New Server Build. Is 430Watts Enough.


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So I'm Building a new server box using some old parts such as a Core2Duo Q6600 with an Asus P5Q Pro Turbo Motherboard and a Nvidia 220GT. In It I'm running a PCI-E RAID Controller card and 8x 3TB HDD with 1x 240GB SSD Hard dive. I have a 430W power supply that is being used right now.I've used a lot of power supply calculators saying that I need roughly 330W. So is 430Watt power supply enough?

The power supply is a Corsair CX430.

Thanks

Neztea

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If it's a high quality efficient PSU then it should be ok I'd imagine.

Edit: Did some checks and seems to be about 80% efficient so you might find yourself stressing it. Maybe consider something about 500 watts instead. Shouldn't cost much.

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If it's a high quality efficient PSU then it should be ok I'd imagine.

Edit: Did some checks and seems to be about 80% efficient so you might find yourself stressing it. Maybe consider something about 500 watts instead. Shouldn't cost much.

Yeah I'm trying to keep costs down since, would the computer not post if It didn't have enough power or would it be mostly I/0 errors?

Neztea

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Welp, I got a Corsar cx600 watt for 60 bucks. I Hope that this will be enough wattage cause I looked up the specs for the Hard drives, and at average to full more or less takes up 10-15W, which is crazy low. Better not take that chance :D

Neztea

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Unless your doing some remote / terminal server stuff it might be worthwhile getting a smaller GFX card to lessen the burden on the PSU and to reduce head,

Perhaps something like

EVGA GeForce GT 210 Silent Passive 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

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I have to disagree with some of these people. I've got a 300 watt PSU inside my server at the moment, and I'm running the following:

Asrock Z75 Pro 3 Motheboard

Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 quad core processor

5x Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB drives in RAID 5

4x Samsung HD204UI 2TB drives in RAID 10

2x WD WD20EARX 2TB drives in RAID 1

Crucual C300 64GB SSD

4x Supermicro 5-in-3 drive cages

Intel RES2SV240 24 port SAS expander

Intel Dual port gigabit NIC

LSI 9260-8i RAID Controller

keyboard+mouse

During power up, the system peaks at around 180 watts (measured at my UPS with a kill-a-watt power meter. Once Server 2012 has finished booting, it settles around 121 watts @ normal use. The power supply is a 80+ PSU (not even bronze) I'm replacing it with a gold rated PSU to save a few more watts at the wall (24x7 operation). I've been building the system for lowest possible wattage use, so 430 watts should be fine for you, unless you're trying to run some insane GPU setup in your server. If you want pictures of my setup let me know.

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Can't edit my previous post anymore, but another thing too... you should be careful buying a PSU that is TOO high in wattage. PSU's are less efficient at low usage rates, so say youget a 1kW PSU, but only use 100 watts, you'll have a 10% usage rate, and it would be LESS efficient than a 300 WATT PSU supplying 200-250 watts. you want at least 60-80% utilization for best performance out of a PSU.

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PSUs are most efficient at around 50% load, but nowadays, you're within a few percent of each other, so you might lose 1 or 2 watts depending on the capabilities of your PSU. Not a big deal in my opinion.

But yeah, for most servers, you really don't need that much power. It really ends up on the distribution of rails. To be absolutely honest, the server listed in my sig (i5-2405S, Z77X-UD3H, 16GB RAM, etc) uses about 30W on idle, lol :laugh:

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5 Disk RAID 5 array on a rocketraid card, 3.2ghz AMD Athlon 2 dual core, 8gb of ram running headless.

It's drawing 90W idle (with all the disks spinning) and 106 at full disk load.

I'd be surprised if 430 wasn't enough >.>

If you're doing compute intensive tasks, you might need more, but if it's a download/media sharing box, it should be plenty imo >.<

600 should phone it in.

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I have a headless server running an AMD E-350 and 5x HDDs, and it pulls 60watts at full load. The 430W power supply would have been more than enough. It looks to me like a lot of people are just pulling wattage numbers out of thin air.

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Most people have very poor understandings of power requirements as most of them tend to go off the "Required" values for running graphics cards.

There's a fair amount of overhead in the numbers (just to be safe) and servers tend not to have much running on them around the clock >.<

Also, without a UPS or power meter, they'd never have a chance to measure >.<

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I have to disagree with some of these people.

One thing I have always seen on neowin is most the of the young people pour so much OVERKILL into anything they do with computers. They do not realize they don't need most (if any at all) of their "projected" extra measures.
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One thing I have always seen on neowin is most the of the young people pour so much OVERKILL into anything they do with computers. They do not realize they don't need most (if any at all) of their "projected" extra measures.

although better be safe than sorry isn't really a bad idea when you can afford to.

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One thing I have always seen on neowin is most the of the young people pour so much OVERKILL into anything they do with computers. They do not realize they don't need most (if any at all) of their "projected" extra measures.

I think part of the issue stems from things like processor "TDP" and such, where it'll say 150 watts...people who are ignorant to how things REALLY work think "oh i must need 150 watts for my processor, plus 150-300 (box specs for a mid level graphics card) + 10 for each drive...etc Pretty soon for a processor + mb + ram + 2 hard drives and 1 video card, they're thinking they need 600-1000 watts L

In this case, more is not better, as PSU's have somewhat of a bell-shaped curve to efficiency. anything <> 40-60% and it's less than optimally efficient. By how much is rather slim, usually only a few percent. While most desktops don't sit running 24x7, servers do, and 2-3% of even 100 watts =$ you're wasting. Say you save 2% on a server requiring 150 watts. That's 3 watts. 3W x 24 hours = 72 Watts a day / 1000 watts = 0.072kWh. In my area, 1kWh = $0.12, so that = 0.00874$. Not even a penny, right? However this is a server, so it's on 24x7x365. Multiply 0.00874$ x 365 and you get $3.15

So you save 3$ a year. Not much, but why waste money if you don't have to. These numbers were generous just to prove an example that for servers you should get exactly what you need, nothing more or less. Invest that in a mutual fund or something for 5 years and you'd multiply your 3$ by 650% to 19.51.

Ehh..enough math geekiness.. I think the point is made :)

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My gaming PC uses a 400w PSU, it has a 7770ghz graphics card, 1 HDD and 1SSD, and so far I've never had any issues. I don't know the power requirements for the 220 but if it can throttle down when not in use, I don't see why your 430w PSU wouldn't work.

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