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I need to power a 17 drive server on the cheap. Help.

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Apr 28, 2007
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Bellevue, WA
System Name 0BL1V10N
Processor Intel Core i7 11700K @ 5.1GHz all-core turbo
Motherboard ASRock Z590 Taichi
Cooling Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360 (with stock CM fans), 12x Pccooler Moonlight Series ARGB 120mm fans
Memory (4x16GB) 64GB Mushkin Redline Lumina 3600MHz 16-19-19-39 XMP
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 4090 SUPRIM LIQUID 24G (not using stock fans) (+150MHz core, +1000MHz memory)
Storage Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB Gen4 NVMe
Display(s) 1x Alienware AW3821DW (3840x1600@144Hz), 2x Dell SE2717H (1080p@75Hz)
Case Phanteks Enthoo 719 Anthracite Grey
Audio Device(s) Schiit Modius + Drop THX AAA 789 + Custom Planar Magnetic Headphones
Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1200W (12VHPWR)
Mouse Logitech G502 X Plus
Keyboard Too many custom mechanical builds to list...
Software Windows 10 Pro 22H2
Yea so my 450w Supermicro Ablecom server power supply will run 14 drives no issues but any more and it can't spin them up on boot and my HDD controllers don't support staggered spinup.

I have a low budget right now and need my server going. I am also concerned about saving power by looking into a more efficient power supply.

Thoughts?

Edit: I have one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103507) laying around. Would it just be easier to hook the two power supplies together and have this little one power all the fans, DVD-ROM, and some of the smaller drives?
 
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The link doesn't work, though if you are confident that your 2nd PSU will work effectively and you have the space, I don't see any reason not to use two PSU's. Of course you will have to use a jumper in the 20 pin connector so it works.:)
 
Fixed the link.

Are there any drawbacks from a second PSU? Like say wasting overall power efficiency from just using one single PSU?
 
I have no facts or anything, but I'm sure running two psu's would be a bit less efficient, though really I can't see the reason why it would actually use more power than with a single PSU since PSU's supply only the power that is needed. Both of your PSU's are quality and efficient already.
 
Either get a new PSU, or drop 3 disks. In fact, I would use a lot less disks.

If you really want to mess around with additional PSU's, the green wire.
 
Either get a new PSU, or drop 3 disks. In fact, I would use a lot less disks.

If you really want to mess around with additional PSU's, the green wire.

The green wire is the one that triggers power for the PSU from the motherboard right?

Also, I've just got a Windows Home Server so I just used all my spare drives to add to the storage pool.

Nine 320GB Seagates, four 160GB WDs, two 500GB Seagates, one 250GB Seagate, and a 74GB WD Raptor.
 
woah a lot of disks i think the power saving gained from a new psu would be more cost efficient
its like yeah you can use 2 but one more up to date efficient will save power and money in the long run
 
better off getting a new psu, it'll be much more efficent, and remember the power capabilities of a psu reduce over time as capactiors within the psu lose their charge, therefore you're best off getting a new psu that can properly and efficently power the system. seeing that this is a server-like setup, i would recommend getting a good quality psu
 
i am surprised that it wont spin them up... as HDDs should only be ~10watts power consumption... so 10x14 = 140... even call it 200 on the high side (boot draw will be slightly higher anways) what are the rest of the specs of the server?

Also as a comparison i have a 450 running a Q6600 @ 3Ghz, 4GB Ram, an Abit AB9, an x1900xtx, and 2 raptor drives all without issues....
 
The rig tries to post but it shuts off right as the drives are starting to spin. If I hook the last few up after the first have spun up it is fine. I think the PSU just cannot handle the huge spike of power at once.

I am likely going to run two PSUs for now since it seems I can do it without issue but what would you all recommend for later on?

FYI I have a:

Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
Intel Entry Server motherboard
2GB DDR2 667
17 drives as listed above
DVD-ROM & Floppy
Two PCI SATA controller cards
9 case fans on controllers running at about half speed.
 
The rig tries to post but it shuts off right as the drives are starting to spin. If I hook the last few up after the first have spun up it is fine. I think the PSU just cannot handle the huge spike of power at once.

I am likely going to run two PSUs for now since it seems I can do it without issue but what would you all recommend for later on?

FYI I have a:

Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
Intel Entry Server motherboard
2GB DDR2 667
17 drives as listed above
DVD-ROM & Floppy
Two PCI SATA controller cards
9 case fans on controllers running at about half speed.


9 case fans? why?

Also is it on a gigabit network? If not thats what my first step would be, than after that if you want/need more speed look into raiding all the drives (striping or 5) and i hope you have a good backup solution in place.

Honestly 17hdds is kind of over the top.... i would phase out some of the smaller ones for bigger drives, 500GB/TB drives are SUPER cheap right now too...
 
9 case fans? why?

Also is it on a gigabit network? If not thats what my first step would be, than after that if you want/need more speed look into raiding all the drives (striping or 5) and i hope you have a good backup solution in place.

Honestly 17hdds is kind of over the top.... i would phase out some of the smaller ones for bigger drives, 500GB/TB drives are SUPER cheap right now too...

Agreed on all of those: selling the 120 GB HDDs would easily get you enough money to buy a good 1 TB HDD or two 500 GB (for RAID with those other 500 GB ones). It would mean you'd need less power, less space and less cables!

And like Tau said, you definately need a gigabit ethernet capable system.
 
9 case fans? why?
17 hard drives get hot.

