enough to start 16 HDDs, say 500W.

BTW Guide to Building a HD HTPC - Home Media Serve may be helpful.

 

[jonmcc33]

I think you'll need to keep that video card installed unless the motherboard has onboard video. I don't think it will boot without a video card installed.

But I'd go with a 500W brand name PSU. As stated, the biggest hit is at startup. I'd personally put all those PATA drives into USB enclosures instead.

 

[Penth]

I'm running a fairly simliar setup. amd 65nm cpu/2gb ddr2 9 HDs (4 IDE, 5 SATA). I only have 2 120MM fans and the OEM HSF. I also just use onboard video. I run it all on a 380W antec PSU with no problems.

Also, you probably realize this but it would be pretty inexpensive to dump the 2x120GB IDE and 1x200GB IDE and pick up like a 500GB IDE or SATA drive. This would save space in your case and save power while also freeing up room for expansion. I'll bet if you sold the 3 in the FS/FT forum you could cover most of the cost of a 500GB drive.

 

[MarcVenice]

At this website http://www.digit-life.com/arti.../storage/hddpower.html maximum power draw is between 16 and 30w, where most HD's are between 16 and 22w. Let's assume 20w on average, 16 HD's, would be 320w. Top that of with other average components, using 200w, means he needs a 500w unit to boot, but if all HD's are spinning up it's going to be drawing like 400w of power. Then again, spinning up doesn't take long so the PSU won't be running at 80% of it's capacity for long periods of time. Safely speaking, I would probably go with a good 600w unit.

 

[BladeVenom]

You might want to consider Wester Digital's Green Power hard drive next time you need one.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
But I'd go with a 500W brand name PSU. As stated, the biggest hit is at startup. I'd personally put all those PATA drives into USB enclosures instead.

I concur. I have no doubt that a quality psu such as the Corsair HX520 or VX550 would have more than enough power for Jaxidian's rig now, and when he decides to add another 5 hdd's.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
But I'd go with a 500W brand name PSU. As stated, the biggest hit is at startup. I'd personally put all those PATA drives into USB enclosures instead.

I concur. I have no doubt that a quality psu such as the Corsair HX520 or VX550 would have more than enough power for Jaxidian's rig now, and when he decides to add another 5 hdd's.

Seconded. Buy a quality, brand name PSU now and don't worry about it anymore. You get what you pay for.

One thing that hasn't been discussed yet is staggered-spinup, which most RAID HBA's support. Most servers do this right out of the box. The drives spin up one by one, typically with 3-5 seconds b/t them. This greatly reduces the hit on the PS. The concept applies to this situation...but then it doesn't b/c the OP isn't using a hardware RAID HBA. Just thought I'd throw that in here.

ps
I also agree with losing the smaller drives and getting 1 or 2 bigger ones. Storage is cheap these days. Years ago I constructed a similar server/storage box using a boatload of 20GB drives. It's just not worth the trouble to use small drives anymore.

 

[Jaxidian]

Hey everybody,

Thanks for all of the great feedback. Based on suggestions here, I started off with an Antec Neo Power 500W. The results were that posting was somewhat random as to being 100% successful. Sometimes it would be perfect. Sometimes it would take a while and then not identify a drive. However it was always perfect if I then hit the reset button. I took this as just barely too much of a drain while spinning up.

So I bit the bullet and bought a SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM and it is all better. I figure if the 500W was just barely not enough, the 700W should be plenty with a bit of room to grow in.

Yeah, I hear you all about the smaller drives, but half of the point of having them in there is because I have nothing else to do with them while having spare IDE controllers. Sure I could sell them, but I would still have spare IDE controllers (I've maxed out my SATA ports on-board plus on a controller card) and I would never think about buying another IDE hard drive if I were to sell these. So this just seems to be the best thing to do with them. Maybe I'll change my mind if I start hitting a power issue again in the future, but for now they'll stay in there.

Thanks again, all!!
-Jax

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Hey everybody,

Thanks for all of the great feedback. Based on suggestions here, I started off with an Antec Neo Power 500W. The results were that posting was somewhat random as to being 100% successful. Sometimes it would be perfect. Sometimes it would take a while and then not identify a drive. However it was always perfect if I then hit the reset button. I took this as just barely too much of a drain while spinning up.

