Hi,
What kind of PSU would you use/recommend to power a farming PC with 30 sata hard drives ?
I have a other PC for plotting so I need only for this one a psu to power the drives, motherboard (Asus TUF Gaming B550 Plus), cpu (Ryzen 3 4300GE 35w TDP), 2x ASR-71605 Adaptec 16 port Raid card, 8x 120mm fans and a 250Go m.2 nvme drive.
The idea is to have the most efficient and economical farming chia rig but I can’t figure the best psu to powering 30 sata hard drive…
Thank you for your help/recommandations!
Erik
If you are comfortable doing a bit of custom wiring, you can’t beat used server PSUs. They only output 12v, but LOTS of it, so you have to wire in a 12v to 5v converter. But they are very efficient and compact (must run 24x7 in data centers). Here’s my thread with more details about how I’ve used them to power over 100 SATA drives so far!
Scalable DIY SATA JBOD - Will store over 250 Disks! - Chia Farming & Harvesting - Chia Forum
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It’s quite hard to find an nice PSU for this I find.
The thing is that nowadays most psu’s have only 25A or less max load on the 5V rail.
Depending on the hdd model, it has a rated current of about 0.9A @5V
so 30x0.9 = 27A
Ok, unlikely that actual power draw will be max current of all drives at the same time. It will probably work with 30 drives, but personally I feel like that’s pushing your luck.
Total power draw for the farmer I quess will be around 250-300W, so you’re looking for a 550-650W PSU with 30A on the 5V rail…don’t know if they exist anymore
another option might be just use two psu?
P.S> how are large scale JBOD units powered, anyone know?
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I haven’t found anything more than 24-bay server case designed for an ATX PSU. So a 30 may be unlikely with standard hardware. Unless you want to go the janky route with building a wallmart rig.
Here is one good case:
It will take a standard psu. Needs a bigger one with at least 6 accessory sockets (it needs 12 molex for the disks alone), I’m presuming the peak load during turning on will be at least 400W, so a 850W psu should be sufficient.
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Yes that’s why I was looking for, because I already have a HP 1200W Server psu (same as you) with a breakout board for gpu mining. But how do you convert 12v to 5v? What’s the trick? Thank you in advance for your answer!
You just need a few of these: Amazon.com: BANKEE DC 12V 24V to 5V 15A Converter DC Voltage Reducer Regulator Step Down Buck Converter Power Supply Volt Transformer Module (12V/24V to 5V 15A) : Electronics
And here’s how I wired them up to the SATA power cable: Scalable DIY SATA JBOD - Will store over 250 Disks! - #34 by enderTown
I can run 12 disks off of one of these with no issues!
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Great !!! Thank you very much for this trick, that was exactly what I was looking for!
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So if I understand correctly, you can plug 8 hard drive on each 12v to 5v converter?
Yep I’ve used one of those 75w 12v-to-5v converters to power up to 12 drives actually. YMMV of course - check voltages at connectors and make sure you are getting at least 12v and 5v!
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Yes ok thank’s! These converter seems nice also, did you try these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CHMJM9J/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B08CHMJM9J&pd_rd_w=iY0UK&pf_rd_p=887084a2-5c34-4113-a4f8-b7947847c308&pd_rd_wg=IeZBT&pf_rd_r=MGAMGPNSC4R6KF85BB5H&pd_rd_r=029dc865-cf6b-4e0f-aa4f-caa5b1a8493a&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzQVVKM1lTUjE5SUJKJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDIyMjk5M1FFVk1KWlJCRDhYWSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzQwMzQ2MjIwMThMODdZOU1IUiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
Those look good too, although you are only getting an extra 25 watts for double the price of the 75 watt version I use. Maybe get two of the 75 watt versions instead? Probably not a good idea to run them at their peak load all the time anyway…
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