Building a NAS - 4 pin Molex to dual 15 pin Serial ATA power adapter

zoey48

Hi

I am building a NAS with an old Dell Precision 470 box, here is what I have...

StarTech.com 3 Drive SATA Backplane Black €72.77 ex vat
4 1TB harddrives reused so free
NEW ADAPTEC AAR 2610SA 6-PORT SATA RAID CONTROLLER RAID 5 CARD PCI-E (dont you love ebay) €70
PSU already in Precision 470 is a 550 W
1 silent 92 fan 3 pin motherboard connecter or 4 pin Molex (machine was too noisy) €6

So there is 3 free molexs in the computer after I unplug all drives
So I now have 2 molex left to handle all drives (potentially 6)
The Sata Backplane (3 1TB drives) needs 2 Molexs or two 15 pin Serial ATA power adapters
The machine can then fit 3 more 1TB drives if I remove the floppy



Question 1:
So it looks like I will have to rewire the fan to use the 5 pin connector the old fan used, can this be done ?

Question 2:
I can get 3 X 4 pin Molex to dual 15 pin Serial ATA power adapter can I used this to power all the drives?
I assume the PSU which is a 550W should be powerful enough all the drives and CPU (XEON) ?

Thanks Zoey

Solitaire

Give us specs of the CPU and the PSU. Give the full list on the side, it may be 550W but 550W of what exactly? Although if its a server/worstation PSU hopefully it would have been built with the bigass power spike you get from spinning up six 3.5" HDDs simultaneously in mind

If the PSU can take it then just get some cheap Molex>SATA converters, with passthroughs or a bunch of Molex splitters to go with them.

zoey48

The CPU from what I remember is a 3.2 GHZ Xeon. Its from 27/10/2005 so I assume its a Cranford as it got Hyper Threading

The most important point is it can take two CPU's and it only has one so that means the PSU can supply another 110 watts plus an extra fan.
Should this be enough for 4 drives? (the mobo should be able to power 2 sata by default)


I am getting the details from the link below but anyway

Power
DC power supply:
Wattage
Dell Precision 470 computer: 550 W
Heat dissipation
Dell Precision 470 computer: 1877 BTU/hr
Note: Heat dissipation is calculated based upon the power supply wattage rating.
Voltage
90 to 135 V at 50/60 Hz; 180 to 265 V at 50/60 Hz
The power supply has an auto-ranging AC input between the 90-135 VAC and 180-265 VAC ranges.
Backup battery
3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell


http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ws470/en/ug_en/about.htm

Thanks Zoey

Solitaire

Does the PSU have a label on the side showing rail capacities (in either watts or amps) and/or the rail configuration (i.e. what ones go to the HDDs)?

Also, if its a workstation PSU won't it be just a wee bit noisy for a home server/NAS?

CPU sounds like the server equivalent of a final-gen Netburst P4...

And what connector did that old fan use?! Flippin' bespoke Dells! :rolleyes:

zoey48

Ok the PSU label says Model HP-U551FF3
AC INPUT 100-120 V / 10A
200-240 V / 5 A
DC OUTPUT +5V 33A
+3.3 25A
+12Va 16A
+12Vb 16A
+12Vc 16A
-12V 0.5A
+5Vfp 2A
+5V AND +3.3V shall not exceed 240W
+12Va and +12Vb and +12Vc shall not exceed 450W

Max Output Power is 550W

And yes it is noisy especially just power up but the new fan helps and Yes you can still hear the PSU but sure its going into a hot press (actually its cold) and its free. All the parts I am getting are hopefully be recycled into my next dedicated NAS in a few years if this all works.:D

The old fan was a 5 pin but with only 4 wires and yep I agreed bespoke Dells;) its similiar to the mini molex 4 pin pic in the sticky entitled
Anyone interested in PC Hardware, lookie here

Sorry no idea what a rail configuration is... but is appears to connect the PSU to the mobo with a ATX 20 pin power connector and another 24 pin power connector look like a 20 + 4 except its all in one.

Also there is also a seperate connector from the PSU to the cables for the mobo it a block 2X6 = 12 and it has two cables coming out one with 2 molex 4 pins on it for powering harddrive or dvds and another with 2 sata 5 pins and a molex and a 4 pin floppy power connector


Clear as mud

Solitaire

zoey48 wrote:

Sorry no idea what a rail configuration is...

Some PSUs are kind enough to put it on the label with the current limits and stuff... basically it tells you which 12V rail powers which components (4/8pin CPU cables, 6/8pin PCIe cables, Molex, SATA, 20/24pin mobo connector and so on). 16A is a surprisingly small amount if you suddenly power up half a dozen or more 3.5" HDDs at the same time (they pull a huge whack of power for a few moments when their drive motors spin up from off/idle). Its even smaller if you're also running half the rig (and that oh-so-hungry P4 Xeon) off it to start with!

But... seeing as its a Dell of a certain vintage and it has a funny tri-rail arrangement I'll go out on a limb and say you should be fine. Y'see, I'm pretty sure that PSU is an underrated server-grade Delta OEM unit (they did most of Dell's PSUs around then) and I assure you it's designed with heaps of HDDs in mind. Plus its as solid as a rock

zoey48

Excellent thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Look like I need 3 molex to dual sata splitters that will give me 6 drives
Anyone know is it difficult to take a 4 pin floppy drive connector and convert it to a standard 4 pin molex

Cheers Zoey

Solitaire

More bother than its worth, unless its literally impossible to get another Molex splitter for under €20

Jonathan

I've taken to making my own cables these days :P

Made a molex to 12V DC cable to power my router from the PSU and also had to make a inverted molex splitter cause maplins don't sell nor stock them.