PSU for Home Server

farna_boy

Hey all,

I have decided to set up a home server using some old bits and pieces that I have lying around the house. I have everything I need except for a PSU. The PC will be using the following hardware:

MOBO: Asus A8N-E
CPU: Athlon 3200+ (Venice)
RAM: 2GB OCZ Platnium DDR 400
GFX: X800GT
HDD: 250GB WD SATA
Case: Coolermaster 632 Mystique

I will be using Debian as my OS and I will probably be running it 24/7.

I have calculated the power consumption to be around 380W so I reckon a 400/450W PSU will be more than enough.

I don't want to spend a whole lot on the PSU but obviously don't want a no-name brand that will explode after 10 minutes. I was looking at a Corsair CX-430 or a Coolermaster Elite Power 400W but considering these are meant for low end builds, would they be suitable for a PC that will be on all the time?

Does anyone have any experience with this type of setup or have any suggestions which PSU to use?

Thanks!

Monotype

I doubt you'd need even a 450W PSU. There's no graphics card in there. I think a 300W one would do.

Coolermaster elite isn't good so don't buy that.

Ideally, given that it's running 24Hrs, you'd get a gold rated 450W PSU but since they are not easily available in Ireland, you'd be paying quite a bit for shipping.

Reasonably good quality 450W PSU:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-450-watt-core-edition-single-rail-psu-w--full-wired-cables-7NSV.html

Where are you getting your calculations?

farna_boy

Monotype wrote: »

I doubt you'd need even a 450W PSU. There's no graphics card in there. I think a 300W one would do.

Coolermaster elite isn't good so don't buy that.

Ideally, given that it's running 24Hrs, you'd get a gold rated 450W PSU but since they are not easily available in Ireland, you'd be paying quite a bit for shipping.

Reasonably good quality 450W PSU:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-450-watt-core-edition-single-rail-psu-w--full-wired-cables-7NSV.html

Where are you getting your calculations?

Sorry, that was actually a mistake, I added the graphics card there (an X800GT).

I was using PSU Calculator Lite to get an estimate and I was accounting that I would add in an extra few hard drives at a later stage for extra storage. (Although re-running it now, it seems to be recommending ~350W).

If the power consumption is that low, would there be a better PSU that I should look at? Do you think I should have a look around at second hand PSUs or would it be better to get a new one because I will be running it 24/7?

Thanks for the help!

Monotype

I think a new one would be better as efficiency is a major factor when running it for long periods. I would certainly be looking at 80+ or 80+ bronze efficiency.

No integrated graphics in there so I suppose you need the graphics card. You'd probably be losing some power with that as some of those older cards are a bit wasteful when idle.

Antec have reasonable quality ~350W PSUs but you won't really be better off in terms of money or efficiency so it's not worth it. Most places available more locally don't sell the best selection of PSUs, so you would have to look at hardwareversand or scan.co.uk - the only thing is that shipping costs would be more than you'd save through efficiency for a long time!

Cuddlesworth

What do you want the home server for? Because if you are really using it 24/7 you should really consider the actual cost of the server.

Assuming it pulls 100watts on idle at the plug(which is a very low estimate) it would cost around 300 Euros a year to run right now.

I have a HP micro server(n40L) running 24/7 with one 250gig and two 750gig drives, it uses around 15 watts on idle(which is better then the older model it seems). It costs me roughly 45 quid a year to run.

At the end of three years, you will have easily spent a grand on power and I will have spent around 150.

You can buy a lot of things for 850 quid.

Tea_Bag

Like above, its going to cost a lot in current form unless you change components.

do you actually need a GPU? you could VNC into the machine after its set up, so there'd be little need to keep it.

or, invest in a cheap €25 HD6450 that'll consume 9W at idle.

farna_boy

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

When I said it would be running 24/7 I should have said that it could potentially be running 24/7. I am new to servers in general and for the time being I will just be doing some experimenting with it, to see how useful a server would be and what I can do with one.

Once it is set up properly and I am satisfied that I won't need to be messing around with it on a regular basis, I won't be using a monitor with it and will probably just leave the tower in a corner somewhere. When I get to this stage I can do some power measurements etc and see if I would be better off looking for a better solution.

For the moment I am just looking to put some old hardware to use, without spending too much on it. I have been thinking about getting into Linux and servers for a while as well so this just seemed like an obvious direction to go.

With this in mind, would you still recommend the same? Is an 80 plus certificate the least I should look for or should I looking for a better certificate?

Thanks again!