Redundant Power Supply question

[vetteguy]

In my never-ending quest for the right parts for my server, I stumbled upon (and bought) this case. The main reason was so that I could put each of my 6 80GB drives in a separate bay with a cooler, because the way I had them before made them very hot.

Anyway, I got this case, and am not too thrilled with it, but I have to make it work (I can't keep buying cases). This one has a redundant power supply, with 2 350W units inside the housing. This machine has a lot of crap in it (7 7200RPM drives, IDE RAID card, CD ROM, floppy, video, network, 4 80mm fans). The case I had it in before had a 420W power supply, which seemed to be ok. I hooked everything up today and fired it off, and it seems to be having some problems with the RAID array (where it didn't before). Now I did go from one type of drive cage to another (I'm now using 6 of the Vantec aluminum ones with the LCD screen on the front) so that could be part of the problem, but I'm wondering if power isn't also an issue. I mean, I don't see how 350W could possibly be enough for all of this. So, my question is, does anyone know where I could get like a 400 or 500W power supply to replace these redundant units? I've found a few on the web, but the biggest I saw was 400W, and it was like $250 (twice what I paid for the case WITH the 350W!!!). I supposed I could stick a normal one in here, but the case really isn't designed to take a regular PSU. Any suggestions? This server project is either going to kill me or make me go broke, I don't know which. Thanks!

 

[vetteguy]

Bump for any ideas where to find redundant power supplies for a reasonable price? Or any other ideas?

 

[DanFungus]

first off, nice case
second, there was a thread a while ago about a device to connect 2 power supplies for the second one to be turned on automatically but only when needed.
Here is the little device, it's 15 pounds (dunno the conversion to US dollars, but I live in US).

One thing is are the 2 power supplies that you have different than normal ones? like does the second have a non-ATX plug that would have gone into the motherboard? Because if it does, then, I don't know what you could do, but if they're just 2 standard PS's, then the device might be what you're looking for

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: DanFungus
first off, nice case
second, there was a thread a while ago about a device to connect 2 power supplies for the second one to be turned on automatically but only when needed.
Here is the little device, it's 15 pounds (dunno the conversion to US dollars, but I live in US).

One thing is are the 2 power supplies that you have different than normal ones? like does the second have a non-ATX plug that would have gone into the motherboard? Because if it does, then, I don't know what you could do, but if they're just 2 standard PS's, then the device might be what you're looking for

Thanks for the info...but the link you gave me seems to be dead. Is there another place I can try?

 

[DanFungus]

Originally posted by: vetteguy

Originally posted by: DanFungus
first off, nice case
second, there was a thread a while ago about a device to connect 2 power supplies for the second one to be turned on automatically but only when needed.
Here is the little device, it's 15 pounds (dunno the conversion to US dollars, but I live in US).

One thing is are the 2 power supplies that you have different than normal ones? like does the second have a non-ATX plug that would have gone into the motherboard? Because if it does, then, I don't know what you could do, but if they're just 2 standard PS's, then the device might be what you're looking for

Thanks for the info...but the link you gave me seems to be dead. Is there another place I can try?

weird....it was dead this morning too, but when I came home again, at around 1, it worked. Now it doesn't work. I wonder what they're doing...well, try it again later, if it comes up and I catch it, i'll try and mirror the page for you.

edit: thank god for google

edit 2: Took a little searching around on their site, but I found the page to buy it. It's dropped since the article was written down to 12.95 pounds. Here's the page, first product on it

edit 3: It looks like with overseas shipping at all, it comes to around 25-30 pounds.

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
OcUK N-way PSU relay (OA-000-OC) 1
£12.95 £12.95
Subtotal: £12.95
Shipping: (Royal Mail International Special Delivery) £10.00
VAT: £4.02
Total: £26.97

So, it doubled its cost, but hey, still cheaper than buying a new power supply (IF this thing will work for you )

 

[zepper00]

Hi vetteguy,
I did a quick search on Pricewatch(redundant 400w) and came up with a Supermicro 400w redundant for about $170. I don't know what its connectors look like, but the size looks right. I also searched on (500w redundant) and came up with a Compaq unit for < $300.--probably proprietary connectors for Proliant.
After that it seems that everything goes to $300 and up. I thought that some of these server cases came with a plate that covers that big hole and allows a std ATX PSU to be installed. Or you could have one made up at a local sheet metal shop for not too much.
Compgeeks has a nice 500 watter for mid $60s in an aluminum chassis and <$50. in a steel chaassis.
.bh.

 

[vetteguy]

Originally posted by: zepper00
Hi vetteguy,
I did a quick search on Pricewatch(redundant 400w) and came up with a Supermicro 400w redundant for about $170. I don't know what its connectors look like, but the size looks right. I also searched on (500w redundant) and came up with a Compaq unit for < $300.--probably proprietary connectors for Proliant.
After that it seems that everything goes to $300 and up. I thought that some of these server cases came with a plate that covers that big hole and allows a std ATX PSU to be installed. Or you could have one made up at a local sheet metal shop for not too much.
Compgeeks has a nice 500 watter for mid $60s in an aluminum chassis and <$50. in a steel chaassis.
.bh.

Cool...thanks for the ideas! I thought about maybe mounting a normal one on its side today, but didn't have time to see if it would fit. It it does, I might even be able to fit two in there and use the thing that DanFungus mentioned.

 

[zepper00]

That little device looks pretty neat, but I wonder if it is really supporting the requirements of the second PSU. I believe that most high power switching PSU require a minimum load on each of the high-amp voltages ( usually 1A). I don't see room on there for a 3.3 ohm 5-watt resistor for the 3.3v circuit which will not be used from secondary PSU and thus should have a "dummy load".
It also looks like the PSUs will be run in parallel, one powering mobo and other powering peripherals (fans, drives etc.)--not actually backing up the first PSU. It would require considerably more circuitry to make two normal ATX PSUs act like a redundant system (that's why the extra cost). Check on CircuitCellar--they might have a project already for building such a board.
.bh.