Power Efficient power supplies..

Associate
Joined
7 Aug 2003
Posts
206
Location
Bristol
Sorry if this is in the wrong area but i could not see a better place..

Anyway im after a power efficient power supply for a Windows Home server..
Its a Via C7 1.8Ghz so uses around 10Watts of power and the Hdds probably use more and there will be 4.. any good ideas on a good model.

Done need SLi etc shame OCUK don't have an option to sort by 80+ efficient on the powersupplies..

Thanks
Rob
 
Most from what i read. Seem to get best efficiency at 75% loading so i guess im after a lower wattage one eg 300 - 400 maybe even less.

I want to add a bit of headroom incase i decide to add another 4 hdds to the mix bringing it to 8 in total.

Thanks.
 
Are PSus able to attain stated% efficiency at extremely low or high loads?

in a word no - but all psu's are not make equal.
Your probable looking at a power brick or mATX psu - mcubed / Zalman make a few fanless ones (at silly prices) or maybe a FSP or dell psu - Dell have two 80+gold 235w psu and FSP have lots of 250w versions (some of which may be avaliable?)
 
Last edited:
thought the Dell PSUs were of non standard size.. Well they were..
Are the mATX ones the same as the PicoPSU are they manly enough to cope with 8 disks?

Thanks
 
HHD use ~20w at most - and why would all 8 be running at once - RAID?
And yes mATX is simular to Pico.

Edit: actually it's not pico is really small - matx is just swashed

there are three ATX sized FSP units but I can't find any the sells them (2 min google)
might be force into something like the earthwatts 380w or the PRO82+ 385w as that all that avaliable without spending loads

Edit: shuttle pc60 is a 300w 80plus psu that avaliable - non-atx as you might have guessed (oh and still silly money :()
 
Last edited:
Yea Windows Home Server does a sort of raid on them by using 2 or more disks for duplication.. But i need to make sure that it can run all 8 just in case..

Magic will keep looking at pico psus but then i guess it all depends on the power brick then..

I also could not find any info on places with FSP supplies..
Never heard of earthwatts.. but will have a look.
 
The seasonic S12II 330/380w is also worth a look - oddly the 380 is more efficent at lower watts?
As is the Corsair VX450w

Pro82+ would be my choice, but I like enermax above all the others (the modu version is less efficient btw, but not by much)
 
Last edited:
Sounds great... Noise is not a concern as it will be out in the garage im more concerned about the amount of power it takes to run this thing.. Was also looking at running other things on the server with virtualizing software. But im pretty sure the C7 does not support this and im not sure the Atom 330 does either.

Thanks
 
If you cant find them listed as FSP I think it was Sparkle I saw them branded as in a high street store.
All these 1kw psu and such, never looked for a low power one lol :(
Cross breed with a shuttle? :p
 
Shuttle supplies are awful from experience.. my old one uses 20Watts when its not even on.. so god only know what its using when its on.. i removed it soon after i discovered this..
Ok will look around as 1Kw is a bit much and will then be outside of its power zone..
 
If you cant find them listed as FSP I think it was Sparkle I saw them branded as in a high street store.
All these 1kw psu and such, never looked for a low power one lol :(

FSP are Sparkle - I think all the SN's start FSPxxx.
A 400-450w psu will power every single gpu powered pc inc oc'ed quads.
And a 550w one wall do sli/Xfire with ease - these 1000w psu's are just silly

All three 380w (ish) psu above will exceed your needs, the one with 8 sata connectors wins, are are that older molex powered HHD
 
Last edited:
I have an Antec Earthwatts 380W in my WHS box.
Runs 6x hard drives in there, AMD X2 6000+, 2Gb ram, DVD-Rom and an external drive when needed for backups. Plus a PCI graphics card. 1 hard drives run from an 8port 8x SAS/SATA raid card. I have ran those little PSU's on overclocked machines and they are very stable, and very good!

My vote is for the 380W. More than enough powah for what you need!
 
Back
Top Bottom