fourpastmidnight
Dabbler
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2021
- Messages
- 21
First, I want to start off by saying that I've read the excellent post on the issue of choosing a Power Supply on these forums, but I have an additional question as a point of clarification.
I added up all my idle wattages for the system I'm considering building, as well as the "worst-case" scenario of 35W/HDD during drive spin-up upon the server being powered on under the worst-case assumption that they all spin up simultaneously.
The case I'm considering using has support for up to 16 drives, but I'll only be populating 8 of them initially (and for the foreseeable future). So I calculated that my idle load will be about 300W (probably less because I don't know exactly what the case/CPU fans wattages will be when idle) while my max load will be about 521W. I'll be using a Supermicro board with remote management capability, so I don't intend on using any sort of discrete graphics card, which explains the "low" wattages.
So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I figure that with a 650W PSU, my peak load will be 80% utilization, while at idle, it'll be at about 45%. Given this is a NAS, I don't plan on rebooting it often, so I'm not concerned about the 80% startup utilization. I'd often only shutdown my previous NAS once every 2 years or so. I'll also add that I do have a 1500VA CyberPower UPS, in case it matters.
The problem is, most PSUs rated for this wattage don't come with 10 SATA connectors--usually only 6 - 8. And let's ignore expansion considerations. If I go much bigger than 650W, my idle utilization goes below 40% making the PSU much less efficient. So, if I ever want to expand, yes, I may need to upgrade the PSU. Also, I'm (trying) not to go crazy with 80 PLUS Gold vs. 80 PLUS Platinum, etc. I'm doing the math, and unless I can get a Platinum/Titanium for a really good price, the $/W is not in my favor for anything above Gold.
Given I'm not running a discrete GPU, and given that most PSUs in this wattage "class" are single-rail units, I would assume, then, that it'd be safe for me to simply get an adapter/splitter to effectively increase the number of SATA connections that are available for me to use to power the drives, so long as the PSU is of good quality (i.e. not using group regulation). Is that correct?
The last time I built a system was almost 20 years ago, and it was far simpler--grab a PSU and stick it in the system. Computers in those days were much less demanding!
I added up all my idle wattages for the system I'm considering building, as well as the "worst-case" scenario of 35W/HDD during drive spin-up upon the server being powered on under the worst-case assumption that they all spin up simultaneously.
The case I'm considering using has support for up to 16 drives, but I'll only be populating 8 of them initially (and for the foreseeable future). So I calculated that my idle load will be about 300W (probably less because I don't know exactly what the case/CPU fans wattages will be when idle) while my max load will be about 521W. I'll be using a Supermicro board with remote management capability, so I don't intend on using any sort of discrete graphics card, which explains the "low" wattages.
So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I figure that with a 650W PSU, my peak load will be 80% utilization, while at idle, it'll be at about 45%. Given this is a NAS, I don't plan on rebooting it often, so I'm not concerned about the 80% startup utilization. I'd often only shutdown my previous NAS once every 2 years or so. I'll also add that I do have a 1500VA CyberPower UPS, in case it matters.
The problem is, most PSUs rated for this wattage don't come with 10 SATA connectors--usually only 6 - 8. And let's ignore expansion considerations. If I go much bigger than 650W, my idle utilization goes below 40% making the PSU much less efficient. So, if I ever want to expand, yes, I may need to upgrade the PSU. Also, I'm (trying) not to go crazy with 80 PLUS Gold vs. 80 PLUS Platinum, etc. I'm doing the math, and unless I can get a Platinum/Titanium for a really good price, the $/W is not in my favor for anything above Gold.
Given I'm not running a discrete GPU, and given that most PSUs in this wattage "class" are single-rail units, I would assume, then, that it'd be safe for me to simply get an adapter/splitter to effectively increase the number of SATA connections that are available for me to use to power the drives, so long as the PSU is of good quality (i.e. not using group regulation). Is that correct?
The last time I built a system was almost 20 years ago, and it was far simpler--grab a PSU and stick it in the system. Computers in those days were much less demanding!
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