I have my server operating how I want it in terms of storage, and yes I have gigabit. Also I am using Windows Home Server so RAID is a no no.

Also why buy new drives when I already have all these left over? Selling them I would "lose" money. I would rather keep these till they die than sell them for just enough to go to a lower number of drives for the same capacity. I mean a power supply is a cheaper and easier option than ditching all the drives.

For now I hooked up my little Enermax since I've had no suggestions on a replacement for my current two.

_DSC0439.jpg


_DSC0440.jpg


_DSC0442.jpg


homeserver17.jpg


My original project log for anyone interested to why I went this route in the first place. http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=67940
 
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Well I could use RAID but everyone suggests not to due to how Home Server manages the drives via its Drive Extender software.

RAID would also require me to buy RAID cards, vs these JBOD controllers.
 
Any decent RAID configuration is transparent to the OS. You can install DOS on a RAID array if you want.

As for jbod, why bother? It adds close to no value and makes it messy when some drive fails for whatever reason.
 
But that is the beauty of WHS, for important files I can set it to make duplicates over different drives, kind of a software RAID 1 and for everything else it does JBOD.

I don't know how much you have read up on how the WHS Drive Extender works but it really is pretty neat. If not maybe even try it out on a old computer to get a first hand idea. Basically over a network share the entire disk storage pool is seen as one drive. WHS does the rest. It makes managing the files really easy.

Over on [H]ardforum there is a guy who goes by Ockie, he has multiple servers with over 50TB of JOBD that he manages with WHS and it seems to work for him: :eek:

dsc00296vh6.jpg
 
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Over on [H]ardforum there is a guy who goes by Ockie, he has multiple servers with over 50TB of JOBD that he manages with WHS and it seems to work for him: :eek:

50TB in a jbod configuration is just idiotic. If you have that much storage space you should at least have some parity disks. I'd break it down in ~10 RAID 5 arrays.
 
I can see you have had a lot of fun building your server... and you've done a nice cable job. But as Dan says, it really isnt the best way to go forward.

For the price of a decent PSU, you can retire 7 of those drives and replace with a new 1TB WD or Samsung.

It will require a lot less power. Will have bigger cache, higher performance, and produce less heat.

The less heat will improve the overall reliability of the OTHER drives, and the lower power will mean your existing PSU is enough, PLUS you will save on energy bills.

It's very tempting to keep old kit like old lego bricks for building a bigger toy. But TBH it aint smart
 
I would say 17 disks is asking for trouble... especially without a raid solution, it seems though that you are happy with the setup, but that may change when you lose a drive or two (just my opinion here, and experiance) i would vote for less drives, over more. i mean obviousely if youhad 17 TB drives this wouldent be an option but in this case it is. a 500GB drive is ~$50 right now, 1TB ~$110 so if you want to save a slot buy a TB drive, and replace some of the smaller drives with it.

Drop the 4 160s and raptor drive, sell them (should be able to get $150 or a bit more than that) than use that to buy a TB drive, and bam. you now have a single faster drive, as well as less heat and power consumption.

There is a draw back to large drives though, as the data on the outside edges of the disk is a bit slower to read, though this is a minescule amount and i doubt you will notice it.

Is there any reason you are running WHS? as opposed to a little linux distro or something else?

What exactly is this server serving?
 
I have important data on my workstations RAID 5, my server with JBOD and with the really important files on my server with the software duplication (think kind of like a RAID1), and on an external drive backup.

My server is a total backup of all my stuff, but only the really important files are not on JBOD. My server also houses CD & DVD ISO's of all my disks along with being my torrent box. Lastly I am going to have it stream media to my XBOX 360 and to be an iTunes server.

I see what you guys are saying about scaling down on drives but I just don't see myself doing that.

Like I said earlier though I did get my rig running with all the drives using my Supermicro Ablecom 450w server PSU and my spare Enermax 270w running together but I still would like to look into a replacement PSU.

Ideas? My price point is under $80 at this time. I don't need expansion room in the PSU, I just need something that can power all the drives and be stable for 24/7 operations.

Maybe a 550w Corsair?
 
Why not sell the drives, and buy a bunch of 1TB drives?

Chris
 
I have important data on my workstations RAID 5, my server with JBOD and with the really important files on my server with the software duplication (think kind of like a RAID1), and on an external drive backup.

My server is a total backup of all my stuff, but only the really important files are not on JBOD. My server also houses CD & DVD ISO's of all my disks along with being my torrent box. Lastly I am going to have it stream media to my XBOX 360 and to be an iTunes server.

I see what you guys are saying about scaling down on drives but I just don't see myself doing that.

Like I said earlier though I did get my rig running with all the drives using my Supermicro Ablecom 450w server PSU and my spare Enermax 270w running together but I still would like to look into a replacement PSU.

Ideas? My price point is under $80 at this time. I don't need expansion room in the PSU, I just need something that can power all the drives and be stable for 24/7 operations.

Maybe a 550w Corsair?

Well since it looks like you will be adding more drives later on down the road, can you see yourself having more than 20 drives? if so i would look for a 600-650watt PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182010

That looks like it will fit the bill, if you can find some place that sells them though the "Delta" power supplies are dirt cheap and solid as a rock (they come OEM in Dells, gateways, etc.) and in my experiance they are a little diamond in the rough so to speak.

I kind of want to look into that WHS setup you have with a jobd setup... kind of sounds like zpools in solaris...
 
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