Rule of thumb on PSU's ??

[schtek]

Hi all,
I have been having a few problems of late on a server that was built 2 years ago, i noticed today that the PSU is a 300w about six months ago i fitted a sata pci card and 2x extra 300gb hard drives... it already had 1x 120 single cdrom tape back up and 2 x 30gb scsi hard drives fitted via a scsi card onto a Intel server motherboard.. I have a slight thought in my mind that it could be the power supply
after a crash the Sata's do not appear or if i remove the scsi the sata's appear then some times both they lastsome times over night or a week until the next power cut or spike even though they are protected by a belkin 1000va surge protector.. Are there any rules of thumb/guidance to how much u can fit with PSU's
regards
Tony

"Practice makes Perfect"
CPO rt'd RN

http://www.schtek.co.uk

 

[stduc]

Rule of thumb you say - I keep thinking there's a joke in there somewhere - but at the moment it escapes me.

This any good to you.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I was single I looked for miss right. It wasn't until after I married her I discovered her first name was always.

 

[paparazi]

Is this a specialized power supply? or a standard ATX type?
I'm not sure if that calculator is going to be of much use because I doubt it will list your type of consumers.
300watt does sound a little on the puny side and could be running at 75% or higher of it's capacity, it definately won't hurt installing one that has a little more headroom and isn't running so close to it's maximum.

I recommend Antec, Enermax, Seasonic or FSP
A Quality 450watt unit should do the trick.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[wahnula]

schtek (love the name!)

That's my favorite PSU calculator too.

A server should have a redundant PSU, if one fails the other kicks in. And you must remember that, like audio amplifiers, the wattage claims they make are not always met in real-world scenarios.

I believe

http://www.pcpower.com

's PSU's are the only ones rated at full operating temperature. Most are rated under ideal circumstances, which we all know does not mean your server room.

I made the mistake of building one server without a redundant PSU and will never do it again. Servers do not have the luxury of being taken down at will. I-Star has a good line of redundant PSU's:

http://search.store.yahoo.com/cgi-b...er+supply&.autodone=http://www.directron.com/

Tony

 

[schtek]

guys thanks for the help!! rule of thumb cant think of a joke just a good old english saying!!!

i love my nic / name as well thanks i work for five of them!!

the calculator was the (top dollar/the dogs knobs)no joke intended.

first calculation recommended 50 more W's more than likely 450w ish would fit nicely so shall have one installed by the end of the week
redundant PSU great idea will look into that need to raid the piggy bank though as Tony Blair wont let Brown give us any more money at the moment (wonder if my m8 bill will)

kind regards to you all though

Tony



"Practice makes Perfect"
CPO rt'd RN

http://www.schtek.co.uk

 

[firewolfrl]

Oh hell! I believe in OVERKILL...more is better I say...I am running a 530 watt antec PSU and I run 4 to 5 IDE drives and 2 SATA drives and 1 CDRW, 1 DVD, 1 DVDRW ...
This has run through a couple of motherboards that I upgraded and I have had no issues at all...
I don't even bother to run calculations because they don't fit real world usage ...just get the highest wattage you can afford...now that is a real world scenario....then the powersupply can be used later with any upgrade

 

[stduc]

I agree with firewolfrl. If a PSU is running well below it's capacity it runs cooler for longer. Much longer. In that situation you also buy yourself a mini UPS. In that a high capacity PSU running at say 20% can often keep a PC running during a mini power out of 1/2 a second or so. Because of this they work better with some UPS's that despite the blurb do seem to cause a split second break in power for some reason when the mains fails.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]