Do small, low power PSUs exist?

darael · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:19

I'm looking for a PSU, similar to those for external harddrives, to connect to 2-3 harddrives.

My objective is to constantly have my harddrives running 24/7, while being able to power down my computer. I am a strong believer that the startup of harddrives eventually kills them, therefore want to power down my harddrives as infrequently as possible.

I have looked on the auction site, but haven't been sucessful so far. Maybe I'm not searching for the right words and need a pointer or two.

Advice please? Make and models of small PSUs would be helpful, too. I guess about 50w would be enough, maybe even less.

mx0range · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:22

something like a shuttle psu?

randal · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:25

Pico PSU?

fornowagain · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:28

Meanwell AC/DC SMPS 5v+12v DC output.

e.g. http://www.meanwell.com/search/rd-50/default.htm

P4Clock · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:32

i would have more concern about running a small PSU 24/7, than the hdd ticking. if you boot 50 times a day then you may be right about then damaging the drives but for one or 2 times a day....

let your system run untill your 100% your done and only boot one time a day, i 50w psu running for 24hr would be the same as your system running for 6 to 8???

EDIT: dont up to date hdd park themselves when not been hit for info, so even if powered 24/7 they would still shot themselves down?

darael · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:51

I've set Windows to never power either of my harddrives down. I need to now find a way to stop Windows spinning down the drives at shutdown.

Hotwired · 25 Sep 2013 at 22:58

darael said:
I've set Windows to never power either of my harddrives down. I need to now find a way to stop Windows spinning down the drives at shutdown.

Don't the drives spin as long as they have power?

darael · 25 Sep 2013 at 23:04

Hotwired said:
Don't the drives spin as long as they have power?

No, Windows seems to send a shutdown signal the drives right before the computer completely powers down. This can be heard by the heads making a final click (parking?) right before spinning down.

Hotwired · 25 Sep 2013 at 23:15

darael said:
No, Windows seems to send a shutdown signal the drives right before the computer completely powers down. This can be heard by the heads making a final click (parking?) right before spinning down.

Yes that's the heads but I'm meaning the disks.

I'm sure I've spun up disks before using nothing but power.

darael · 25 Sep 2013 at 23:35

Hotwired said:
Yes that's the heads but I'm meaning the disks.

I'm sure I've spun up disks before using nothing but power.

You can, but I want to try and avoid spinning up disks in the first place and keep them running.

Make · 26 Sep 2013 at 08:31

Hotwired said:
Yes that's the heads but I'm meaning the disks.

I'm sure I've spun up disks before using nothing but power.

All my external ones spin for quite a bit even when the PC is not running if they are powered up.

..And sometimes they just stop. There seems to be no consistency. I don't know what an internal HDD would do with just power on it.

unleashed · 26 Sep 2013 at 14:27

I can't believe keeping the drives spining will have any real impact for the avarage user.