Mini-ITX Home Server Power Concerns

[jgigz]

I plan on using some old laptop parts to build a Mini-ITX WHS machine. Only parts I will be ordering for this are the case, mobo and some extra hard drives.

Mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-153-_-Product

Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...317R-_-Product

Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-128-_-Product

I haven't picked out the hard drives yet for the 4xSata bays, but they will probably be lower power green drives. The case comes with a 180W PSU, which is what i'm concerned about. To boot, the PSU is an external adapter and plugs in through a 4pin DIN in the pack which means I can't upgrade or buy a beefier one.

Would this be enough to power the system?

Cliffs:

Any issues with the inlcuded 180W PSU powering:

t7500 35W
4x1TB WD green drives
2gb RAM (SODIMMS if it matters)
1xSSD boot drive
Optical Drive

 

[theAnimal]

Should be fine. The Green drives use very little power.

 

[mooseracing]

Should be fine. The Green drives use very little power.

I wouldn't say very little, the 500GB ones I have tested use 7 at idle, 12 to spin up, 10 at load. All measured in watts with a kill a watt. These numbers are all on par with newer single platter drivers, spin up is lower than larger drives though.

But I feel the PSU should be fine. Our C2D desktops at work with 2 drives, 4 sticks of RAM, and a actively cooled video card use about 80 watts, sometimes reaching 100 during boot.

You could save a few watts by switching to passive cooling as well.

 

[jgigz]

Ok good. I'm gonna be using on-board video and the only active cooling will be the 40mm CPU fan and whatever is in the case, which shouldn't be much. Good to know I have a bit of headroom if needed.