So I bit the bullet and bought a SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM and it is all better. I figure if the 500W was just barely not enough, the 700W should be plenty with a bit of room to grow in.

Yeah, I hear you all about the smaller drives, but half of the point of having them in there is because I have nothing else to do with them while having spare IDE controllers. Sure I could sell them, but I would still have spare IDE controllers (I've maxed out my SATA ports on-board plus on a controller card) and I would never think about buying another IDE hard drive if I were to sell these. So this just seems to be the best thing to do with them. Maybe I'll change my mind if I start hitting a power issue again in the future, but for now they'll stay in there.

Thanks again, all!!
-Jax

I have had the same problems with Anten NeoPower PSU's. They don't seem to like a lot of drives. My PC Power and Cooling PSU never has any problems though, but it has a much better 12V rail.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Hey everybody,

Thanks for all of the great feedback. Based on suggestions here, I started off with an Antec Neo Power 500W. The results were that posting was somewhat random as to being 100% successful. Sometimes it would be perfect. Sometimes it would take a while and then not identify a drive. However it was always perfect if I then hit the reset button. I took this as just barely too much of a drain while spinning up.

So I bit the bullet and bought a SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM and it is all better. I figure if the 500W was just barely not enough, the 700W should be plenty with a bit of room to grow in.

Yeah, I hear you all about the smaller drives, but half of the point of having them in there is because I have nothing else to do with them while having spare IDE controllers. Sure I could sell them, but I would still have spare IDE controllers (I've maxed out my SATA ports on-board plus on a controller card) and I would never think about buying another IDE hard drive if I were to sell these. So this just seems to be the best thing to do with them. Maybe I'll change my mind if I start hitting a power issue again in the future, but for now they'll stay in there.

Thanks again, all!!
-Jax

I have had the same problems with Anten NeoPower PSU's. They don't seem to like a lot of drives. My PC Power and Cooling PSU never has any problems though, but it has a much better 12V rail.

I'm kinda surprised to hear that! I believe that PSU is a SeaSonic-built PSU and my understanding is that SeaSonic makes the best consumer-grade PSU on the market. I thought it was just a pure wattage issue but if what you say is true, then that's kinda disappointing.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Hey everybody,

Thanks for all of the great feedback. Based on suggestions here, I started off with an Antec Neo Power 500W. The results were that posting was somewhat random as to being 100% successful. Sometimes it would be perfect. Sometimes it would take a while and then not identify a drive. However it was always perfect if I then hit the reset button. I took this as just barely too much of a drain while spinning up.

So I bit the bullet and bought a SeaSonic M12 SS-700HM and it is all better. I figure if the 500W was just barely not enough, the 700W should be plenty with a bit of room to grow in.

Yeah, I hear you all about the smaller drives, but half of the point of having them in there is because I have nothing else to do with them while having spare IDE controllers. Sure I could sell them, but I would still have spare IDE controllers (I've maxed out my SATA ports on-board plus on a controller card) and I would never think about buying another IDE hard drive if I were to sell these. So this just seems to be the best thing to do with them. Maybe I'll change my mind if I start hitting a power issue again in the future, but for now they'll stay in there.

Thanks again, all!!
-Jax

I have had the same problems with Anten NeoPower PSU's. They don't seem to like a lot of drives. My PC Power and Cooling PSU never has any problems though, but it has a much better 12V rail.

I'm kinda surprised to hear that! I believe that PSU is a SeaSonic-built PSU and my understanding is that SeaSonic makes the best consumer-grade PSU on the market. I thought it was just a pure wattage issue but if what you say is true, then that's kinda disappointing.

You may be right, but Seasonic is just the manufacturer. Antec still had to design the PSU. Seasonic may have very good quality control, but I don't think highly of the NeoPower design. I tried a TruPower PSU as well, and had the same issues. I hear the the EarthWatts series is much better, although I have had enough issues with Antec PSU's to try it out.